We live in a world that can be exceedingly beautiful or appallingly harsh, and everything in between. And as art reflects one's experiences, emotions and questions about this world, it's unavoidable that both the themes of amazing beauty and the themes of absolute terror, disgust and horror will ...

A narrative theme is, in essence, the meaning behind your story. It also serves to tell your audience what your story is about. Establishing it’s core early on enables you to keep it grounded and focused as you begin to unfold your characters and plots.

Despite a longer piece ...

Yesterday, Mks_Monsters asked me to talk about an experience of hers, which I have seen being shared with a range of creators belonging to certain social groups (female, LGBTQ, POC, etc) if their occasional tweets on the matter are to be believed: That support for them on the basis of ...

After a quiet afternoon of reading Leo Tolstoy, Allie drifts to sleep and enters the realm of dreams. Upon grabbing hold of a mysterious orb, Allie is transported to Gtegra where its blue-skinned inhabitants can fly. This is a fish-out-of-water story that will whisk you away to a world beyond ...

I may have told this story in this spot before, but years ago I worked with this book called “The Artist's Way”, which included fun exercises meant to unlock the creativity most of us adults don't access regularly.

The main ongoing exercise done throughout the whole process of ...

For of all sad words of tongue and pen,
The saddest are these: “It might have been!”



Whether it's a webcomic, graphic novel, book, TV Show or movie, there is generally a “promise” made to the audience on some level. Maybe it starts with a thumbnail image and a ...

The backdrop of this comic is the Marne River in France, 1918. A group of WWI soldiers hear the sounds of bombs blasting outside and prepare to enter the front lines of a battle. In an interesting team, we have Finnegan, the red-haired and bearded gentleman, and the blonde haired ...

Two adorable raccoons (not to be confused with squirrels) were wandering through the forest one day when they stumble across a wolf-like creature named Hannah that is also accustomed to kibble (okay, so maybe it is a domestic dog). The three animals set out on an adventure trying to return ...

It is Orthodox Easter Week, and currently it's Resurrection Saturday, easily the most important day in the Greek Orthodox year. In Greece there are a ton of customs and festivities that have been taking place all through the Holy Week, culminating to today and tomorrow, Easter Sunday. One can ...

Depicting a culture different to ours can be a tricky process. There are a ton of pitfalls involved, from showing a stereotypical (right down to racist) almost fetishized version of the actual culture to presenting it in a light directly connected to the author’s/creator’s culture (therefore either ...