This is the first summer in five years that I haven’t moved, and it feels so good. On top of that, it has rained almost every day here in Southern Maine, which has given me full days to work on art without feeling guilty for not being outdoors. (I might be getting arthritis though.)
Here are a few things I’ve been working on for the past month:
Comics Poems
I have enjoyed making more comics poems based on prompts from Susanne Reece’s Comics Poetry class, an online Continuing Education course at SVA. This series emerged from an assignment to make an abstract comic. I immediately thought about visualizing sound and smells, and focused on summer sounds. I painted these panels over drawings in an old sketchbook, and I want to continue making more throughout the seasons.
New Yorker Cartoon Batches
In June, I committed to submitting a batch of New Yorker cartoons monthly until I sell one. I’m not sure how long this will take (maybe forever?) but so far I’ve made twenty cartoons. (There are ten in a batch.) I can’t share any images until they’re officially rejected, so stay tuned for those in a few months.
Finding Hope
I’ve been drafting new pages for the remainder of my graphic memoir Finding Hope. I’m planning to have Part III completed in September, but I’ve also been skipping ahead to work on later parts of the story. (There are six parts in total.) I’ve mostly been scripting and thumbnailing, but here is a new page of final art that will go in Part IV. It’s the first of a three-page dream sequence, featuring a poem in Hope’s memoir. I took the opportunity to work on this sequence for the “Adaptation” assignment in the Comics Poetry class, and I got some good feedback. I might revise the posture of my great-grandmother, who’s crouching down, to appear less childlike.
Tiny Shell Zines
Staying true to the name of this blog, I recently made mini accordion fold comic poems about beach combing. I paired each zine with a clam shell, collected from a semi-hidden beach.
It’s a process to make these - first, I collect the shells, wash them, dry them in the sun, paint the insides, and secure them with resin - not to mention writing, drawing, printing, and folding the zines! However, I find this process meditative. I usually paint and fold these at night when I’m too tired to think about anything else, usually while listening to a podcast. (I’ll be sending these out to my zine subscribers later this month!)
Summer Sketchbook
I’m still painting a few days a week in my gouache sketchbook. Recently, I enjoyed painting this image of my partner holding a crayfish.
I’m planning to scan, edit, and re-format all of these pages into a longer narrative. Usually, when I make comics and visual essays, I write the narrative first, and then draft visuals based on the pacing of the text. For this project, I am creating the visuals first. It’s an experiment for me! It will be fun to format this zine, and I want to print the book on uncoated paper to mimic the quality of the sketchbook.
I have also been teaching my online Graphic Memoir Continuing Education course at School of Visual Arts with another amazing group of adults, and soon I’ll be teaching Comics and Digital Illustration summer camps to teens at Maine College of Art & Design. It’s been a nice balance of teaching, learning, and making, but I do hope for more sunny days before I begin planning my courses for the fall semester!
You do so many cool things with your comics! Inspiring to see all of these different variations. I’ve been having a break from comics to do other things but now you’ve got me wondering...
Love the variety of projects!