Working Hard: Cartoon Business (Jan 5 2014)

Some weeks ago I had the opportunity to create custom cartoons for a REAL business!  Function Writing Group.  These weren’t done with my traditional method, Microsoft Paint.  Instead I used real pencil crayons and paper.  Real ol’ fashioned like. 

Here they are, or check them out here to see them in context.

Joining Hooves: Land Lovers on the Sea (July 7 2014)

New cartoon Monday!  Yesterday afternoon I asked my Twitter followers what they wanted me to draw a cartoon of.  This is in response to @funtionwriting‘s request to see “a horse marrying an elk on top of a giant sea turtle”.  Very specific.  And I like that!  So here it is:

Modern Fairy Tales: Black Beauty & the Beast (May 20 2014)

HAPPY TUESDAY!  Ahhhhh the beauty of a long weekend.  I spent mine making this!

In the name of springtime and love and equality and fairy tales and whatever else seems to be rolling through my weird brain at any given moment, here is a new cartoon.

What’s a modern adaptation of a fairy tale that YOU would like to see?  Or just anything that I should draw and colour nicely in the lines.  Tell me!  I like to draw-ring  

What Dreams are Made of: Conquering my Demons (Feb 11 2014)

A few weeks ago, somewhere between Christmas and doubting myself, I had an amazing dream.

I have a history of dreams involving shadowy demons that try to grab at me from under my bed.  I haven’t had one for a while since I’M A GROWN UP NOW, but then this one popped up.

In my dream, a dark, gnarly, clawed hand was coming up the side of my bed.  Immediately I get a tinge of terror in my heart.  But then I remember it’s only real if I let it be real.  Also, my childhood teddy bear, Cocoanut, was in my bed with me.  She has superpowers.

I kept swatting the hand off my bed, but it persisted and its persistence made me angrier and angrier.  Then the full body of this shadowy demon, not unlike the one in Insidious (ahh!).  I fought and fought, punching and using Cocoanut to scare it, using every ounce of by strength to defeat it.

Just when I thought I had succeeded and could go back to sleep, it came up beside my bed again.  Beyond furious, I got up on my knees, pushed it down onto the ground, jumped on top of it and started punching the HECK out of it.  THEN, I ripped off its arm, beat it to death with its own arm, and thrust the bony end of the arm through the demon’s chest.

I got back up on my bed, threw my arms in the air and cried: “I’M VANESSA LEVER AND I’M AWESOME!!”  All in flannel penguin-print jammies too.

Best. Dream. Ever.  I guess my subconscious is telling me that I should be more confident, there’s nothing to fear except fear itself!  All in all, a good start to a new year.