Jack is Back

9/13/24 Maple Leaf neighborhood

Jack is back! Jack Skellington, that is – Maple Leaf’s celebrity pumpkin. A couple of years ago, the 969-pound pumpkin was featured on KING 5 Evening, a local variety TV show. Kate and I sketched him during the weighing-in event that turned out to be Maple Leaf’s highlight of the year. Last year I sketched Jack’s successor, who didn’t grow quite as large and eventually succumbed to too much love (sitting and touching by visitors).

Jack’s grower has been busy cultivating the next-gen Jack. When they were featured in our community newsletter, I knew it was time to sketch him. He was under 700 pounds at his most recent weigh-in, but he still has a lot of growing to do before Halloween. I’ll be ready.

Material notes: My annual season of denial is over, and I’ve fully embraced fall – which  means I’ve put color back into my bag! As much as I love making comics pages in Uglybooks, I’ve been jonesin’ for full color for a while now, so it wasn’t hard to do. Right now it’s the basic watercolor pencil palette I used last year, but as the fall color season progresses, I’ll probably shake things up. Although I’ll still be using an Uglybook for my daily journal sketches, I’m also daily-carrying my favorite 100 percent cotton Hahnemühle again – in a new form factor. Stay tuned for more on that soon.