Looking for a Different Format

 

10/28/24 Ballard Starbucks

11/7/24 Green Lake Village

Although I’m pleased that I’ve kept up my daily sketch journal habit for nearly a year, it’s the most satisfying when the entries take the form of diary comics (like those shown here): live, on-location recordings of a place and time. (Maybe my “satisfaction” is a result of being lazy, as these on-location comics require less thinking: I just draw what I see, as usual.)

On other days when I don’t go anywhere that I can document this way, I still make sketch journal entries, usually as single panels done from photos or memory (many I do not share publicly), but they often feel meh. I appreciate having the documentation, but I’m just not as engaged with the process when done after the fact, even when that’s necessary.

I’m still looking for a different format from the default single-image-with-words panel with the hope that it might engage me more. Andrew Tan (AKA Drewscape on YouTube) continues to inspire me with his approach to diary comics. In this how-to video, he draws diary comics using a format with prompts that appeal to me. Although I really enjoy both the appearance and the process of my own freeform, organic page design approach (as shown in this post), I’m also attracted to the more traditional grid that Drew uses, even when the “story” is not necessarily sequential. I’m going to give it a shot.

11/8/24 Caffe Ladro, Roosevelt neighborhood