Art journey journaling

I'm developing a slice-of-life graphic novel titled "Incubadora".

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The first drawing of 2026! Related to my story "Incubadora".

Martin and his two dogs Niebla (Malinois) and Gordi (Labrador) on a New Year's Day. None of the three of them like fireworks, not on the 1st of January, not any other day, not one bit. So they wait for them to stop and until it all gets quiet again, they give each other a sense of safety and comfort. Incidentally, Jan 1st is Martin's birthday (yes, I do have my characters' birthdays set... yes, all of their birthdays... nothing weird about that, right? 😂) and he's not super enthusiastic about his birthday - not because of aging, but for other personal reasons. So yeah, it's like a pile of three triggered puppies comforting each other.

I feel like I still need a bunch of practice in drawing the dogs, especially Gordi, but at the same time, I just love this drawing to bits. Now that the Sharpies are running out, I'm allowing myself to use my new alcohol based markers with more sensible colours. I've got to say I enjoy alcohol based markers a LOT and I'm looking forward to explore more of what I can do with them.

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You know what? I'm going to try and catch up with OC-tober @bweirdevents

Realistically, I expect to fail, but hey!

I left OC-tober at Day 13 and now it's Day 22... LOL

One of the prompts for Day 14 was "romantic".

Here's an unfinished weird-ass coloured drawing in the awkward "ugly stage" , where Martin is the good boyfriend pillow, ending up watching a movie that Silver wanted to watch - except Silver gets way too comfy and is in the process of dozing off midway.

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This is how this one turned out in the end. Some Sharpies ran out in the process. (That's my objective, by the way, to make them run out and collect them and send them to Terracycle and they're supposed to recycle them - it's a paid service so I really hope they do :D)

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Time to use my Tumblr again!

So... I keep thinking and saying that I don't like the vivid Sharpies, but... I kind of DO like how RANDOM they are and how the colours are just like... forcing you to go with the flow and figure it out as you go. Honestly, no matter how many times I use them, it's ALWAYS a "flying by the seat of my pants" kind of experience. And sometimes the drawings get so messy that they can only be brought back from complete failure by the white Posca pen, and that brings some more random mark-making, because I would literally smudge the Posca with my finger... and it's EXCITING. Do I hate the vivid Sharpies? I kinda love to hate them but I kinda love them! Anyhow, I now have a set of alcohol based markers in more sensible colours and I definitely want to explore more with alcohol based markers. And I'm grateful to my past self for impulse-buying the Sharpies, because to be honest, they helped me realise that I could do whatever I want with colour, and nobody can stop me - not even me :D. They helped me get over my limiting beliefs around colour. Hell, maybe at some point I'll start missing them and I'll buy them again, who the hell knows.

I've added bigger versions of these drawings here because there are so many happy accidents and colour and marks that just somehow work (?), even though the process was mostly random and unconscious.

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I don't have my scanner at the moment, so crappy phone photos will have to do!

OC-tober Day 16 prompts were "angel" and "tragic". @bweirdevents

So... I've been thinking a lot about this character whose face I'm redesigning, but so far I've only been redesigning her in my head lol. Her name is Maya. She's a therapist, and she's also claircognizant. It's not like she knows "everything" or "can read minds" or whatever - no, she can't. But she gets these random moments of total clarity about some facts about people sometimes. She doesn't control it - it just happens to her. Sometimes it doesn't happen for a year, other times it happens multiple times in a week. Sometimes she tries to act on the random insight, which may lead to confusion and conflict. The random insight can be a small thing, a big thing, a tragic thing, a good thing, she never knows until it happens. It's very disorienting and sometimes quite traumatic for her to be like this, for multiple reasons.

The reason why I thought about her when I saw the prompt "angel" is because an important moment for her in accepting this confusing "gift" that she has is when she acts on one of these random flashes of knowledge and literally saves a life - Martin's life.

I'm not sure if this is going to be the final design of her face but I love, love her eyes, and I love her hairline and... yeah, I'm happy to finally have made some progress with bringing her out of my head and onto the paper.

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Catching up on OC-tober @bweirdevents Day 15 "villain" and "dramatic" were the prompts I think.

I don't have a main villain in my story, but some of my characters say hurtful things sometimes.

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You know what? I'm going to try and catch up with OC-tober @bweirdevents

Realistically, I expect to fail, but hey!

I left OC-tober at Day 13 and now it's Day 22... LOL

One of the prompts for Day 14 was "romantic".

Here's an unfinished weird-ass coloured drawing in the awkward "ugly stage" , where Martin is the good boyfriend pillow, ending up watching a movie that Silver wanted to watch - except Silver gets way too comfy and is in the process of dozing off midway.

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OC-tober Day 13 - I chose to go with the prompt "animal" (and I guess also, "silly").

Niebla is Martin's rescue dog. She used to be a police dog before getting injured and lost, and eventually ending up at the animal shelter where Martin worked as part-time admin. She provides some comic relief in the story, getting Martin into funny situations as she basically gets obsessed with Joan the very first time she meets him.

Niebla loves water, and she loves bathtime, even when it's not hers. More often than not, when Martin takes a bath, Niebla forcefully adds herself into the situation. She can open the door, and if the door is locked, she will take it down. She enjoys showers too. :D

The Spanish text reads "Why are you like this, Niebla?"

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OC-tober Day 12: "Weakness"

(My weakness is that I'd bought a bunch of awful-coloured markers years ago, and I'm still trying to use them up, so that I can finally stop drawing sick-coloured monstrosities like this one. Anyway...! Onto this week's prompt...)

Martin has epilepsy. He wasn't born with it, it's due to head trauma suffered while in combat, which is why he had to leave the army. It's gotten manageable over the years, and he knows more or less what triggers seizures and notices them as they come up, and he doesn't often have a serious seizure. He also has Gordi, his Black Labrador, who is a service dog trained to alert him.

Anyway, in this scene, Lia and Joan are helping him into the recovery position after a seizure.

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OC-tober Day 11: "Skills" @bweirdevents

I have too many ideas for this one! I started sketching Lia and Martin building a campfire, Joan cooking/ baking, Ester doing strength training, and that's just four characters out of the lot. I have SO many images floating around in my head for this prompt, AND as I was thinking about the campfire one, a wonderful arc / plot point came to me for the story, and now I'm excited.

I don't think I'll get to fully finish any of these still today, but I didn't want to miss a day of OC-tober, so here we go. I'll probably post more "worked-on" versions later.

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OC-tober Day 10: Symbolism/ themes @bweirdevents

One of the overarching themes in the story is grief. This drawing has been sort of tossing around in my head for a long time now, and it's such a nice feeling to actually draw it, and put my characters in real places, it fills me with this hope that maybe I can actually just do it all and eventually draw the story, just like that. This one's unfinished, there's a whole right-hand side coming up.

Anyway, it's Martin and his two dogs Niebla and Gordi (I really need to learn how to draw them properly) in Cementiri de Poblenou (Poblenou Cemetery) in Barcelona. If you've been there, you may also recognise a sketchy rendition of the statue "The Kiss of Death" in the background. By the way, I'm not even sure if dogs are allowed in there, but hey, my graphic novel is fiction, even if the city is real :D

P.S. I used one of my own photos for reference, and I placed my characters in there like the big nerd I am :)

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OC-tober Day 9: Inventory. @bweirdevents

I spent too much time doodling him packing his bag instead of drawing what's in his bag, and the day's ran out on me!

Dog treats and toys, water bottle, meds, a change of clothes, sunglasses, deodorant, trail mix, phone, wallet, and some of Silver's pens and a sketchbook that he could never bring himself to remove. Among other things.

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The weird-ass coloured markers strike again! There is no logic in the use of colour, nor in perspective or anatomy :D

OC-tober Day 8 @bweirdevents : the prompt was "Personality". I have too many characters and not enough time in a day, so I chose these two and show some sort of quirks or habits that are ingrained in who they are. Joan and Martin are my ace buddies who gradually develop a wholesome friendship throughout the story. Joan usually holds some tension in his body, in this scene he's sort of hugging himself and tensing his legs on tiptoes as he sits. Martin has this habit of rubbing his hands in a sort of self-soothing routine that he'd learnt years ago and he's not even conscious anymore of doing. There is a reason why he's barefoot in this scene - but that's not one of his quirks :D

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Day 7 of OC-tober: "Home" @bweirdevents

My story is titled "Incubadora", which is a fictional location in Barcelona, a creative event space and café. It's none of my characters' "home" per se, but it's kind of everyone's home.

Back when my story was a high-concept dystopian dramatic something (chaos, mostly), it was a café/ bar called "Ode to Joy", and my characters would find refuge there when their city was bombed.

It's not that kind of story anymore- it's a slice-of-life, low-key, "human-sized" drama, and the café changed its name to Incubadora. But the main idea stays: it's this wonderful safe space full of vibes.

I found a bunch of images to take inspiration from and used my weird-ass vivid-coloured markers to have some fun. The final environment design is defo NOT going to be this colourful, but it's a start on recreating the space in my head.

I want something that's a mix of Barcelona's flavour of art nouveau (called "modernisme") and an industrial kind of building interior. We'll see what comes out of this experiment eventually.

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One extra drawing from the weekend that doesn't belong to any of the OC-tober prompts - my pretty boy Joan, whose facial features are still fluctuating backwards and forwards between his old look and his newer look. He refuses to be anything else than pretty.

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OC-tober by @bweirdevents Day 6: Relationships

These are some of the ships in my story. Damn I'm so rusty in drawing some of my characters, and some faces are taking shape again after a LONG time of not drawing them. Anyhow, I enjoy spending time thinking about these characters while drawing them and that's the whole point.

1. Martin and Silver (my hyperfocus folks haha)

2. Bruno and Beatriz (I used references here because I want to practice details)

3. Gus and Johanne (why are they so sweet gosh darnit)

4. Álvaro and Ester (I'm so RUSTY in drawing them, I feel like they're ALMOST looking like themselves but not quite there lol)

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OC-tober by @bweirdevents Day 5: "Under-appreciated OC"

I've been so hyperfocused on certain characters that I defo left some on the sidelines!

This is Gus, full name Gustav Pavel, a 70-something wholesome grandpa figure to all those who visit the creative space he'd set up with his partner Johanne. Born in Eastern Europe (my initial idea from ages ago was that he's Polish, so why not), Gus moved abroad as a young man, lived in several countries across the globe, made a career as a photographer, and then in his late 40s he met Johanne, and settled with her in Spain. They are now the main organisers of a creative event space and café called Incubadora, the titular location of my story.

He is one of those characters that just never changed at his core, this gentle, wise old man, a fundamentally safe person. In the old version of the story, we met him after his wife's death - but I changed that and made Johanne a living and integral part of the story. Johanne is the grandmother of my two young adult characters, Lia and Joan, and Gus is their step-grandfather.

I'm pretty sure I'll draw Gus and Johanne together as part of OC-tober at some point. Maybe tomorrow... given tomorrow's prompt is "relationship"... I've got a few things going for that one.

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The prompt for Day 4 of OC-tober is "Sona/ self-insert". Well, Martin is definitely not a self-insert, but we have the same clothing style, so high-five to my ace wardrobe buddy! Just thought I would do a silly doodle for this prompt because I had no other idea :D

Thanks @bweirdevents, this is my first time doing OC-tober and I'm having a lot of fun already. It's nice spending time drawing my characters :)