One of my New Year’s resolutions is to write a regular blog post. I have very much admired my dear friend and fellow author, Corinne Fenton who, without fail writes a post every Wednesday. I’m not good at keeping NY’s resolutions but I’ll see how I go.

I have just come back from Sydney. It was a quick trip of just a few days but in that time I worked on some character studies. My latest work in progress is a semi graphic novel which excites me immensely as illustrating has become a big part of my developing career. While I was waiting for planes I would sketch. Instead of watching TV, I would paint.

This dog is called Jupiter. All the graphic sections of the novel will belong to him. His story starts from when he is a pup and will span around 4 years. It’s much simpler to do this in graphic form than in the written. These character sketches are to flesh out who this little pup is. Often a new part of the plot will grow from sketching because the brain is loose and playful.

Play feeds your imagination

When I got to my hotel room there was a wonderful bench that ran the full length of the window. This meant that I could paint and watch what was going on outside. I love doing this – one part of me is in my imagination the other in the “real” hardcore world of city and buildings, cars and people.

While I was painting Jupiter (the above illustration is him as a grown dog), I was thinking back to the time when I lost my beautiful Rusty. Here Jupiter is trying to find his way home by following the moon. Before I painted this, I hadn’t thought of the moon as being part of my story, but now I think it will be a lovely addition to the plot.

Memories of never finding Rusty surfaced from long ago and the tears flowed with each brush stroke.

If you want to write about something that has raw emotion then elicit a memory and write from within that memory. It can be cathartic as well.

I am hoping that this novel will in its way be healing for me too.

Don’t think of travelling as taking you away from what you are working on, think of it as a time to use each second to its fullest.

Happy writing and illustrating!

Gabi x