A few months into social isolation, while everyone was baking, I decided to learn visual storytelling. Inspired by Ariel Aberg-Riger, I downloaded Procreate and Photoshop and set to work learning how to use handwriting, drawing, and collage to tell stories.

My husband and I always joke that his headstone should read “If you could get him to throw it, it would go in,” while mine should say “She was proud of the things she was bad at.” And I’m proud of this novice effort. I have loved experimenting with different illustration techniques while I’ve been learning to draw, and that’s very much reflected in this first story. It’s stylistically incoherent, but I’m ok with that. I knew a lot more by the time I illustrated the eighth and final panel.

So, without further ado, a story from my COVID experience.