That's the magic number. 23 sketchbooks have been filled since the Fall semester of 2016. That's a little under 6 books a year, or a book every two months.
I spent some time the other evening stacking them up, putting them in order, labeling, and snapping photos of things to reference later on. It was more so gathering the concept sketches that lead to this project, but I picked other things up along the way.
With every book I finish, it's dated and a memo about what went on during it is written. For my painfully long book of December 2019-March 2020 I filled two pages of reflection. It was the last book of my college career. It was the book where it ends without graduation and I just kind of walk away quietly from that college career, which stings more and more as I approach that first week May where it should all seem exciting...
It isn't, really, but I digress.
What I found out was that I knew my comic's title back in January of 2017. My main character's bones were fleshed out then and there. I watched him go from style revision to style revision as I tried to figure out what my own style was, before I was dead set on making consistency matter. I was waiting for the time and place to do all of this, and that time came around. I guess that's what really matters out of the ordeal. This project has a different life to it than just a senior show. I don't have to put it down after all of this and I think it's what is keeping me going.
23 sketchbooks. Mind you, I'd average closer to one-a-month if my summer job wasn't so dismal. Still, I'll take it. The stack's too heavy to carry and barely fits in my arms anyway. Here's to post-college and the challenge of keeping my rate going.