Seacritters Snapshot #4

Hello everyone! I'm back from Canada! 

I've actually been back from Canada for a while but it was so good I had to bask in it quietly for a minute/dive right back into my regular caregiving life/start drawing pages like a maniac. It's hard to break momentum actually doing the thing to talk about how I'm doing the thing, but I have the energy this morning so I'm striking while the iron is HOT. Let's GO.

You might recall from my last update (in, uh, January) that Kate had hit on an absolutely genius idea for turning our too-action-packed first book into the entire trilogy of graphic novels; a choice that has turned out to be just as fabulous in practice as it seemed in theory. The trouble was we needed a couple months to sort out the new draft, and then my dad went in for all his surgeries, and suddenly the year had flown by and it was September and I needed to get my ducks in a row and get back to drawing. (I'll talk a little more about what changed in that lengthy non-drawing interlude below.) Fortunately I hit the ground running, and my self-imposed deadline of finishing the roughs by Thanksgiving feels within reach.

For now, let's get to...

The Data

Here's this morning's snapshot:

The biggest and most reassuring shift since we started with the new script has been having an accurate reflection of the final page count in my spreadsheet. Before, the Completed number would stay frustratingly static even as I finished pages, because I was constantly adding pages in the art. Now that we have a more accurate script-to-art ratio, the spreadsheet numbers are shooting up and I LOVE IT. Being well over the 50% mark also does wonders for my motivation.

I've drawn 72 pages since I got back to work in September, often knocking out 4-6 pages in a day. This is a far cry from my 2-page-a-day minimum, but holding to that minimum keeps me sane. If I have a hugely productive week where I clock 15-20 pages, but then falter because caregiving becomes all-consuming the following week, I can remind myself that as long as I hit my 40-page minimum by the end of the month, I'm golden. This has helped my stress levels so much.

The Art

I'm sure nobody has ever said this before, but drawing a lot of pages of comics definitely makes you better at drawing comics. When we last spoke I'd gotten to page 107, after which there was that hefty break. When I picked back up in September, even after doing no drawing to speak of in the intervening months, my art took a leap. It's night and day to me looking at these pages. I feel more confident. The characters are taking on lives of their own. The layouts and action are getting more kinetic. And all that growth became integrated while my drawing practice was lying fallow!

Just one of those perennial, invaluable reminders that my creative brain is learning even when I'm not actively "doing work".

I've also realized that adding a low-opacity layer or two with some block colors (as you see in the first full page above) does wonders for making things clearer and helps me start thinking about color as a compositional tool. I'll definitely be sticking with that moving forward.

Final sneak peek: we're putting a Boat Gnome cameo in the book!!!

I have a fantasy that there'll be some kind of treasure hunt component to this book where readers can find out about trading with the real-world Boat Gnome and then I can offload the rest of the gnome pins I had made to enthusiastic young comics fans. We'll see. In the meantime it's a fun Easter Egg to throw in for existing Bellwood Enthusiasts.

Unfortunately for Monty, buttons and lint and a half-eaten biscuit aren't currently on the trading list.

The Ritual

Still dancing like a maniac before I sit down to draw and slathering myself in lavender oil and chapstick and hitting my tiny novelty bell at the end of each work day and all of that's going great.

Okay HOME STRETCH, BAYBEEEE TIME TO GO DRAW!!!

xoxo

L