Winter break drawings

Dispatches from the couch

My preschooler was home for winter break, so I didn’t have time to do a proper post here. Instead I did a number of little pencil drawings at various moments while sitting beside her on the couch. I posted these in substack’s Notes and on Instagram, but I’m pleased with them so I thought I’d collect them all together here as well. I’ve also renamed this newsletter “Daydreams,” let’s see if it sticks.

My daughter is back in school today, so am finally starting a new project (my last big project was a picture book dummy titled Something Missing, which was recently accepted into the Dpictus Unpublished Picture Book Showcase #6!). I am thinking this new project might be the first long form comic I’ve worked on in many years. I am envisioning a collection of stories in graphic novel form, for children 4-8 years old. I’ve only ever really made comics for adults, but I’ve recently started reading comics to my daughter and it has been a treat seeing all the kids comics out there (right now she loves Twig Friends and Burt the Beetle, both of which we found at the public library). The wonderful artist Yumi Sakugawa recently posted the following on her Instagram, which I have been mulling over:

What if instead of guilting yourself for not working hard enough on your creative projects, you ask yourself: what would make this so exciting and compelling that I can't wait to play and create and build on these ideas?

I have definitely worked on art that felt like a slog, but when I think about starting this project and getting back into comics I feel - thrilled! So am going to follow that feeling. Aside from regular drawing posts here, I am hoping to share occasional sketches and other process stuff as I go. For now, I gathered a few favorite illustrated books from my collection to keep beside me as I start fumbling around on an outline and a script, they kind of act like a talisman reminding me to make good art: