'String to the Other Side' was a month-long personal project I did over the month of October 2017 where I attempted to convey a story through my Inktober illustrations.
All illustrations, with the exception of the cover art, where made traditionally mostly using India Ink with a bit of Copic and Micron.
Below is the compilation video, which shows all 31 illustrations in order with some edits and music to help enhance the story.
All the illustrations are displayed below in case you'd like to take your time looking at each one.
The future of String to the Other Side
After completing this project, I asked myself what I wanted to do with it; expand the story and write a chapter book? Print the images as-is for an Inktober art book? Stick it in a drawer and call it done?
And after some thought I came to the decision that I wanted to publish the images in some way. More specifically I wanted to create a tangible item; a book.
Since then I've been working on coming up with an interesting way to print the images as-is so that the story can be told as it was intended (without narration) but still find a way to make the product interesting.
The result: half artbook, half journal.
The idea I came up with was to have the book showcase each image and along side each one a journal entry about how I went about making that illustration, inspirations, and just overall how I felt as the project went on, and believe me, my "feelings" took a ride during that month; from excitement, to pressure, to feedback, to burnout, you name it. In a lot of ways, this simple month-long project was a big step for me, both as an artist and a storyteller. I learned my limits, and very nearly gave up half-way through, and in turn, I learned just how much more I was capable of than I thought.
I'm still quite a young artist and I was even more so when I started this project. It taught me a surprising amount of things, and I want to share this experience.
But between my YouTube channel, making this website, starting commissions, and the other boatload of personal projects I've put on myself as of late, String to the Other Side as a book has been taking a while to put together. But just know, that I AM working on it every chance I have.
I've always wanted to print a tangible book, and I will make it happen.
I hope this sounds like something y'all would be interested in seeing. If you like, you can leave a comment down below letting me know your thoughts on the matter, I'd love to hear any feedback!
And thank you so much for taking the time to read this, and I hope you enjoyed the video and watching the story of my little Willow ;)