Woman Who Walks Cats

 

4/20/24 diary comic from memory

For the second half of my 30-day self-challenge to make daily diary comics, I have been focusing on developing narrative – whether the content is drawn on location or drawn from memory or imagination. This one from last Saturday is the best example so far of the kind of comics I am aspiring to: written and drawn from memory but based on actual observations and experiences – and no self-absorbed bellybutton gazing.

Walking home through my favorite alley, I met a woman and her two cats. After our brief interaction, I couldn’t wait to get home to draw the diary comic as quickly as possible while the images were still fresh in my memory. My comic compadre Roy and I regularly exchange comics, ideas and resources and discuss the genre. He made the excellent suggestion that my comic would have benefited from a third panel showing the woman and her cats walking away, for example. The three-panel beginning, middle and end is a classic story arc that works well with almost everything. I concur that it would have been better to end with a third image. My limitation in this case was the page size and format. I couldn’t fit another sketch on the page (the other half of the spread had already been used for other sketches), and it didn’t seem “right” visually to put a lone sketch on the next page. Planning sketches on a comic page layout is similar to planning a composition – both of which take practice! But I’m learning and loving the practice.

4/17/24 memory sketch

Speaking of practice, sometimes I make sketches that don’t get as far as becoming comics, but I still benefit from the practice. Shown here is a scene I witnessed on a different walk. Spotting a bunny, a man’s dog suddenly went ballistic, startling everyone involved, including me. It might become a comic someday, but it was important to capture the gestures right after my walk while still fresh.