I remember a time I had no problem sitting down for one to two hours a day and drawing comics. I always found the time and the ideas always found me - it was bliss!
It was also nearly a decade ago and I’ve been trying to get back there ever since.
I’m sure I’ve mentioned it in the past, but I’ve been having a hard time getting my art-brain to cooperate these days; I continue trying any number of tricks to lure it closer. Last month I decided to participate in Inktober (okay, fine, the month before last BUT I refuse to acknowledge it’s already December, so bear with me here…) For those of you who are unfamiliar with it, Inktober is an annual challenge to draw something in ink every single day of October. An “official” prompt list is made available but not required.
In my last post, I shared my strategy for Inktober this year as well as what I was hoping to accomplish: I wanted to draw regularly but I also wanted to not be stressed out or overwhelmed by it. My solution was to pre-plan a grid of one-inch-square panels and to draw only a single square inch a day. Easy! I also decided to use the official prompt list and not to “read ahead” as I wanted to see what kind of story organically emerged…
My first two days gave me my main characters and a map to…somewhere. Not a bad start to the challenge! I had so much fun drawing this spider and all her eyes.
In the second week, a third character joined up and all three were off in search of adventure treasure. Fish requires a water helmet thingie. Spider likes to whistle. Toad might actually be a frog.
The prompt list gave me an excuse to play around with scenery and spaces in a way I rarely do and I really enjoyed thinking about where their adventure might be taking them and what that journey might look like. Cozy, from the looks of it. Where are they stashing those sleeping bags, though?
Silliness ensues. There are terrible disguises. Spider came prepared but not super prepared, it seems.
As I said, very terrible disguises - our three friends get caught. Oh no! With a little help from the inside, though, they manage to escape (puddles and caves and oceans - oh my).
Everything works out just fine in the end - they don’t get the gold, but they live to roast marshmallows another day - and with a new friend in tow! I found the way this little story came together so gratifying and I suspect I may return to it sometime in the future. Who knows! I’m happy I followed through on it, though, and I take much comfort in the fact that I managed to create a whole story just one inch at a time.
Want to read the whole thing? Here it is:
Wishing you a cozy winter with friends and snacks and adventures and stories with happy endings!
I love it. Inspires me to get drawing! 1-inch panel a day, I should be able to do at this stage of my carpal tunnel recovery. :D This is just so cute, like everything you do.