The Gray Old Trees

I started drawing The Gray Old Trees in early 2020, with virtually no experience in the world of making comics. It was a way to bring the little dragon character I had created a few months before to life, to plunk him down in a world with trees and lakes and mountains and squirrels and birds and see what he’d do with it all. So far, the results have been both amusing and enlightening, at least to me.

Drawing this strip has taught me a lot, not just about sequential art and lettering and panel composition, but about the natural world–the knots, hollows, vines and fungi that make up the unique, individual character of every tree in a forest; the variety of feathers that cover a bird’s body, all with their own textures and ways of layering upon one another; the intricate web of delicate veins on the surface of a leaf…these are things I love and appreciate, and as an artist I strive to represent them as faithfully as I can. It’s my hope that reading these strips elicits a similar feeling to a nice walk in the woods.

Thank you for reading!

Comic updates every Sunday