Today, I was able to draw and ink a page of biographical comic I developed over the summer. It is about wrestler Maurice Tillet who was quite the spectacle and attraction throughout the 1940s. On the outside, he looked like a grotesque monster due to suffering from acromegaly from a young age, but inside he had a beautiful, generous heart and soul.
I developed and sketched most of the story over the summer but hit a wall in September when I was ready to start inking.
Actually, I have not drawn much since September.
My cancer treatment was affecting me mentally: nightmares, mood swings, etc. I'd cry easily. Lose my temper over nothing. I'd forget things. Light bothered my eyes. And I lost the will or energy to draw, to be creative.
Yoga, meditation, therapy helped move me in a better direction, but everything came to head in November. My cancer meds obliterated my pancreas--hospitalizing me for three days. The result, on top of the cancer fight, I am now a Type 1 diabetic.
As a result, my cancer treatment has been halted and I have learned to manage my blood glucose through self-injected insulin. And my headspace has been gradually moving into a healing place. And I started to draw again (recently). Developing a holiday card in early December was a major hurdle for me to overcome mentally--to use drawing to help me continue to heal.
It was as much of an exercise for my hand as my headspace. Two months out of drawing practice--I was relived to see the muscle memory still in place.
I am hoping today signals that my brain is ready for me to return to drawing again every day.