After thinking over it for several months I've finally decided to transition from the traditional watercolor-on-paper medium to iPad for my Webtoon canvas comic strip Shambhavi. It was a really big decision to make. I was so reluctant to move away from it cos I felt though the medium is very messy and high maintenance, I loved the beautiful flaws it used to create in the process which made the artwork look so imperfect yet so satisfying somehow.
The process itself was so time consuming. Drawing and planning layouts, rough sketches followed by neat linework using my pentel brush pen, coloring using my 3 different watercolor palettes (Camlin, Doms and Camel, all basic brands - I prefer using cakes over tubes) final details in colour pencils, scanning using my super basic HP scanner, then erasing strokes outside the black outline, correcting small errors, adding dialogues in Photoshop, exporting as JPGs and finally publishing on the Webtoon site!
I thoroughly enjoyed every step. But cos I had to move from paper to device-1 (scanner) to device-2 (laptop) and then publish, I had to wait for the right time to get to each of these steps which seemed very tedious.
With the new mom life & a full time job, my relationship with art has been so absent - it makes me sad. The most affected party in this whole equation is my loving Webtoon series which I'm not able to focus on at allllll. I started it almost 5 years ago when I have posted 4 episodes in one month vs now I'm posting one episode in 4 months! I've only been able to publish 58 episodes in total. My old readers have now vanished and I don't see any of their comments now, I miss it. Sigh 🙄
Hmm, but yeah let's be optimistic and try again (hehe) 👻
Also, I didn't wanna change my art style one bit. I want the transition not to feel like one. So I am planning on using the amazing watercolor brush set I downloaded this evening 😍 Woohoo! I'm excited!
It's something new I'm trying this year. I'm curious to see how it goes.
A web series about life in India, everyday struggles of a teenage brown girl from a middle-class family living in Bangalore, her dilemmas &
I didn't know what it felt like to be anxious all the time. My brain gives me instructions to complete various tasks, all at the same time - "this is pending, that is pending, oh yeah, this too". Mom life doesn't have space for nothingness or a moment to just sit down and breathe!
I'm becoming an expert in doing tasks using one hand cos the other one is busy acting as a throne to my little star. All that I claimed as my favourite things to do or what gave true meaning to my life doesn't exist anymore - the most favourite moment of my day was mornings, when I could sit down, take a deep breath and have my ginger tea. Now, by the time I get to my chai, it'll be cold & I just gulp it down my throat or some mornings I don't have chai at all.
All the handpicked art supplies and sketchbooks with crispy off-white sheets are neatly stacked up and arranged in my cupboard, unused, untouched. The notes app on my phone has a million ideas for comic strips, Webtoon episodes and digital drawing series.
Everyday, I sit in front of the PC in an office with a dirty carpeted floor and an old AC, designing bedrooms and living rooms dreaming of dipping the premium brushes gifted by my little brother in watercolors and trying different strokes. I watch vlogs of different full time artists on YouTube who run their online shops & sell their art prints/ ceramic mug or try different brush pens or water their studio plants as I trim & extend lines while I draft the furniture layout of a bungalow.
Dreaming of that life while living this gives solace to my heart. Waiting for Sunday all week as I work on 3D modelling & rendering the walk-in wardrobe makes me feel hopeful that I can draw very soon (though I don't get to). The joy I get in dreaming seems sweet and I am not sure if I'll feel the same joy if/ when I actually get to live that life. Maybe it'll take away the sweetness of waiting for it, maybe it'll take away the hope that I kept going back to whenever I felt distressed.
Sometimes I think, would I feel joyful when I actually get what I want or am I addicted to hoping to get what I want?! Do I like dreaming about my dream life or do I actually wanna live my dream life :)
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