✒︎An Artist’s Pocket Story

A Newsletter

Dear readers,

All artists have a Pocket Story. A pocket story is that story you carry around in the back of your mind or in your heart. It might be the very first attempt at storytelling, wether it is fanfiction or completly your own. Some artists transform thier pocket stories into full fledged books while others hoard them away never to see the light of day.

My Pocket Story was discovered in Jr. High.

It was to be an Epic Fantasy trilogy called Hier (back in the day when one word titles were everything none of The _____ Of_____ And _____ titles.) My lofty dream was to become the youngest published author in history, and my trilogy was to be adjacent to J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis in greatness and scope.

Alas, it was not to be for I couldn’t write well. I reached a grand total of twenty flowery pages (which I hoarded in a three ringed black binder) before I became distracted with drawing my characters instead. And thus the dream ended of becoming an author. I was not great at drawing either but drawing felt like spinning straw into gold— it was magic.

After many failed attempts and rickety drawings of lions and dragons, I became an artist. By the time I graduated highschool I had a small Wacom tablet and learned to paint digtially in Photoshop. Then unexpectedly my Pocket Story nagged at me again. In 2017 I found myself in Entertainment Illustration Class. Within the course students were required to create our own intellectual property (IP) as if we were actually working for a studio. It was a refiners fire.

We created character sheets, clay maquets, comic pages and whole production bibles. At the end of the semester we were required to copyright our IP. The class gave me the opportunity to dust off my Pocket Story and expand it into a graphic novel. I rebranded the story as SOVEREIGNS.

*Sovereigns Student Concept Art 2017

After graduation I still wanted to do something with the project. I illustrated sixteen pages of the prologue and had plans to publish the story as a Webtoon. But the deeper I got into the project I realized that the story was lacking. What I have noticed about any type of art is: beautiful art does not make up for a shallow story.

It was diffcult but I examined my dear Pocket Story for what it was and saw all of the holes and flaws within it. Often times stories we create are merely stepping stones for greater things and thats ok. I realized that it was acceptable to not be a C.S. Lewis or a J.R.R. Tolkien, as long as I could get something out of my pocket and into the world! Sovereigns became the inspiration for my fairytale series Bones Among The Briars. That features trickster gods, malicious kings and corrupt magic.

I am so grateful for all of you following along in my journey!

Let me know what your Pocket Story is in the comments!

*Sovereigns Graphic Novel Pages 2019