Welcome!

There's 51 of us now. That's enough moviegoers to feel the audience energy of "oooohs", "aahhhs!!" and "hahaha's" as they reverberate through the theatre. I saw Dune on Tuesday, and our email gathering here is a bigger group than the one attended that blockbuster.

Glad to be sharing popcorn with you. We got good seats. 🍿🎥

Thanks for being an early subscriber to my digital postcard. I prefer the description postcard (rather than newsletter) cuz it feels more casual, personal and specific to a moment in time. Each week I share updates, anecdotes and links to things I enjoyed recently.

TIP: First-time recipient? A reply will help prevent these emails being marked spam. Don't feel obligated to say something kind or clever. In fact, I encourage the opposite. Make your reply as conveniently incoherent as possible. A quick: "sDGHsdasd" is splendid :)

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Never Argue With Fools

I published my 2nd sketch this week:

Tommy Lee @thomaselliotlee Choose your arguments wisely. pic.twitter.com/p0N3klWnoL December 24th 2021 13 Retweets 73 Likes

I was thrilled when my 1st sketch last week got 4,500 impressions. This one spread even further, currently at 9,731. It's the first thing I've shared that got a bunch of retweets too. The engagement definitely motivates me to make more illustrations.

About 80% of the time I spent on this drawing was figuring out the speech bubbles. Hopefully the layout carried your eyes through the conversation in a smooth flow. The image above is V8. When I posted V1 in my drawing group for feedback, it looked like this:

Friends pointed out that the coloured speech bubbles distracted attention away from the characters. Then I did a bunch of iterations to clarify who was saying what. I now have a much deeper appreciation for the speech bubble layouts in comics :)

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Feel Good Hype Kid

My girlfriend is meme queen. Here's this week's highlight: a kid who's hype-up speech to his mom radiates motivational energy:

Instagram won't show a nice preview image for you like YouTube does, but trust me this button is worth pressing

I love the moment where he pauses and smiles to himself with a sage look that says "...ahhhh 😌, mum does not yet realize just how vast and wondrous this life can be!"

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Waterfront

I've been in back in the Cove for the holidays, the place I grew up grade 6 onwards. About a nine minute walk from my parent's house there's a wharf. The view from the wharf's end looks out at the ocean, and up at the mountains across the water.

I've walked to the end of that wharf during every version of weather there is. Usually at night; often in a light rain. My fav is when it's a clear sky with the moon + stars out. It's a vantage point that always makes me pause and reflect.

This song captures the atmosphere I feel there:

  Waterfront Jamie Woon

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That's all till next week!

This week's postcard was a Christmas Cracker toy size. I started drafting it late at night, after a wonderfully lazy Boxing Day. Lots of great family conversation catchup with my grandma, aunt, uncles and cousins.

Hope my fellow Dec 25th celebrators had an excellent Christmas Day. 🎄✨:) See you all in 2022 for our next email gathering.

Thanks for reading,

Tommy

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PS. Replies Encouraged :)

• If you have 27 seconds to jot an impression of this postcard, please do!
• I know each of your lives bustle with activity. If it helps, think of the reply as a text (rather than an email).
• A quick jotted: “So is the pigeon just like, levitating..?” or "This kid is the next Tony Robbins 😂" is valuable signal of where to re-invest :)

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