I Want to Be Published!

Welcome to my first art vlog! In it, I talk about my current art plans of finishing my webcomic and building up my sequential narrative portfolio.

In my very first video, I talked about how I was feeling lost with everything in my life. I tried to be two different people, two different goals, two different worlds. I started therapy, and my therapist asked what my dreams were. I told her I wanted to hold a book that I’ve made in my hands. I wanted to see others hold it, talk about it, be inspired to make their own stories. I want to see it on shelves at my local indie bookstore and my very dear public library. My therapist asked what I’ve been doing lately to achieve that goal. I discovered that my answer was murky, when I knew it should be clear. I realized that what I was doing since I graduated was making products to sell and freelancing commissions in art styles I didn’t want to work in. That’s not where my heart lies. My comic, Dear Samar, became just a project to finish for the sake of finishing, rather than becoming my very first book.

That’s when I knew I needed to make a drastic change. I talked to two of my previous professors for advice, Chuck Richards and Miriam Martincic. Their advice boiled down to having a consistent style that I can market to make books. My new style is more painterly and illustrative than the style I’m doing for Dear Samar. I feel like my new art style has a need in the young adult/adult comic market. I was inspired by Cucumber Quest by Gigi D.G., where they make a fantastic kid’s comic in a painterly style. If they can make a comic like that, then I can, right?

My plan currently is to finish up Dear Samar. In the video I believe I talk about trying to find an agent or trying to sell the story, but as I’m typing this, I have a new plan. I’m now planning to self publish! I’m going to publish a digital volume on my Patreon, as well as physical copies on my Etsy and at local stores.

Then I’m going to do some smaller comic projects testing out my current style. Right now I’m thinking of doing a mini story set in Dear Samar, as well as mini stories that help build my next big comic project. I’m planning to make a ‘ghost hunting’ comic story! Refocusing on my dreams and goals made me dive deep in my niches, and I’m just going to town with making stories that I adore. My new comic has themes of identity and self discovery with moody, spooky, feminist backdrop. As I’m writing this, I’m still in the early stages of the story, but some of the characters and story beats have been with me since high school.

I’m so excited to see where the rest of the year takes me. Who knows, maybe I’ll hold Dear Samar in my hands by December!