Hey, y’all,
It’s been a busy couple of weeks. I completed Write of Passage Cohort 10 two weeks ago and needed a breather (apologies for not communicating that).
I also had a lot going on in my family.
We, unfortunately, had another death in my family. As I found myself walking through memory and death, on Mother’s Day morning, my dad called to tell me that his nephew, my funny, bigger-than-life personality first cousin Chris, died in a car accident. I am still processing this and am working on a comic about Chris, Zora Neale Hurston, grief, and memory. I will share that with you all when it’s ready—which I think will be in another week or so.
I’ll write and draw more here and share that with you all. I will join the Write of Passage summer writing challenge called Runway to keep myself accountable for writing and drawing regularly. I’ll incorporate those prompts into these weekly letters to you all.
Write of Passage is a writing social club and an unbelievable community of writers who believe writing on the internet can help you grow as a writer and thinker. I was honored to be a member of the Student Success Team this cohort, where I lead writing and feedback gyms, where we had dedicated time to write and provide feedback and editing on each other’s drafts before publication. After this cohort ended, I kinda deflated like a balloon and went into rest mode, in addition to the fact that I am still processing life, meaning, and death.
Surveying meaning, reflecting, and processing will help me make the most sense of where I am at this point in my life. And I’ve been sketching more and doing anatomical drawing tutorials to help me draw more from my mind instead of looking at references all of the time. Here are some of the things I’ve been sketching for the past couple of weeks.
I’m gonna have to attempt the ribcage tutorial again. Honestly, I just got overwhelmed and gave up on shading the posterior view—another attempt for another day.
I’m pretty proud of my arm and hand. I’m gonna work on hand tutorials this weekend.
I also helped my son with his No Smoking school project. He’s in an immersion program, so this is all in Spanish, but here are some of the drawings I did for that.
I’m also taking a graphic novel course this summer, and I plan on exploring grief, death, and memory in a more extended autobio comic and also the chaos, love, and splendor of parenting in a pseudo-autobio comic called The Adventures of Raccoon, Kiwi, y La Reina Cupcake. My 8-year-old and I will be drawing this together this summer.
I’ll share what we get up to.
In the meantime, I also wanted to share a throwback for me, one of the first comics I published on Spiralbound, Medium’s now defunct illustration publication.
It was about talking about race with my son (who will be nine this summer). Time flies!
The most likely cuts off in email, so you can also read/view the comic here.
Please have a safe and happy weekend!
Cheers,
D
"deflated like a balloon..." yes, and so much more. I agree with James below. These drawings are incredible. Each one deserves its own page, and context. I hope you find ease during this difficult time.
I am praying for you. You’re an inspiration. Hold fast.