For the past few years, I've been trying to create a comic.
I've gone through outlining two different stories, multiple iterations of each story, various drafts of the script, refining and refining always. Then a personal life event comes along that pulls me away from the work for a while. Afterwards I just can't put myself back into it. Simultaneously I'm completely dissatisfied with what I've built so far and overwhelmed with how little I've actually accomplished. So I put it on the back burner.
Now comes 2024, and I have an opportunity as I see it to completely reverse my strategy.
Each week, I'm completing a new comic page - no scripting, no outlining. Just creating a comic straight ahead for an entire year. It's the best way I can think of to actually force me to make something and kill the perfectionist part of my brain that keeps me from finishing anything.
I'll be sharing here and on my IG. Ideally I'd be posting every Monday but I know I'll flub up from time to time. Regardless of whether I make 52 pages by year's end, I hope I'm left with something I can hold in my hands and be proud of, simply because it exists.
Thanks for reading, and I hope you'll join me. I'll be using the hashtag #2024 Comic Project. First week will be posted later today.
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer / The Rocky Mountains, Lander's Peak by Albert Bierstadt (1863) / Hudson River Scene by John Frederick Kensett (1857)
on the topic of underrated female artists and this is horse i will die on and stay in the saddle as a corpse:
HILMA AF KLINT
(in order : Group X, No. 1, Altarpiece - Group X, No. 2, AltarpieceEvolutionen, Serie WUS/Sjustjärnan, Grupp VI, No. 16Group IX/SUW, The Swan (Svanen), No. 9The Evolution, No. 10)
ABSTRACT ART PIONEER. THEOSOPHIST. MEMBER OF AN ALL-WOMEN MEDIUMS & SPIRITUALISTS GROUP.
AGNES LAWRENCE PELTON
(in order: The Fountains ; Sea Change ; Winter ; Being)
ABSTRACT PAINTED. TRANSCENDENTALIST. PAINTED OF MEDITATIVE STILLNESS.
SOLANGE KNOPF
(in order: Cosmos n°3 ; Behind the Darkness ; Astral Odyssey ; The Protective Shields)
CONTEMPORARY SURREALIST. WORKS WITH BAUDELAIRE'S POETRY AND MUCH MORE. ARTIST OF GHOSTLY AND ONEIRIC LANDSCAPES.
“When you’re mean to me this is who ur being mean to” meme with Sanrio characters and small kitten is overused. Trite. It’s done I can’t relate. When ur mean to me this is who you’re being mean to:
The artist behind this iconic dragon image, that I'm pretty sure thousands of people have seen before, is Ciruelo Cabral. I definitely recommend checking out more of his paintings if you love dragon art.
The chances are you also might have seen this one too, to give another example of his work. I've come across this and the white dragon one a lot online over the years.
The artist behind this iconic dragon image, that I'm pretty sure thousands of people have seen before, is Ciruelo Cabral. I definitely recommend checking out more of his paintings if you love dragon art.
dragons
DRAGONS LOCATED
I second this! Ciruelo Cabral is one of m favorite dragon painters. Here's some more of his work!
Hiya folks! Long time no chat! I've been taking a much needed break and thinking about what I want to make next. But fear not! I have not forgotten about Season of Flight, and I have made a finalized .pdf of the whole project! Its now in one, easy-to-read home on GlobalComix. If you're so inclined, you can also download your own copy to use offline on your e-reader of choice. It is, and always will be free!
The posts will remain here too, and I'll keep the master post pinned for now until I have a new project to share.
I've waited till today to share, because I wanted to post this on National Learn About Butterflies Day. I've loved butterflies my whole life and have even raised some by hand, which is why I want to help them.
Just a few months ago, U.S. Fish and Wildlife announced their proposal to list the monarch butterfly as a threatened species. As their populations continue to decline, there's much we can do in our own backyards to help them and other pollinators - including stopping the use of pesticides and planting native plants. Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation has a fantastic resource center for region specific information on aiding and maintaining pollinator habitat in the US. And for my fellow west coast residents, there is a Western Monarch Milkweed Mapper to share your sightings and help conservation efforts!
I like sharing small, actionable steps we can do to help our world, and hope you'll consider learning what species are native to your area and what you can do to support them!
That's all for now! Whether you've already read or want to read Season of Flight, I thank you so much for your support. Take care and see you soon!
For the past few years, I've been trying to create a comic.
I've gone through outlining two different stories, multiple iterations of each story, various drafts of the script, refining and refining always. Then a personal life event comes along that pulls me away from the work for a while. Afterwards I just can't put myself back into it. Simultaneously I'm completely dissatisfied with what I've built so far and overwhelmed with how little I've actually accomplished. So I put it on the back burner.
Now comes 2024, and I have an opportunity as I see it to completely reverse my strategy.
Each week, I'm completing a new comic page - no scripting, no outlining. Just creating a comic straight ahead for an entire year. It's the best way I can think of to actually force me to make something and kill the perfectionist part of my brain that keeps me from finishing anything.
I'll be sharing here and on my IG (@ krislindbo). Ideally I'd be posting every Monday but I know I'll flub up from time to time. Regardless of whether I make 52 pages by year's end, I hope I'm left with something I can hold in my hands and be proud of, simply because it exists.
Thanks for reading, and I hope you'll join me. I'll be using the hashtag #2024 Comic Project. First week will be posted later today.
A big Thank You to everyone who liked, re blogged, and followed along with this crazy experiment! And thank you for your patience before I shared my wrap-up of the final month.
It's been refreshing taking the past few weeks to privately collect my thoughts and think about where to go from here. While I know that I won't have the time to take on such a fast-paced project anytime soon, I do intend to expand on this story just a bit, as well as plan out future comics that I plan to write and illustrate.
I always knew I wanted to make a finalized PDF for easy reading at the end. I just wasn't sure I wanted to elucidate on the story or leave it as-is. But, after thinking it over and the intentions I set out from the jump, I think making a separate expanded version would help satisfy both impulses - a version that keeps the project contained to the time and space it was made in, and another to reflect on my process and give more breadth to the characters and world of this story.
So! Look forward soon to an announcement sharing the essential collection, and a future date with a deluxe edition of more material.
As always, the story will remain where it is here on Tumblr. I'll be sure to re blog my original post with links to every month's collection of pages.
Finally, I'd like to share the final covers and title (yes, a real title!) of this comic:
The exhaustion one feels by the end of a long journey can be daunting. It can seem like the road has taken it all out of you, and you wonder if returning to a normal life afterwards is possible. You come home, forever changed.
One of the ideas that inspired this story has been the idea of transformation. I've always known it's difficult to take on any project - big or small - and come away unchanged in the end. A good book or movie can do the same thing, too.
One of the biggest areas of transformation during this project has been my understanding of what kind of work I can put to a page and be satisfied with at the end of the day. As I've written ideas for other characters and worlds over the year, I remind myself of a few simple facts to help keep myself track and the perfectionist demons at bay:
until something is published, it's always editable.
published/finished is better than not published/unfinished.
just like with painting, an idea will always seem better in your head than it does on a first draft. or second draft. or final draft. but the idea in your head is not real - only what your hand has put down is real.
Really, if I acknowledge these few principles, I can be happy with what I make. Everything is about freeing myself to experience the art making in the moment. Because quite honestly, making a piece of art in the moment is the only way to do it. I can look back on old art, see it for all its faults, and believe that my purpose for having made such a thing was flawed. Or, I can choose to say that it served its purpose at that moment in time, and therefore it was a worthwhile thing to have made.
Every piece of art I've made was a worthwhile thing to have made. And I hope you learn to feel that way about your work, too. Every endeavor need not have a lesson. You shouldn't need to see a steady improvement in skill in order to justify picking up a pen.
I started this project, because I wanted to prepare myself for other projects to come after it. I waited to make those projects a reality, because I felt I wasn't 'ready' to make them yet. But now, I see the notion of preparing to make something by making something else, is just a good way of avoiding doing the thing entirely.
Don't let stories live in your head. Write them down.
