Join Sandy Steen Bartholomew as she documents her adventures in Year Two of Cartoon College – while juggling life, kids, business.
Hello, My name is…
Hi, I’m Sandy. I write and draw books that provide inspiration and encouragement and teach people how to be creatively confident.
What was I thinking!?
It’s NOT a mid-life crisis… maybe more of a teenage rebellion (30 years late)… but I am going back to school to get my Masters in Applied Cartooning. This is a very tough program and I am both terrified and out-of-my-mind excited! I’ve survived the First Year, also known as “Boot Camp” and I am about to embark on my Senior Year… “Year Two”.
A blog-documentary-zine-class-comic-adventure…thing…
Blogumentary? Comicventure?
My Project, “Glyphs & Glitches,” is a blog of my adventures (mis-adventures?) in cartoon school. If you choose to join me on my journey, you’ll explore the challenges of going back to school at a…. umm… later time in one’s life, making new friends, getting an apartment after living in my own house for almost 20 years, moving to another state, commuting back and forth and figuring out how to parent kids who may or may not be in another state, depending on the day of the week. Phew!
Oh, yes, and you’ll also learn cool techniques and fascinating ideas, meet interesting artists, see behind the scenes of projects and possibly have a front-row seat for my nervous breakdown. Hey – it’s almost like reality-TV… but a blog. Or a documentary adventure. Blog-thing. With comics. And reviews, and step-outs. And maybe some video. And things to download and color!
Why do this?
• I love writing and illustrating! Especially childrens’ books, creativity books and drawing books. I’ve written and illustrated eight books so far and been a part of many others.
• I’ve been blogging since 2008. Some of my other blogs are: Beez In The Belfry, and Zentangle for Kidz!
• Crossing boundaries between art forms – i.e.: graphic design and Zentangle and illustration and comic books – gets me SO excited. And I’m constantly looking for new things to learn. And then mash-up.
• I’d like to create more books and self-publish them. The first step is to learn the skills that I feel I am missing – to learn the things I don’t know that I don’t know! Back to school!
• The First Year was really tough – a “boot camp.” But I survived. I learned drawing and writing techniques, computer, production, and marketing skills – and I shared them all with my Kickstarter supporters! Year Two will be a new challenge – with Professional Practices and planning out my Thesis Project.
• I need the accountability of you, my blog readers, to get out of bed in the morning and go to class. Seriously – knowing I can share all this amazing knowledge with you all at the end of the day IS my reason for doing what I do.
Sandy (Me!) – I have been an illustrator my entire life. I drew on walls as a kid, did cartoons for a local newspaper as a teen, and started sending out my children’s book manuscripts when I was 15. I also wanted to be an Egyptologist (like Indiana Jones). I went to Brown University for the archaeology, then transferred to the School of Visual Arts in NYC, then back to Providence for Rhode Island School of Design, where I got my BFA in Illustration, in 1992. Next stop is the Center for Cartoon Studies for my Masters.
Lilah Amaret – my 9 year old daughter, art director, collaborator and character designer. She is the creator of the world famous “Lilah Beans”- our lovable, but sneaky minions who find their way into everything, especially artwork, and the cookie jar.
Alex – my son – is off at college, so he doesn’t feature much in the blog. But he is a language, music, physics, history, etc. kind of guy. And awesome big brother.
Minou – our compact, sweet, slightly klutzy Studio Cat. An excellent paperweight and leg warmer, her place of supreme contentment is sleeping with her head inside my son’s sneakers.
You get the experience of going to Cartoon School without the stress, sleepless nights, spilled ink, and lack of talent!
You: “Cool. But what do I get?”
$10 – THANKS Everyone at this level and higher gets their name on the list of Project Backers on the blog.
$25 – FRIENDS! Everyone at this level and higher will get the “Glyphs and Glitches” blog sent directly to their email inbox.
$50 – DIGITAL FRIENDS also get all three of my Inspiration Sketchbook pdfs to download. The three ebooks are “The Tangles of Kells,” “The Tangles of Santa Fe,” and “The Bauble Tree.”
$100 – NOTE-ABLE FRIENDS Everyone at this level and higher will get PDFs of all First Year notes, sketches and sketch-notes from classes and visiting artist seminars. AND All PDFs from First Year as well as any created during Year Two.
$125 – FRIENDS with GOODIES will get a little box stuffed with Stuff! Including: Signed copies of “The Tangles of Kells” and “The Tangles of Santa Fe” books, a pack of Tangle cards, tattoos, stickers, pins, rubber stamps… and anything else that might fit. (I’ve had a lot of different businesses, so lots to choose from!) I’ve limited the goody boxes to 15 so I can make them really great!
$200 – INSPIRED FRIENDS Everyone at this level and higher will get the “Inspiration Sketchbook – Comic Bootcamp” as soon as it is completed. It will have sketches, comics, and illustrated notes from the First Year at Cartoon School.
$500 – DEVOTED GROUPIES You get all that other stuff as well as PRINT copies of any comics I do during Year Two – and that includes my Thesis project at the end of the year!
If you’d like to help encourage and support me and my comics even MORE… be sure to check out my ongoing Patreon!
Really hard! Here is the fun part of my application – the Application Comic (and my illustrated CV). We were required to do at least a three page comic including a snowman, a robot, and a piece of fruit…
The biggest risk to completing my project (other than an early demise) is dropping out of school. However, if that did happen – I would continue to blog about it – and I imagine the reasons for leaving school would also make for some very juicy blog posts!