My week in comics...
Evolving my daily journaling practice
It’s been eight months since I started what I like to call my “visual journal”. I wrote a post about that way back in January, I’ll link it below in case you missed it or want to revisit.
This practice, which I do pretty much everyday – my most consistent of habits – has been the baby steps I needed to get into creating daily comics, something I’ve wanted to do for a long time but seemed incredibly daunting. How do you make a comic every day? What do you even write about? Isn’t that hard? I don’t have time to do this..etc.
My little shorthand visual journaling which basically consists of long form text interspersed with doodles has shown me I have many things to write about each day and drawing them doesn’t have to be fancy or special or even particularly good. It’s not about perfect, it’s just about getting things down. If I want to make something pretty, I can always revise. (This is similar to writing I guess, the first draft is never going to be a masterpiece, it’s just to get the idea down, it’s in the revision that it becomes “good”.) But really, it’s just about getting the idea or the moment down in a way that will help me remember when I revisit it.
Some of my favorite illustrators and comic artists have a daily comics practice – Some of them share bits and pieces online but their comics practice is for them – a way of recording the moments in their days that, while maybe not particularly interesting individually, over time make a life. And I want that record of days. (And that repository of moments that I can potentially steal from in the future and turn into stories!)
A few weeks ago, I watched this super inspiring video by Summer Pierre about drawing diary comics and it was the kick in the pants I needed to start dipping my toe in daily comics. I decided to steal Summer’s 6 panel format – for now – and see how it worked for me. I started a new journal last week and it was the catalyst for me to start trying it out. I’m going to attempt to use this format for the entire notebook – 6 panel comic on the left, visual journaling bits like I’ve been doing on the right. I’ve been doing it for a little over a week now and it’s been going pretty well. Here’s the last 6 days in gloriously messy (and potentially non-sensical) comics.
This format might be too “formal” for me to keep up long term, but I’m excited to explore it for the next few months in this journal and see what it teaches me.
In book news, yesterday was a special day because I got the first copies of the next two Teeny Tiendas board books written by Lourdes Heuer (and illustrated by me!) that are coming out in September with Candlewick. The Hardware store even got a starred review from School Library Journal, which is pretty neat! My youngest immediately claimed them as his own and took them to preschool today to show all his friends. I managed to snap a picture before he spirited them away.
Super happy with how these turned out and I can’t wait to share more about them in a few months! They are also available for preorder if you have a little one in your life that might like them. Here are links to more info on The Toy Store / La Juguetería and The Hardware Store / La Ferretería.
Summer is reminding me that I am a creature that needs a consistent schedule (which I do not have in the summer) in order to get things done. It is really messing with my weekly newsletter consistency. Bear with me the next month or two while I attempt to wrangle consistency out of summer and if not, well, the end of August will bring back my schedule and hopefully some normality!
See you next week!
P.S. Thank you for all of your nice comments on my birthday post, I was feeling a bit vulnerable posting about my birthday tradition and you were all very lovely. So thank you.