Sketchbook: Courting Mystery

Pencil on paper

To be a comic artist is to be constantly inventing riddles for yourself in the form of characters. It's like a movie starts playing in your head, and you're trying to figure out who the girl on screen is, and what she's all about. The movie gives you bits and pieces until finally, you have the whole picture.

Characters often evolve the same way. They appear in your mind, and they begin to tell you who they are. Sometimes they tell you their life story in one fell swoop, and other times, they dance on the edges of your imagination, teasing you with a meaningful glance or a token phrase. I draw these characters trying to coax the secrets from them.

I'd like to write more about Narumi and her associate, on the left, but they haven't told me much yet. I only learned about the lion-woman the other day, when I started sketching Narumi and suddenly had a different face peering out at me. I started to draw what felt right for this new character - a tribal style and an aggressive sexuality that contrasts with Narumi's demure mien. I know that Narumi is her apprentice, and they're both part of some guild or sisterhood of cat-people. I have no idea what this woman's name is, or what's up with that piece of string.

If I keep drawing her, eventually I'll find out...and then so will you.

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