(working up colors)
Todd’s toast was originally a little bit more eloquent, but I don’t think it sounded quite “in character”.
“To new friends: may they become old ones.
To new experiences: may they become happy memories.
And to new life: may it always be wonderful.”
Also, happy 800 Selkie strips to me.
Panel 4 is killing me. I tried to sketch while holding a teacup for model reference. It, uh... it didn't come out so well. I may re-draw that one later.
Happy 800 strips, Dave!
(About the teacups, the handouts are what look just a little bit off to me. Most teacups, in my experience, at any rate, have a handle big enough for two fingers, and that changes the look of it. IDK if that will help you, but that’s just what looks off to me. Only by a little, though; I didn’t notice until I read your commentary and then started looking for something wrong. 🙂 )
*handles. Not handouts. I really should learn to double-check what my phone has decided to do next BEFORE I hit “post” instead of immediately after.
Personally I just grab the cups fully and only have one or two fingers through the hook. A full cup (especially since these look rather large) would be too big told by the ear only I think.
Honestly though, it’s fine, you can tell what’s going on in the panel so I wouldn’t sweat it. 🙂
You’re probably thinking about a mug, which is a far more common way in the US to drink tea. Teacup handles are usually too small to fit two fingers through. Most households don’t have teacups in them in the US, so I can see the confusion.
Puff. Gateway drug.
*Pff. Not puff. :/ Dang Kindle.
You sure you didn’t mean puff?
*puffs of smoke*
Welp. Not really. XD But I guess it fits.
I dunno, “puff” seems perfectly appropriate
Eyup. XD Kinda does.
Fun fact: even though they insist it is not the case, I REFUSE to believe that the song “Puff the Magic Dragon” by Peter, Paul and Mary is NOT about drugs. I may be biased due to not liking their music, though. On the other hand, you want an interesting debate about whether a song is about drugs, ask a room full of people what they think the song “Hotel California” by the Eagles is about. Best. Class. Discussion. EVER!
HEAR HEAR with my mug o’ Darjeeling!
That last panel reminds me of something I’ve been meaning to ask, and I don’t remember if it’s come up before. Do they use base eight in Sarnoth, and then have to relearn arithmetic in base ten if they’re going to interact in the human world?
I never noticed until this exact moment that Selkie has a different amount of fingers than Todd…
Amount of fingers doesn’t really indicate the base of their arithmetic, though. They use base 27 in New Guinea, and Romans were base 12.
ElfQuest elves had base 10 (“Blood of Ten Chiefs”) until at some point the authors realized that the three-fingers-and-thumb elves would likely use base 8, and switched to “Blood of Eight-and-Two Chiefs” or something.
I’ve always been partial to base 12. You can divide it easily into almost everything. Tens and fives don’t cut it.
The Babylonians had base 60.
Congratulations Dave! I love this comic. I keep waiting for Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and get cranky on the rest of the days.
Happy 800th Selkie, Dave! Here´s to the next 800!
Try having the finger around the cup handle be a bit curved out more. When you make a loose fist with the cup around a finger, that finger has to stick out a bit, because the handle is thick. So if anything, it looks sort of like a pistol grip — it’s pretty similar, you have your index finger around a curved hard shape, the bottom of that shape is resting on the other fingers.
Congrats on the 800. And Selkie finding she likes new things.
Congratulations on 800. People hold cups in many different ways. Sometimes I use two hands to hold the cup.
You could try taking a cellphone photo of your hand holding a cup, from the angle you want. That way you’d have a reference that would hold still while you were drawing, so you could check back about what parts can be seen of which fingers.
Happy 800, Dave!
Consume the tea, you must not.
Once you start down the path of tea, forever will it dominate your destiny, consume you it will, as it has all tea drinkers before you.
I do use teacups as well as mugs when drinking tea and it has been my experience that while some people will hold it by the handle when they do so it’s usually done by pinching the handle between the thumb and a finger or two rather than by looping a single finger through the handle. The single finger through the handle makes it very unstable and prone to spilling or burning oneself if the cup is full. The majority of my friends tend to hold the teacup cupped in the hand with a finger or two through the handle and the thumb curved around the other side of the cup. This is obviously not proper “formal tea” manners but feels comfortable and comforting (heat of the tea in your palm, no fear of spills, etc.).
Dave> I either have someone model for me and I snap a shot of difficult hand poses/placements, or I do an image search online if I can’t get what I need. Someone has got to be in that pose at that angle of holding a spear… I just know it! Etc.:)
And happy 800th! I… have lost track of how many I’ve done, between the Shard Dust, normal 3 chapters, and the new Journals. Not counting holidays… Hm. I should go count!
This is so sweet and congrats on the 800th strip! I’m one of those annoying readers who sporadically will comment *all the time* and then fall silent for long periods, but I’ve been following the strip for quite a while now and really think you’re doing an incredible job. 🙂
Panel 4 is beautiful.