Let the image be your guide

A lesson from Journuary

I drew a journal comic for every day in January! Here are weeks 1, 2, 3 and 4.

It was an inspiring and magical experience and I’m so glad I did it. I very seriously entertained the idea of keeping it going for a full year. I made a pro/con list that was heavy in the pro category, but then I remembered I’m trying to finish a novel and have picture books in motion. I knew doing a year of daily comics would be a handy excuse to let those projects fall to the wayside, especially the novel, which I’m a bit paralyzed on lately. Beware the shiny new project and its immense appeal when you’re deep in the dregs of a current one!

Rather than continuing to make journal comics every day, I am carrying lessons from this 30-day project back to my other work. There are a lot of takeaways from my month, but today I’ll just share the biggest one:

Let the image be your guide.

Sometimes I’d sit down to draw with a moment in mind – something funny or notable that someone said or did. A little story my writer brain latched onto. Other times, I was just fishing around in my memory, and I suppose my illustrator brain clicked on because I’d close my eyes and look for images from the day.

It was often quiet moments that my mind’s eye had clung to. Like, I was in my mom’s hot tub in her back yard when a flock of geese flew over. I remember how seeing them filled me with awe and brought me into the present moment. Drawing it, hours later, felt pleasant and tingly – I got to remain in that moment of awe for a little longer.

Now, when I look at the drawing of the geese, I can still feel a fragment of that original awe. I allowed myself to simply honor the image’s resonance in my brain rather than continue searching for a comic ‘idea’, something with a story or a punchline.

Later, when I was working on a picture book draft, I found myself doing the same thing. Instead of asking my writer self what happens next?, I closed my eyes to see what image was in my mind’s eye. The image I saw was beautiful and surprising, if a bit nonsensical. Rather than denying the image – but that doesn’t make sense! – I trusted it. Then I wrote and re-wrote until I understood why and how the image fit into the story. Now it’s one of my favorite parts.

It feels silly to describe this as an epiphany because I know people do this! I remember reading somewhere that David Lynch would start a film with just an image, something mysterious he glimpsed in a dream, and the story would unfold from there.

Plus, I’m deep into a career where I literally write with images, but I swear I haven’t had this approach, at least not consciously! And to apply it consciously feels like a revelation. To allow myself to trust the image, to be guided by it and to write in service of it, feels like a revelation and a deepening of trust between the artist and writer sides of myself.

When I described this to Jack exuberantly – you see an image, and it leads you into a story! – he was very happy for me but was also like… so you discovered imagination?

Maybe!!!

Here are my comics from the last few days of Journuary.

Two PSAs:

1. Hourly Comics Day is February 8th! It’s an event where people around the world draw a comic panel or page for every hour they are awake. I hope, no matter your level of artistic experience, you will consider joining in this year. It’s a silly, thrilling creative exercise that gets my juices flowing in the same way Journuary did. Here are my hourly comics from last year, to give you a sense of it! Also Lucy Knisely’s are always incredible.

2. Valentine’s Day is coming up! I’ve got some cards and prints on Buy Olympia that would make wonderful gifts for someone you love! Some, like this one, are definitely for a romantic partner. But as someone who was single until the age of 27 and felt like shit every single Valentine’s Day, I ask you to consider buying a card or little gift for your platonic buds! A lot of my cards & prints would be great for that ❤️

   

Thanks for being here,

❤️ Hal

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• Journuary, week 1

• Journuary, week 2

• Journuary, week 3

• Journuary, week 4

• Re: the mention of my mom’s surgery, she’s okay! It’s something she needs to have done but isn’t an emergency or anything.

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