How a sketch changed everything

As I mentioned in my last post, all this craziness started from two things: the loss of my dog and a random indie animated show that I came across thanks to the powers of TikTok's algorithm (the FYP is a powerful thing and often calls me out in ways I least expect).

The show, called Murder Drones, caused me to do something I haven't done since my days of World of Warcraft and Sailor Moon back when I was a teen-I went looking for fan art. I believe it was because of how short the series was and I was desperate for more, my damn ADHD brain locking on to the relatable characters (I very much identify with Uzi and her angst) and causing a hyper fixation that is surprisingly still going despite it happening months ago. Honestly at this point I think it is because of how vital that show was to surviving the grief.

After finding many great artists and getting my fill of the amazing fan art, I did something unexpected-I picked up a pencil and drew a face. That face was Ophelia's. She didn't have a name back then but I drew her with an apprehensive expression and the story began to unfold on it's own. A bit of context for how my brain works: I have absolutely no control over my stories or characters. They are little gremlins running around in my mind, causing chaos and just running amok. The stories are created on their own almost, every time I tried to force something or make decisions about these stories and characters it wouldn't work, almost as if the stories (or my own mind) was resisting the control. So I let it run free, I let the creativity flow through me and stopped myself from trying to control it, I wrote whatever came to mind and drew whatever I felt like. It felt like something deep inside was brought back to life, from a small spark started a fire in me that has grown into an inferno.

Even though Ophelia looks a little different than when I started as I've slowly developed an art style, I still look at that sketch lovingly as it was the beginning of Chasing Shadows. Below is the original sketch, eventually I will post more art that I've done as well as some pieces that I've written (but nothing with too many spoilers).