So finally i get around updating the blog, Thank you for all your messages, questions, here are some quick updates.
Q: What's happening with the next Graphic novel ?
A:  Long answer, Krishna got done in 2012 and was out the same year in Dec, while i had somehow happily persevered through it and was elated, i was severely financially burnt out too.
Lesson of life became to learn to straddle different realities.

An art book was planned for 2013, which never came to fruition, in year 2014 i thought of iterating it and add stories to it, making it almost prose like, no takers, the content required more time, so i dropped it again.
Kept working and writing concept scripts for the next graphic novels, a few screenplays for an animated film. Same year i painted the first few covers of my new graphic novel, but could not get around to the pages, i had moved to the U.S. and an avalanche of formalities took over my life.

Failing at not getting anything out there, i resorted to simply bask in the joy to make stories everyday.
i opened an insta account and one fine day i started to share some of the stories i was writing.
A new dimension was added, a new connection with the audience.
https://www.instagram.com/abhiart/

By 2015 something inside of me had changed, i no longer was desperate to put a book out there, not that the desire had conceded but it was not overwhelming anymore.
Also, it's okay to accept that things sometimes don't work out, or they may require changes, growth etc to make it eventually pan out.
Releasing one self from all the trepidation felt refreshing.
I dived into more reading and drawing, this period of my life from 2015-2017 end was hard in many ways, trails of which are still being felt.
my sketchbooks started getting etched with more writing, my appreciation for comic-literature expanded, Ursula la guin, daisuke igarashi, jiro tanaguchi, Gene wolf, yuketashwara ji, dune, the new testament, the chandogya, brihadarankya upnishad or be it material on hard science/astronomy.
I was hardy watching any television or films by this time, an occasional one or two but my mind was steeped in understanding, my social appetite was low but some other hunger of the mind had become accentuated.
yet, i understood that reading a lot may not mean that you can write a good story, let go of that expectation and just enjoy the experience.
I let go of making a book, anything actually, i just wanted to flow, finish my paintings, so i can sustain but let go of all other creative expectations, make a film, make this, make that, nothing, but simply tell and seek stories.
The stories were coming, and that's all what really mattered.

I soon realized that why i still haven't begin on the graphic novel even though i had enough material, is because i was looking for something deeper then just smart story-telling, and for that i had to raise my own bar, fall a few times, experience and remember, for as far back and as far ahead i possibly can.

i was wanting to internalize the story, it's an experiential thing like wanting to get drenched in the rain, the cold and the flu and the exuberance all on me.

...and then it all started to appear, the small pieces done over years begin to align.


Fast forward to now,  2012-2018 april, it's been about 5 years, finally i've started to lay down the first few pages of my next graphic novel, it's something i'm really proud of.
The art-story book also have found a publisher, it'll be first released in India which had been my dream, so yes, things have a way to work out, it's really about keeping at it, the only question one has to ask...

are you happy to keep doing this despite the outcome/ incentive/ just for the joy of it ?

read about the world and draw stories...just for the heck of it, hell, Yes!!!

and still take responsibility, turn-up, be there for those you love, for the things you stand for.

There is so much more to live and experience, esp in the smallest ordinary moments of our lives, we all are plagued by our obsessive never ending desires, creativity can be indulgent too,but if you break through it, and re-look at it from a distance, it may still look like an ever changing sand-dune, but now you'd be able to see the stars, the night, the dawn, and how the dunes dance...yes, the whole dance.

Thank you again if you've been coming here and reading these posts, Thank you for your love, support and patience.

Abhi

Note : on request i have uploaded some new blk/white  https://www.abhishekartstore.com/