Her Happiness

Launched over at Facebook was the small meme Handmade 2013 in the first week of the new year. Essentially, it's just what it is; the promise to make five handmade projects for the first five people to comment on that status update.

It took exactly three minutes for me to have too many. But, first come, first serve. And, lucky for me, first on the list was a very special person to my heart. And so, a couple days ago, I delivered to her the first of my Handmade 2103 projects.

"Her Happiness" by Charlie Irons

This piece - well, the original, anyway - is completely hand drawn and inked by myself. And was it a challenge. It's been quite some time since I had to consider this much planning; as I wouldn't be able to use any of the post production editing and flash I have come to depend on from software - a fear I've already expressed in my comic.

The subject was easy enough; hummingbirds always appear to her when life gets its darkest; bringing her joy and hope. I wanted this image to do the same whenever she saw it, so I drew off of a variety of hummingbird images (You would not believe how many kinds of hummingbirds there are in the world!) and some images she had been showing me. The art nouveau style was a common theme in a lot of those images, not to mention a style we both like.

For me this was both a labor of love, as well as a reconnection to my old ash can comic roots back in the hey day of the indie comic scene from the mid 1980's. That combination really brought a lot of joy to me, in doing this piece, and the urge to maybe do more; expanding my work back into a more art realm.