You don't get to choose who you love.

I made this comic for the amazing Ztoical's visual campaign ahead of the Irish vote on marriage equality in May. 

It was nice to have this impetus to make a comic about something I believe strongly. 

And a marriage is a marriage is a marriage, whoever you are and whoever you love, that promise is the same and should have the same name. 

And the other thing too, that monogamy is a choice. I've never believed in soul mates or love at first sight or any of that, and I think that's a big part of why I've managed to be one half of an excellent relationship that has lasted almost 14 years and one and a half of marriage so far. But the faith thing is true too. Monogamy is like dieting. You can only do it if you believe in the back of your head that you deserve the rewards and that they are worth it. Not faith in a fairytale ending, faith in a continuing adventure.  

I wrote the words before I had thought of the visuals, and it's a little bit cheesy. 

The hardest line to illustrate was the 'sometimes it should end' line, and I want to issue a disclaimer that I absolutely do not think that mothers are the only victims of domestic abuse, or that domestic abuse is the only valid reason for giving up on a marriage or relationship. There are lots of reasons relationships should end. It's ironic that in a piece where I'm actively aiming to show many sides to the story of love and subtly subvert clichés that having only one panel to show an idea can put one in danger of the opposite.

But I absolutely do believe in marriage equality, and if you are in a position to vote for or support it, I wholeheartedly urge you to do so. 

And to follow the tumblr campaign this kicked off here.

OFFICIAL WEBSITE LAUNCH AND COMPETITION

YES I am officially launching my revamped and moved website. 

FANFARE AND PARADE

(Literally: Ooooh I should draw a quick sketch of a bird parade here that would be fun! But the physiology of birds marching and playing brass instruments is just fundamentally inaccurate. Which I cannot refrain from pointing out. That would be irresponsible.)

SO, THE NEW WEBSITE

Not the most flashy upgrade in the world, but it does have a lot of my work on it, organised into nice posts and pages where you can see it nice and clearly.

Work like this:

It has, like, an about section, and a press section, and 6 separate portfolios of my work plus a bonus sketchbook section. AND different banner designs and a feed of this blog, so you can go back and forth between the two all day if you like. 

Coincidentally, I noticed that this very blog has almost reached the exciting milestone of 25,000 views! Sadly there doesn't seem to be a way for me to see who exactly my 25,000th viewer will be/has been or I could give them a prize. So instead I will have another competition to help you lovely people celebrate these two lovely milestones with me, and to give you the exciting opportunity to share them with your friends.

WHAT CAN I WIN?

To keep this simples, I'm offering 2 people a straight up commission of my drawing time up to 3 hours. I will draw something of your choice for you, and post you the original and the digital versions. This can be a portrait of you or of someone or something dear to you, or something a bit more inventive like a scene you'd like to see, a dream you had or a celebrity in a compromising position. The winners will also get a selection of my promotional bumf including stickers and zines.

I may send out some runners up envelopes of bumf if I get a large response to this.

(These celebrities are all talking about this epic competition.)

HOW CAN I WIN?

One winner will be the thing that I most want to draw.
The second will be chosen using a random number generator.

1. Make sure you like my facbook project page and/or follow me on twitter, and/or instagram or follow this blog.

2. Add a comment to this post, or send me an email at jennyrobins[at]gmail.com saying what you would like me to draw for you if you win.

3. Share this blog post on as many platforms as you like using the #jennyrobinsillustration - the more times you share the more likely you are to win, although if you have high privacy settings on facebook please note I may not see your shares so let me know you have sent them.

This competition will run until the 1st of March.

Good luck n'est pas?

And don't forget to visit my improved and new site of web.

Horay for Love

It's almost Valentimes ladies and gentlemen (and anyone who does not identify as a lady or gentleman), I did this reworking of a collage card but with bonus classical romance shtick piece above. There is also a really cool (if somewhat cheesy) love themed comic that I made that I'm not allowed to show you yet, but hopefully will be able to give you all that as a Valentines gift. 

Do NOT be forgetting to head along to my Etsy Shop if you are interested in one of the alternative Valentines cards or Love Zines for one of your loved ones, or to encourage your loved ones to buy them for you.

 If you are not in a state of loved bliss per say, or that is to say, a singleton by chance or design. I am sharing this story for you which I stole from Invisibilia. I don't believe in it at all, the idea of soul mates that is, or this particular creation story. But I enjoyed it anyway.  

The story is by Simon Rich and it's called "The Children Of The Dirt." from the book The Last Girlfriend on Earth

 According to Aristophanes, there were originally three sexes - the children of the moon who were half-male and half-female, the children of the sun who were fully male, and the children of the earth, who were fully female. Everyone had four legs, four arms and two heads, and spent their days in blissful contentment. Zeus became jealous of the humans' joy so he decided to split them all in two. Aristophanes called this punishment the origin of love because ever since, the children of the earth, moon and sun have been searching the globe in a desperate bid to find their other halves. Aristophanes' story though is incomplete because there was also a fourth sex - the children of the dirt. Unlike the other three sexes, the children of the dirt consisted of just one half. Some were male and some were female and each had just two arms, two legs and one head. The children of the dirt found the children of the earth, moon and sun to be completely insufferable. Whenever they saw a two-headed creature walking by, talking to itself in baby-talk voices, it made them want to vomit. They hated going to parties and when there was no way to get out of one, they sat in the corner, too bitter and depressed to talk to anybody. The children of the dirt were so miserable that they invented wine and art to dull their pain. It helped a little, but not really. When Zeus went on his rampage he decided to leave the children of the dirt alone. They're already f*cked, he explained.

Happy gay couples descend from the children of the sun. Happy lesbian couples descend from the children of the earth. And happy straight couples descend from the children of the moon. But the vast majority of humans are descendants of the children of the dirt. And no matter how long they search the earth, they'll never find what they're looking for because there's nobody for them, not anybody in the world.

In other news here are some new Facebook Project drawings for you to see. This is Jerson with a spoon on his nose. And Jess radiating peace and love. Both the photos they were adapted from were from weddings. So it's kind of on theme.

Horay for LOVE