The Elusive Sydney Oven

I've been trying to draw the Precocious parents more and I figured sharing sketches is a good excuse for padding the blog count. As I'm still not that great at drawing adult males, I've focused mostly on the easier-to-draw moms. Sydney Oven is the one I've drawn the most, since she wasn't fully defined. Before yesterday, I had two total sketches for her that I liked, so I needed the practice. (Click the image for full-size...which goes for most images posted here, actually.)



The size of the portraits are related to the confidence Sydney has in each of her roles. Sydney is a business woman above all, so she's her most confident dressed for success. In these sketches, I wanted to also cover her in her more casual forms. After all, when she appears in the strip it will be when she's at home unwinding. That's when you see her lounging around in Pokemon pajamas playing video games and refusing to do any household chores. (She is very strict about her unwind time.) The sketch of her with a cocktail is to show her awkwardness with *casual* socializing. She wants nothing to do with small talk unless she's doing it for business. That thing on her chest was supposed to be a gaudy necklace, to further highlight the awkwardness, but I didn't sketch it well. Blah.

Family Entertainment

Some more Precocious sketches.


It's become one of my things to include librarians in every story. Libraries, and reading in general, are so important... and yet I *never* read a damn thing. As a kid, I read all the standards but none of them were engrossing enough to keep me going. As a result, I never learned "how" to read. Even if I'm reading something I enjoy, I fail at dedication. (Yeah, ADHD *really* doesn't help that.)

I voraciously plow through comic collections. At the moment, I have 12 books of comics by my bed - all of which I've read in the past few weeks. Right now I also have three "real" books by my bed that I might never finish. One has been there over a year. Another a few months. I have two more I bought and haven't even started across the room. I just bought a new one last week - but it's about Charles Schulz and Peanuts, so there's a chance I might actually get through that one!

So librarians are my way of atoning for my literary failings. As I am not a crazy raving in a street corner way, it is safe to assume that both Pingos are librarians. Soren is the good librarian. He reads books, he helps others experience the joys of reading - he actually has a top job as a librarian! Ivy... she's more like me. She's between jobs right now and the most reading she does involves general-interest magazines. (In case it's not clear from the sketch, Ivy's right arm is tucked behind her back. She is not an amputee. I'll save that twist for sweeps week!)

(If any Winchester folk are wondering, yes, since I have a friend whose parents are both librarians, I did use them for inspiration. Here's to hoping I don't get sued down the line.)


An Oven family portrait is truly weird. One like this - cobbled together from various sketches in a way that has proportional relationships and lighting (line thickness) a bit off - is fairly accurate in terms of how they'd normally appear in a group photo. It's sort of a canary-in-a-coal-mine thing...if all Ovens are in the same room together something very important is happening. Bud really raises himself - it's why he's become such a top notch chef. Mom Sydney is mostly off in the city managing her apartment buildings and networking. Sister Casey is off at college. Daddy Joseph is...well...off doing whatever he does. The Ovens are weird, weird people.