Here is a very simple project. It’s one that I drew in ballpoint pen in my sketchbook. I started with an image of a man kind of crouching down, and as I drew his body position, it suggested someone using a tool like a rake or shovel. I put in the house in the background and the hills and the sun. Then a thought for the second panel appeared. A zoom in on his face with alarm. That then led to the idea of suddenly realizing something had been forgotten, like leaving the stove on. I often imagine disaster scenarios like this when I’m lying awake at 3am in bed. I drew the other frames, to the last one where the curtains are clearly on fire.
At that point, I thought, well, does this want to continue? I didn’t feel strongly that I needed it to go on from here. I didn’t know what else I wanted to say. It’s just this simple idea of some very unfortunate and probably highly unlikely result.
I did a little bit of quick formatting in Affinity after scanning in the drawing, but that’s it. I wanted to keep it simple, wanted to see what the process felt like to start with nothing and just continue.
It’s nothing spectacular but it gave me a little chuckle. It made me feel a little something, and that’s really all I was looking for.
I found it interesting to pay attention to where the moments of inspiration were in this very small process. Starting not with any sequence of events in mind, but simply moving and seeing how the results of one moment led to ideas about what would come next.
Moments of resistance also came up. After the second frame, I thought, well what does a flame on a stovetop look like? I felt the urge to stop here, even though the idea for what comes next presented itself. Another thought that crossed my mind in this moment after the second frame was, well what happens after we learn that he forgot to turn the stove off? I don’t think the fly had yet suggested itself, and there was resistance to continuing based on the fact that I didn’t know where it all would lead.
It was small enough though, and I let myself settle into the fact that I wanted to explore something, so I got up and looked at the stove in my kitchen and drew a simple representation of the stove.
The fly came after that and with each drawing, I found myself both understand what should come next and feeling resistance to the idea that I might not be able to properly manifest that next moment.
On the last frame, there may have been resistance as well. What comes next? I could have tried to continue, but I decided that was enough for today.
Still, there is something to look at more closely there. That tension between knowing what might follow, and feeling a resistance to it because of the fear that I will not be capable of manifesting that next moment.
Is this truly the end? Or am I simply succumbing to that fear? Those moments are often difficult to discern.
Another thing I want to note is that the story of what’s happening in the story may not come across as clearly as I imagine. On later viewings after time has passed, is this communicating the idea that emerged for me as I created it?