Sardines as spiritual guides
Hear me out
Here’s a cartoon I did awhile ago, inspired by the month I had a gym membership with a tiny pool in the back that no one but me ever seemed to use. People who actually meditate1 will have to tell me if swimming truly counts as a form of it. But I did appreciate the specific way my brain wanders in a pool, and being in a situation where it’s impossible to look at my phone.
Sadly, this cartoon got rejected every place I submitted it (not uncommon!), but I still liked the way it came out.
Process-wise, this is one of the first cartoons that I tried scripting out on notecards first, which was helpful.
From there, some thumbnails with blue pencil later colored over various marker and ink. For the record, I exclusively swim breast stroke, because it’s the only one I feel like I can do all day.
A few more process sketches, where I tried to figure out which blue looked the most like “swimming pool blue” and if I should outline the aquarium sardines in pen:
If you any tips for learning how to do a flip turn, let me know in the comments!
I did just start the Sam Harris Waking Up meditation, which is very good so far, but 12 days does not a meditator make.
Well I, for one, love this cartoon. It's such a great reminder to take a beat. Also I appreciate the behind the scenes art direction :)
I can totally relate to this. I was a hate-swimmer until I figured out a way to listen to music while swimming — a game changer because though I do meditate (call-out to the Sam Harris app), I could never do it while swimming. Now I swim in one of those current pools, which eliminate the need for a flip-turn, while listening to my swim playlist, full of dumb upbeat songs that (almost) make me feel like I’m enjoying myself.