Showing Up

 

Soap Dispenser prefers reading hard copy books because his Kindle
always seems to need recharging at the most exciting part. 

Although Weather Bunny isn’t on my blog often, she still makes occasional appearances on Instagram and Facebook. (Lately, most of her public appearances have been on stickers and T-shirts. Merchandising was bound to happen. 😉) On the last legs of my 100 Day Project, I sometimes forget that Weather Bunny was my original attempt to draw from my imagination. I have to thank InkTober 2016 for that. (Reading my blog post from then, I realize that she made a gender change along the way. . . I clearly see her as female now, but I had referred to her as “him” back then!)

Interestingly, Weather Bunny began in much the same way as Faucet Handle, Soap Dispenser and Scissors did. I looked for images of real rabbits online, drew from one of those photos, then allowed the character to morph organically as I drew her repeatedly. And also similar to the way Faucet Handle and friends have developed, I didn’t necessarily set out to create a cartoon character when I first started sketching Weather Bunny. But characters have a way of taking on a life of their own. Her personality and attitude evolved along with the drawings.

She tried rollerblading with Faucet Handle, but skateboarding makes
Scissors feel more like a badass.

Some people avoid challenges like InkTober or The 100 Day Project because they seem contrived or too restrictive. I say, whatever encourages creativity is a good thing to try. I do believe that it helps to do something for a sustained and committed length of time – 31 or 100 or 407 consecutive days – to push myself past whatever resistance I might have and arrive at something new.

Creative inspiration doesn’t happen by waiting around for the Muse to show up and drop a bolt of lightning. The showing up has to be done by me – regularly, daily, even if I’m not in the mood and especially when it feels too hard. Most days, nothing interesting happens. But once in a while, it does – and if I’m not there when it does, I’ll miss it. That’s what the creative process is.

Soap Dispenser was running late for his appointment, so Faucet Handle gave him a lift.

Hands are not necessary to enjoy a new handbag.

Weather Bunny appeared last week to observe May the 4th.

Scissors is careful not to cut her ramen noodles...it changes the flavor. 

Whenever he sharpens a pencil, Soap Dispenser gets 11 steps on his FitBit.

Weather Bunny stickers