How do you cultivate your creativity? My answer to this question is published in UPPERCASE -- a beautiful quarterly print magazine inspired by craft, design, and illustration. Issue 53 focuses on flowers, plants, and gardens that inspire creativity. I'm happy to be a small seed flourishing and always ready for growth.
My answer focuses on the self-imposed projects and prompts I've done over the years including 24-Hour Comics Day, Make 100 from Kickstarter (Sad Fish, Blue Rose Enamel Pin, Banana Bandana, Thank You Mom Enamel Pin), #CarolynsCreativeChallenge, Inktober (31 Turtles, Dessert Desert Creatures, HijINKs!), Sketch Before Sleep (my 365 project), Hourly Comics Day, ABCs of Country Music (my typography project), and more.
Leave a comment on how you cultivate your creativity!
Hope everyone is having a good start to the new year. After completing two monthly creative challenges last year (Inktober and PODCEMBER), I've become inspired by Kickstarter's Make 100 incentive to illustrate 100 Sad Fish and compile them into a limited edition book.
I've been doodling my Sad Fish for awhile now and many people seem to like them at the comic conventions I exhibit at, so I figured it would be fun to participate in the Make 100 challenge. After successfully running an intensive Kickstarter before (Curls), I decided this Kickstarter will be simple and made only two reward levels.
The first reward level is pledging to receive the Sad Fish book, featuring 100 different illustrated Sad Fish. Only 100 of these books will be made and they will be signed and numbered. At this level, you also receive one of the original physical Sad Fish drawings (ink on paper).
The second reward level is having me draw you, a friend, or relative as a custom Sad Fish. You will receive the original line art on paper and a colored digital avatar.
As of this blog post, we are less than a day in and 60% funded! Thanks to everyone who has pledged and if you can't pledge (for whatever reason -- no worries) please help to share and spread the love of Sad Fish. People love Sad Fish because they make people happy!
March 22 • CulpeperCon (Keynote Speaker)
April 4-6 • Awesome Con
May 18 • Comic Logic Spring Lot Con
June 28-29 • Tidewater Comicon
August 23-24 • Fairfax Comic Con
September 13-14 • Small Press Expo
October 9-12 • New York Comic Con
October 17-19 • Baltimore Comic-Con
October 26 • Comic Logic Fall Lot Con
November 15 • Local Author Book Festival
Donate to Curls Studio
If you enjoy Curls Studio products, please donate to keep us motivated and in action! We travel locally in DC, MD, and VA... but also need your support to pay for printing costs and travel expenses for events like New York Comic Con. Your help is needed and appreciated. You never know what could come your way if you donate to Curls Studio.
Carolyn Belefski creates and publishes original comics and illustrations. Carolyn writes and draws the comic strip Curls. She also collaborates with writer Joe Carabeo on the comic books Kid Roxy, Black Magic Tales, and The Legettes.
In 2010, Curls was nominated for the Friends of Lulu Kim Yale Award to recognize women in cartooning. In 2013 and 2014 Carolyn was voted Best Visual Artist runner-up for Washington City Paper’s Best of D.C. awards.
Carolyn became a National Cartoonists Society member in 2012, and is currently serving as a Washington, DC chapter Co-chair. With NCS, she started “Cartoonists Draw Blood” in Washington, DC by connecting with the American Red Cross, gathering local cartoonists, and organizing a blood drive where blood donors receive a sketch from a cartoonist.
Carolyn serves as editor-in-chief of Magic Bullet, Washington, DC’s comics newspaper anthology.
Carolyn has exhibited at New York Comic Con, Baltimore Comic-Con, Awesome Con, Small Press Expo, Pittsburgh Comic Arts Festival, Philly Alternative Comic Con, and many other comic conventions and art fairs.
CONTACT
info(at)curls-studio.com
