Jason Toal

Potato Nose: 1977, the graphic novel A tragicomic memoir of pubescent anxiety and ecstatic delusion.

Thrilled to support my pal, Kat, on her new creative project Potato Nose: 1977, the graphic novel on @kickstarter.com www.kickstarter.com/projects/kat...

On some pages from Frida Kahlo's sketchbook, many circles fill the page with faces in each one. Notes from a journal entry on the opposite page, a portrait bleeds through from the opposite side. https://emilysnotebook.co.uk/all-posts/frida-kahlo-her-journal-intime/

🌑 New Moon: Creative Source
A new cycle begins in stillness and marks.
Theme: Protecting the spark. Drawing from within.
Inspiration: "I paint flowers so they will not die."
— @frida-kahlo.bsky.social
#NewMoon #CreativeCare #RememberYourMagic

Alt-text: A comics page in black and white, addressing the concept that a country is an idea - and ours is built on among other things the concept of due process (which goes back to the Magna Carta). Images and text all snake across the page across a backdrop of humans imprisoned, and packed together, becoming a black mass in the lower right. I’ve written full description of the imagery with all the text on my site at the link (can’t put enough characters here…)

New comic: on the origins of Due Process, how fundamental it is to our very notion of freedom, and how we all must stand up for the rights for any one of us to preserve liberty for all of us. Alt-text, notes/process & printable version on my site, appreciate sharing spinweaveandcut.com/due-process/

The image features a large, red, heart-shaped graffiti with drips of paint running down, giving it a raw, emotive feel. Inside the heart, the word "RESIST!" is boldly written in white, stylized, rough-textured letters. The background is a textured blue surface with varying shades, creating a stark contrast with the red heart. The overall appearance conveys a strong message of defiance and passion.

The stuff of legend

Original post: norden.social/@DogRunner/1...

A drawing by Louise Bourgeois featuring a large, intricate, circular tangle of blue ink loops that radiate outward like the dense petals of a blooming flower. The loops are drawn in a continuous, overlapping line that creates a sense of energy and organic growth. From the base of the flower, a thin straight stem extends downward with two small leaves labeled "toi" and "moi" (French for "you" and "me"). The background is plain white, emphasizing the vivid, hand-drawn texture of the looping lines. Artist: Louise Bourgeois (American, born France, 1911–2010) Culture: American Titles: Untitled - from the portfolio Homely Girl, A Life Date: 1991 Place: New York, NY, United States Medium: Blue ballpoint ink on wove paper envelope Dimensions: Envelope: 6 9/16 × 4 13/16 in. (16.7 × 12.2 cm) https://emuseum.mfah.org/objects/30794/untitled-drawing-1?ctx=dc96832f5bf27c7d0fe68cda6686797480cd9cc1&idx=50

🌑 New Moon: Rooted in Renewal
Theme: mentors, memories, and magic that shape the journey.
Inspiration: "I am a searcher... I always was... and I still am... searching for the missing piece." – @louisebourgeois.bsky.social

#NewMoon #MentorshipMatters #RememberYourMagic

Experimenting with open educational resources in comic form.
samepagestudio.ca/blog/2025/04...
Everything in this work was human-created, EXCEPT the alt-text for which I used AI. Damn compelling how well the bot was able to describe my images.
#OER #Accessibility #Comics #DigitalLearning

"Where it all begins: a piece of paper is a magical place to think in ways you couldn’t otherwise. One of Sousanis’s spread layouts in process." A rough sketch on grid paper, planning a comic book page layout. There is a spiral composition with scribbly lines and circles. From an article in the Harvard University Press called "Answering the Siren’s Call: A Peek Inside Nick Sousanis’s New Comic Book Nostos"

🌗 Last Quarter
Theme: Reflect and simplify, make space for marks.
“Inspiration: "The grid is not the story, it’s the frame that gives shape to experience." - @nsousanis.bsky.social
#makespace #markwhatremains
#grids #gestures #nostos
www.hup.harvard.edu/features/a-p...

Title we can be Year 1978 Archive ID 78-12 Medium Serigraph Size 14"h x 20"w Transcribed Text we can be

🌖 Waning Gibbous
Theme: Harvesting wisdom, connecting ideas, and sharing insights.
Inspiration: "Creativity belongs to the artist in each of us. To create means to relate. The root meaning of the word art is 'to fit together,' and we all do this every day." - Corita Kent
#WeCanBe

Loïs Mailou Jones American, 1905–1998 Esquisse for Symbols, D'Afrique II., 1983 Medium Acrylic on wove paper Size 30.4 x 20.3 cm. (12 x 8 in.) https://nmwa.org/art/artists/lois-mailou-jones/

🌕 Full Moon: Clarity, Celebration & Symbols of Meaning
Theme: Storytelling through symbols—what image represents your journey this cycle?
🎨 Inspiration: "Mine is a quiet exploration—a quest for new meanings in color, symbol, and design." — Loïs Mailou Jones #SymbolsOfMeaning

The new remixer is a wonder, Bryan. Thanks for releasing these interactive tools/toys into the world. <3

Air View of a Spring Nursery Alma Woodsey Thomas Date: 1966 Style: Color Field Painting Genre: abstract https://www.wikiart.org/en/alma-woodsey-thomas/air-view-of-a-spring-nursery-1966

🌔 Waxing Gibbous: Momentum & Refinement
Theme: Using color to express meaning, refining our work.
Inspiration: "Through color, I have sought to concentrate on beauty and happiness, rather than on man's inhumanity to man." — Alma Thomas
@almathomas.bsky.social
#ColorInMotion

Cavallo, F. L. (2022). Who and What Connects the Dots? Emma Kunz’s Method as Infographics and the Politics of Probability. Parallax, 28(4), 426–441. https://doi.org/10.1080/13534645.2023.2206241

🌗 First Quarter: Obstacles, Adjustments, Momentum
Theme: Shapes emerging from lines, embracing structure through repetition.
Inspiration: – Emma Kunz
Article: Who and What Connects the Dots? Emma Kunz’s Method as Infographics and the Politics of Probability
doi.org/10.1080/1353...
#MomentumMarks

Keith Haring Untitled, Painted in 1982 sumi ink on paper A continuous line drawing large scale many bold lines and distinct shapes. Works on Paper 72 x 115 ½ in. (182.9 x 293.4 cm.)

🌒 Waxing Crescent: A Link in the Chain
Lines, momentum. Each mark builds on the last.
Theme: Movement, connection, and intention.
Inspiration: "I am not a beginning. I am not an end. I am a link in a chain." - Keith Haring.
@kharingdaily.bsky.social
#WaxingCrescent #LinesInMotion

I'm huge fan of Mareks' comics and zine templates, and this "stacking and snipping technique" looks like it's going to be a big time saver from my exacto blade method. Can't wait to try it out in my next batch!

Artist: Cy Twombly b. 1928, Lexington, Virginia; d. 2011, Rome, Italy Title: Untitled Date: Rome, June 1960 Medium: Oil, graphite, and oil stick on canvas Dimensions: 37 1/2 x 40 1/16 inches (95.7 x 101.8 cm)

🌑 New Moon. Blank canvas. Every line is an experience.
Theme: Make the marks that matter.
Inspiration: "Every line is now the actual experience with its own unique story." – Cy Twombly @cytwombly.bsky.social
✨ Let the marks flow. New cycle, new movements.
#NewMoon #MarksThatMatter

A line drawing from Shantell Martin. A rendering of Martin’s set design for Kites, the ballet she’s designing and being performed at the Boston Opera House March 3-13. Web exclusive image courtesy of Shantell Martin. https://interiordesign.net/designwire/artist-shantell-martins-meditative-line-work-expands-to-winterwear-and-the-boston-ballet/

🌘 Waning Crescent
Theme: Closure and rest
Inspiration: "For me, lines and words are the same thing." - Shantell Martin thecreativeindependent.com/people/shant...

Shantell Sans a font from the artist shantellsans.com

Artist website: shantellmartin.art

Acrylic & graphite on canvas Agnes Martin, Gratitude, 2001, 60" x 60", acrylic & graphite on canvas Style: Minimalism Genre: abstract To quote Louise Fishman, "Agnes Martin is the Buddha". Her paintings are the visual equivalent of breath -- the weave of the canvas, dry pencil line, light wash of translucent color -- silent, still, inclusive -- nothing and everything. They convey an expansive stasis, an ineffable wholeness in the humble and patient frankness of her process.

🌓 Last Quarter
Theme: Letting go, simplifying, and making space
Inspiration: “The value of art is in the observer. When you get a response that is above the common emotional response, that is when you get something.” ~ Agnes Martin @agnes-martin.bsky.social
Gratitude, acrylic & graphite on canvas

Saul Steinberg, Island, 1965, watercolor, pen and ink and pencil on paper, sheet: 23 x 29 in. (58.4 x 73.6 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the artist, 1967.102.3 https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/island-22926

🌖 Waning Gibbous
Theme: Extracting insights, sharing knowledge
Inspiration: "Drawing is a way of reasoning on paper." — Saul Steinberg
“A Writer Who Draws.” On the Life and Creative Legacy of Saul Steinberg
lithub.com/a-writer-who...

Georgia O'Keeffe. Evening Star No. III. 1917 - Watercolor on paper on board: 8 7/8 x 11 7/8 (22.7 x 30.4 cm). The Museum of Modern Art https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Evening_Star_No._III._1917_Georgia_O%27Keeffe.jpg

🌕Full Moon, Celebration and Release.
Theme: Acknowledging insights, "Separating the wheat from the chaff"
Inspiration: "I found I could say things with colour and shapes that I couldn’t say any other way—things I had no words for." — Georgia O’Keeffe @gokeeffe.bsky.social
Evening Star No. III.

Lee Krasner Preparatory drawing for In Memory of My Feelings 1967 https://www.moma.org/collection/works/32444

🌔 Waxing Gibbous, momentum & refinement
Theme: Reviewing progress and strengthening commitment.
Inspiration: "All my work keeps going like a pendulum; it seems to swing back to something I was involved with earlier..." ~ Lee Krasner @leekrasner.bsky.social
In Memory of My Feelings

Delicate Tension by Wassily Kandinsky A dynamic composition of shapes conveying movement and energy. Kandinsky executed Delicate Tension at the Bauhaus from 1923 to 1925, during the prestigious school’s most rationalist period under the directorship of Theo van Doesburg.

🌗 First Quarter, obstacles, tension, shape.
Theme: Shapes emerging from lines, embracing uncertainty.
Inspiration: "There is no must in art because art is free." ~ Wassily Kandinsky
tensione delicata n. 85, 1923 (Delicate Tension)
@wkandinsky.bsky.social

same page stickies-03-01-24 Page 01 - Cover #inktober 10/10/24

same page stickies-03-02-24 Page 02 - Drawing a blind contour drawing of boots #inktober 10/10/24

same page stickies-03-03-24 Page 03 - Text: I have had my boots for 5 years now. WE have seen a lot. I thought I would give them 5 min. for an old school blind contour drawing. I could get back into this. #inktober 10/10/24

same page stickies-03-04-24 Page 04 - Summary Drawing of boots #inktober 10/10/24

First post of my #inktober2024 series. 03-01-24
Format: Ink on stickie notes in a four page zine.
Reflection: For this post I am thinking about @paul-klee.bsky.social and the concept of "taking a line for a walk", which for me has always meant blind contour drawing.

Twittering Machine by Paul Klee Twittering Machine (Die Zwitscher-Maschine) is a 1922 watercolor with gouache, pen-and-ink, and oil transfer on paper by Swiss-German painter Paul Klee. http://most-famous-paintings.com/ADC/Art.nsf/O/8LT49S

🌒 Waxing Crescent, lines, plans, movement. The cycle is in motion.
Theme: Making pictures from the observable
Inspiration: "A line is a dot that went for a walk." Paul Klee
@paul-klee.bsky.social
Twittering machine - 1922

Despite socialmedia being dead, here I am.
A Bluesky for my artsy & comics buddies, (I've missed you!)
samepagestudio.bsky.social
A Mastodon for my curmudgeonly edtech pals. (I'm stuck with you!)
mastodon.social/@draggin

Also, this 'Openvibe' app to manage them together is a delight. 🪄 #vibe

Hilma af Klint - The Ten Largest No. 8 - Adulthood - 1907 Hilma af Klint (1862-1944) is one of Sweden’s most esteemed artists. Today she is celebrated all over the world.

New moon, new platforms new post. Blank canvas. Beginnings.
mastodon.social/@draggin
samepagestudio.bsky.social
Theme: Remember your magic
Inspiration: "The pictures were painted directly through me, without preliminary drawings and with great force." – Hilma af Klint
#yearofthesnake