Shower Curtain Comic Strip

Here it is…..my very own comic strip!! I moved forward with my plan to draw during my breaks at work, and spent this week creating The Shower Curtain. It was a great experience, and I can’t wait to work on more.

This one stemmed from our annoying shower curtains…..annoying, that is, until we realized we needed to raise the bar. Stupid us! Anyway, our shower curtains kept billowing in all the time so that every time you moved, every time you turned, every time you shifted, it clung to you. It was sooooo irritating! We even did what I showed in the first panel, and bought a shower curtain specifically with weights thinking that would help to keep it in place. Well, it certainly kept the bottom part in place but did nothing to keep the rest of it from creeping in toward us. Our bathtub is by NO means large, so it became very claustrophobic!

I came up with the brilliant idea of pushing it back so it would stick to the top of the tub and then spraying water into the small crevice that formed. That worked wonderfully, but the best solution goes to Shawn when he did the very simple thing of raising the bar. After that, we didn’t have a problem anymore and the shower curtain stayed in place…..as much as it can when there is only so much room to maneuver in the tub.

One day when I was getting pissed off at the curtain, I was thinking about being clingy as a person and I placed that personality trait onto the curtain as well. I ended up making the joke to Shawn, “It’s clingy! Nobody likes a needy shower curtain!” I jotted that down as a strip, and intended to do it exactly as I had written but as I was nearing the end of drawing it I wondered if the end was actually funny. It might be to me, but it could fall flat with everyone else. (Of course, you can say that about everything.) I brought this up after work with Shawn, and we continued the discussion once we got home. I’m not setting out to definitely create funny strips, each one having that rhythmic punch line, but I don’t want to make duds either. I felt I needed something better, and Shawn thought I could go with one that was stronger and shorter, one that would deliver the intent more directly. So, I nixed the one I had come up with and we went back and forth trying to hit on that right one. We came up with the shower curtain trying for second base, but during lunch today that particular wording didn’t feel right coming from me so I changed it to something a little cuter…..I guess you’d say.

I’m pretty happy with the result. I know it is crude, and there are problems with its delivery and look. I’m not crazy about the word balloons or text, but they are hand drawn so automatically kind of rough. The comic might have been improved if I hadn’t gone with what I drew for the first panel, or maybe I should have gone with just three panels instead of four and left that first one out entirely. But, it is my first strip (or second if you count the one I did for the Art & Story contest), so I can only get better from here, right? Hopefully anyway! Either way, I’m having fun and feeling great about myself with the help of these strips and my sewing, so I’ll just keep at it and enjoy it all.

Comic Strips

In the past couple weeks or so, I haven’t been forging ahead on my sewing projects during my morning breaks and my lunches at work. I got to a point where there wasn’t anything to do but sew, and I didn’t feel comfortable bringing everything to work. There were too many things to keep track of and not enough time to get much accomplished in those 45 minutes per day. So, I went back to reading at work and here and there writing a blog entry. Something occurred as a result that I never imagined would happen…..I suddenly felt like reading was a waste of time!! I had so thoroughly enjoyed spending what small time I had during the work day creating something, that I found as the days went by I wished for something else to do besides read. After years of adoring the very act of reading itself in addition to the stories, I felt myself getting restless and feeling unproductive with just a book in my hand.

I realize, of course, this is insane!! However, as I said I’ve spent years and years and years reading, so right now I need to continue to pursue other creative outlets to keep the juices flowing and my mind from drying up. I’ve decided to draw out a few comic strips which I came up with a little while ago. They aren’t related to each other in any way, but are just thoughts I’ve had or an idea that popped into my head. I have no idea where this will go, if anywhere, but I need to draw them so I can complete them rather than keep them half-finished as words in a journal.

On Friday, I printed out a template Shawn and I found online which has four panels at the top of the page and two bigger ones at the bottom. I just needed something that already had the panels, so I wouldn’t have to worry about that step and could just draw the strips. However, I started Thursday night by drawing a bathroom in a small sketchbook I’ve been using for various things. I sat on the floor in front of ours and intended on trying to duplicate it, only it didn’t quite work out that way. I didn’t feel I would have enough room for a shower, toilet and sink so I used my creative license and made it “any” bathroom.


I was shocked and excited to find how quickly I accomplished it and how good it looked. I was actually happy with the outcome and thought it was pretty spiffy for someone as green as I am to drawing. Now, this isn’t bragging, AT ALL, and here’s why! When I set out on Friday to start drawing in the pre-printed panels, the other thing I discovered was that my fear was gone!! I drew a comic strip for an Art & Story contest some time back (see below), and when I set out to do it I was so scared and nervous with each step….the writing, the drawing, and the inking……that I was uncomfortable the entire time. But when I sat down to do another comic strip, I just jumped right in without a worry or a concern. I had gained confidence simply by drawing by hand the patterns for my sewing projects, working on each part that wasn’t quite right, erasing and perfecting until as a whole it was how I wanted it. This small amount of experience banished my fear and anxiety over drawing to such a degree, that I had no more qualms. Now, I’m not saying I’m super confident and I’ll be wowing anyone with what I draw, but it was a thrilling feeling to put pencil to paper to draw something and feel comfortable and at ease with it.


My plan is to do these strips at work during my breaks and then go back and forth between my sewing projects and drawing at home. I’ll put everything up here, morphing my demonals site into much more than what I originally thought it would be. Who knew I’d have this much stuff to put up on the web!!

Part One Complete!

Whew! I finished the first of my three current projects. I was off on vacation this past Friday, so I worked nearly all that day and Saturday as well. For sitting in my living room and sewing while listening to television, it was surprisingly grueling work. By the end of both days, I was extremely tired and slightly sore. I don’t know if I could keep that up day after day, but it was tremendously rewarding work. It was fun, mentally engaging and you can see your own progress before your eyes as you are doing it. Hours passed without my realizing it while at the same time not flying by so that I felt like my day was over in a flash. To put it quite simply, it was great!

I kind of hit a wall on Sunday though due to lack of sleep, having only gotten six hours that night. I think, too, I was just a bit tired of sitting up in the same position, hunched over my sewing. I worked sporadically that day, fitting in watching television and a nap in between pulling my little TV tray in front of me to start sewing once more. I considered stopping all together sometime around 7 p.m., but I was so close to finishing the one part that I kept going.

All in all, I’m pretty happy with the results. It’s a simple design, nothing that complicated or detailed. I’m sure someone with more skill than I currently possess would have produced something much better, and I said this to Shawn while I was looking at it and feeling like it was a little flawed. He said, “You could always do it over again,” and then laughed at me as I emphatically shook my head no. This will be my curse, I fear. I spent so much time and effort to create what I had before me, that I couldn’t bear the idea of doing it all over again. I’m sure our friends, Jerzy Drozd and Mark Rudolph, would agree that this is something everyone who embarks on a creative endeavor must face. Hopefully, they wouldn’t shake a finger at me for copping out and deciding to settle for what I have. It’s a gift for someone, so I’m consoling myself with the idea that the person will most likely enjoy it for what it is as well as relishing the homemade feel with all its flaws.

In all honesty, I’m not really sure how much I could improve on it given the idea that I wanted to do. I’m sure with more skill I could finesse it to a point where it would look more professional. But, I did accomplish what I set out to do. The real question would be is there a better way to get the same result? For now, I will settle for what I have and say it is good enough.