Zooming In

On looking closely.

I’ve been sort of obsessed with this backward way of working on comics lately — images first words second. It feels meditative vs. goal oriented. Sometimes it feels nice to discover things on the page vs. executing a predetermined concept.

Recently, I drew this comic about zooming out. The underlying message is when you feel caught up in minutia and everyday stresses… look at the bigger picture.

The comic above came together really organically, one panel at a time and out of order — I started with the third panel with no plan in mind!

I was hoping for a repeat performance and started drawing the fall debris scattered across my patio. I came up with this:

I scanned it in and let it simmer in my brain. Throughout the week I found myself writing about zooming in and noticing things around me as an act of calming the noise inside my head, which is exactly what I was doing when I drew these images! Just looking at the sticks and the leaves and drawing them into boxes one line at a time — this may sound boring, but I find it incredibly soothing!

I thought I had the words figured out, but when I started to combine them with the panels I started overanalyzing everything. I rearranged the order of the panels on my iPad a ridiculous amount of times... The point of these black and white comics (for me) is to keep it simple! I even named the folder “B&W_Keep It Simple Comics” as a reminder!

After rearranging the panels several times and feeling like I should just draw something new, I took a walk. Somehow I always forget how medicinal a walk can be. I came back with a brain that made more sense and simplified it to this:

I was happier with the arrangement, but I felt like the leaf wasn’t a small enough thing to notice compared to the other panels. Something was missing… As I was debating, a tiny ant crawled across my sketchbook and there was the answer! I added the tiny ant to panel 4, and the comic felt complete.

Phew! Well, they can’t all be easy or it’d get boring, right?!

Thanks for reading!

In case you missed it, last week I shared a comic about Longing Together.

xoxo,
Sheri

P.S. At the end of the month, I’m sharing ALL my September art downloads in one tidy post for paid subscribers. If you want printable goodies, upgrade to a paid subscription! Last month, I shared all the August art downloads in this post!