Now generally Tate’s not big on karaoke. But this did, in fact, happen. And it was beautiful.
Loosely from left to right, the lines are: “Know it’s not easy”, “I can’t lie”, “I kind of like the pain”, and “Before it consumes me”.
The song in question:
Well hello there. I had a thought.
You good people wait around here for new Meadowhawk stuff. I love you for it. Seriously. You’re my peoples and I am grateful for every one of you.
To that end, I figured, why not post something besides a comic strip, if I don’t have a strip to post? I DO have a picture of the characters, in their world, being themselves.
Enter This Is Canon, the new thing where I post Meadowhawk art that isn’t necessarily a strip.
*The title is tongue-in-cheek; while many of the pictures I post are indeed canonical to the strip and its world, some will inevitably not be. Some are just for fun. If you can’t tell which is which, that’s okay! It’s alright to ask for clarification. I am far from a master of clear and consistent storytelling.
So here’s the first one. Tater and Drizzle in some sort of artistic ‘promotional’ photograph. Maybe this was taken for some interview they got on behalf of The Truth About Dragons. I do not know! The text on Drizzle’s shirt implores you to don’t.
Click the picture and it should open up a full-size image.
Hello, dragonwatchers.
Writing this strip requires me to find and use a kind of whimsy from inside of myself. It is a necessary ingredient to even step into the mindset I must be in.
With what is happening in my country now, I am honestly not sure that whimsy lives in me anymore.
We have allowed the hopeless among us to elect hopeless leaders. Already they’re gleefully dismantling every aspect of governance that has protected myself and the people I love.
There are no bright eyes on tomorrow, anymore. Certainly not mine.
I love you, and I love this strip. I will not let it go easily.
But the light inside of me is dying.
I cannot tell stories of dragons without that light.
I will try, and that is all I will promise.
I have a few strips in the works that I will finish up and post. They should be up soon, but they should’ve been up long, long ago already.
I can’t say what will happen. I’m sorry for that.
Thank you for your kindness.
That’s all for now.
First, I’m sorry. I’m sorry to the dedicated fans of this strip and its characters who have missed them! I am!
I told you Meadowhawk wouldn’t get canceled, and it won’t. But I feel like I owe you guys a slightly better explanation than before of just why it’s on hiatus.
I didn’t have the words to express this properly before, but I think I do now. An artist tends to have multiple irons in the fire, and I’m no different.
My dream, my lifelong dream, is to be a published illustrator. That’s what I want more than anything else. Creating a beloved web strip with characters that people related to personally is another dream of mine. But the illustration gig was here first. And you can tell, can’t you? I’m not a gag-a-day strip artist. It’s not really in me. The strip I’ve created focuses on lush visuals and storytelling and long-term character development more than gags. And will probably do so increasingly into the future.
So that’s me; I’m an illustrator at heart. Well, recently I’ve been trying to take that dream seriously. I’m illustrating a children’s book with my friend and accomplished author, Richard Roberts. I’ve realized in bits and pieces that, really, that’s where the majority of my effort has to be going. That’s the dream I need to keep alive the most right now. I can’t have all my hopes on this one book, I have to make this the beginning of something that continues.
Having said that: I suffer from chronic depression. AND A HOST OF OTHER THINGS that arguably are more ‘my fault’, like a propensity for playing videogames until 3 AM. But really though. If you don’t know about how depression can affect a person – especially an independent content creator – this sums it up neatly and comprehensively: http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2011/10/adventures-in-depression.html & http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2013/05/depression-part-two.html
Time for some crappy truths about your beloved strip author. I have bigtime depression, ADHD, and I sort of never grew up. That’s charming, right? Sure. It also means I’ve never stayed with a ‘real job’ for longer than a year before deciding that fretting over money was more fun than fretting over having to go into work. I’m an introvert to the max, and I have very thin skin. Little tiny things ruin my day! I’m… not the stablest person, is what I’m getting at. Because of this, I go days without working on art. Each day, I’m guiltier and guiltier about how little I’ve got done, and it gets a stranglehold on me.
What I’m trying to say is that, every day you don’t see this strip update, I’m fighting a mighty kraken inside my brain. If I manage to subdue the beast, whatever energy I have left after that goes into some artistic endeavor, OR (not and) some social endeavor. I can either hang out with friends, or draw a picture and earn money. I can’t do both. Other humans being near me – sometimes even on my SCREEN in a RECTANGLE with TEXT – sucks my energy away, the same energy I use to make art happen. And I’ll tell you right now: most days, I don’t win. I lose most of the time. The monster beats the crap out of my resolve, and all I have the energy to do – sometimes for hours – is stare and distract myself, sleep and nap. Some days my major accomplishment for the day is forcing myself to eat a meal.
Some of you are feeling real bad for me right now, and I appreciate the sympathy, but I will tell you: I am medicated. I do see a therapist. I live in-home with some very supportive and loving family. I’m doing most of the things a depressed person can, to mitigate depression, and it STILL WINS most of the time. To the best of my knowledge, for me, there will be no point in life where I say, “Finally, I have defeated my depression”. Because that would be like saying, “Finally, I have defeated my bladder”. No, this is just what life IS to me (apparently). It’s this constant fight, this endurance test that lasts all my days. This is just a condition I have to live with. It is from within this condition that I must try and create a career out of my art.
So there you have it. I think that does a fairly good job of explaining why I’m not more active, more prolific. This isn’t just about making the decision to sit down and draw a comic or not. I’m in the middle of a crazy battle, that takes place every day – and every night, I should add, as I generally have restless and disturbing dreams – and this comic or that book or this commission is the MIRACLE I have managed to eek out on the side. Please have patience with me. I adore you all for wanting more, and I promise, in some form, someday there will be.
Don’t be afraid, my peoples. You knew this might happen someday. It’s time to be brave.
No, seriously it’s not a big deal – but I’m going to pause work on the strip for a bit longer. I’m having a devil of a time juggling my artistic priorities at the moment, and as amazing as it may seem, I actually have some stuff going on that’s more pressing than my beloved dragons! It’s a wonderful problem to have. I’m actually quite proud! But as I have some illustration work to take care of, I’m going to be taking a little time off from the strip.
Meadowhawk is NOT going to get canceled, there are no plans of that sort, so do not worry. I assure you I am only getting started. Thanks for a great first year, dragonwatchers. I’m grateful to everyone who’s been a fan, and I promise, there will be much, much more when I return!
<3
Hey there, dragonwatchers!
Meadowhawk will be taking a couple weeks off, as I’ll be going on vacation the weeks of the 19th and 26th!
Expect the strip to return probably around May 3rd.
Love,
Driz <3
I’m sorry to say, all, but strips will be on hold for the next two, maybe three weeks! I will be recovering from a surgery starting next week. The good news is, this isn’t the kind of surgery where my health is threatened – it’s elective. But I will be out for a while.
Cheers, and see you all on twitter~
Tweets by MeadowhawkComic
Driz <3
So I’m moving. Right.
Well, lately I haven’t drawn ANYTHING since my ‘drawing arm’ has become my ‘screwdriver arm’, my ‘pliers arm’, and my ‘lifting heavy things all afternoon’ arm. By the time I actually have time to draw, my body is in full rebellion.
So dang. This basically means I’m ALREADY falling behind in strips, AGAIN. Which means that even MORE people are going to think my comic strip “isn’t updated that frequently” when, in fact, it is updated ALMOST every week on average. Someday, I swear, I am going to shed myself of the notion that my strip “doesn’t update much”. It -does- update much. I swear to you. It LOOKS like it doesn’t because I was being an IDIOT and BACKDATING my strips because I retroactively published them with dates 3 months prior to when I was actually doing them. And I wrote a journal about this, but nobody reads that journal apparently.
Anyway, that’s the bottom line. You get nothing until I’m done moving. I know. I’m angry about it too. But there’s no way around it.
With Animosity,
Driz
Hey peoples!
Just thought I would take a minute to ask – is there any feature you -wish- this site had, as a Distinguished Personne Of Thee Webcomic Fancy, that it is conspicuously missing? Please let me know if there’s any way I can make this thing work better for a busy reading audience and I’ll try to do it. I have an extremely helpful Support Dragon on hand in case of anything more complicated than two years of web design in tech school can teach you to tackle… But I digress. Tell me, here or anywhere – Comment or send me an email or whatever! I’m new to this comic hosting thing! At least in -this- capacity. Like, with people watching.
Oh, and also I wanted to note that I’m jussabout finished with the next strip to go up. Which leaves me still several weeks in the past but I’m getting there, I swear.
Take care, and lick live well!
Hi folks!
I want to take a minute tonight to thank everyone so far who’s been following this strip. I feel like I’m off to a great start, and knowing I’ve got some readers already is an awesome motivator to keep me working to make this strip as great as I can.
Anyway, I’m still working on getting current (sorry). I’m making decent progress on that front. Finding out where the Cubecraft story is going has been fun for me, I hope for you all too!
Yours faithfully,
Nikki