Another explanation
Originally published 17 May 2001

This strip contains two things that have always been hard for me to draw: water balloons, and wet fur. Water in general is a challenge; I found, though, that generally people will assume something is a water balloon if it's clearly 1) a balloon, and 2) being lobbed at someone. (I may also owe a certain debt to Calvin and Hobbes, for establishing in everyone's minds exactly what a cartoon strip water balloon should look like.)

Wet hair/fur is easy enough if you give it a bit of a downward pull, and some droplets coming off it (actually, that's a dead giveaway), but I still never quite feel like I've mastered the way wet hair would clump together. It's just hard to find a good photo reference for a wet fox tail.

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