Wherever You Are
Inspired by the poetic comics of Tomás Cisternas in his book, Puddles. The book is full of walks over grassy hills and through forests, full of rain, of gentle observations and small insights, and of unrushed time. The whole book invites the reader to slow down and be present, to take a minute and look around. Also, Tomás draws the best pictures of trees in high wind. They’re seriously amazing.
When I finished Puddles, I felt so calm. It started to rain outside, and I sat down to draw.
What you need:
Pen or pencil
Post-It notes and/or paper
A location
Instructions:
Wherever you are, walk around and draw a few aspects of your environment. Don’t listen to music or a podcast while you do this, just be present and slow down. Leave room at the top of your drawings for text.
What were you thinking about while you drew? Why you did you pick those aspects to draw? Write for five minutes without stopping.
Use some of that text to create narration for your comic. Add more aspect images or images of yourself (or whatever) as needed to complete the comic.
Example:
Thoughts:
I love a good plot. I love intricate story mechanics. I like a rising action and problems and resolutions and all that stuff. But sometimes all a short story needs to do is capture a feeling, to articulate something that everyone has felt in a way that lets us appreciate it in a new way. When a story does that well it’s a wonderful feeling. I always feel like I understand myself a little bit better after a story like that.