Today is Day 20 of 100 Days of Graphic Novels! Nearly a quarter of the way through this challenge, and so I wanted to share a little update and document what I’ve done so far.

So far, I’ve written and storyboarded the first two chapters of my graphic novel, including dialogue. This was my favourite part!

First, I found all of my old sketches from the past year and compiled them all together to write out the first few scenes.

Then I wrote a script in a proper word document (which is something I never do, eeeeep!)

From there, I started drawing out the character design for my first two characters I knew were a part of my storyline.

Then I had a few fun brainstorming sessions, drawing only with pen or getting inspiration from my favourite series and movies. I started focusing on the non-human characters of my story…which was super fun!

I drew out a map of the Kingdom, and finally found the name for it! I literally woke up one morning and had the idea come out of nowhere! Which was very exciting.

I also made this little mock cover for my graphic novel, using an old book. I drew a fake cover and stuck it on, then surrounded it with all of my character designs and sketches in a short of shrine to my graphic novel…haha!

I love world-building and developing characters from scratch, its been so fun finally putting all of these ideas to paper! And I am only on Day 20! It makes me wonder where I will be up to on say Day 80 or even 100!

Stay tuned for more updates, and make sure to follow me on Insta @laurenmetzler and Tiktok @laurenmetzler.art