Seedling: A Junior Visual Narrative Comic by Aidan O'Leary (2017)

My story is about a young girl, who feels sad and isolated except for when she is with her grandmother. One day, her grandmother visits her. As the grandma leaves, she presents the girl with a flower. The girl is in awe of the flower and it immediately makes her happy. Over the next few days, she brings the flower with her everywhere. And as flowers do, it slowly decomposes until one day when she wakes up and the flower is dead. The girl is devastated. She mourns the loss of her flower and buries it in her yard. The next day, still heartbroken over the loss of her beloved flower, she walks outside and heads to school. To her surprise, a bunch of seedlings have grown in the place where her flower was buried. She is ecstatic! The tiny flowers continue to grow and the girl is surrounded by the essence of her grandmother.

During this project, I learned to be more precise about detail considering every little line mattered in terms of the big picture. Additionally, I had to effectively tell a story, so my drawings and details needed to accurately contribute to the storyline. I learned to visually show what I was trying to say, rather than explaining with words. This was a new approach to storytelling that I hadn’t yet experienced, and therefore I believe I grew in my methods of storytelling. A first, I struggled with understanding the basics of Illustrator and how to use technology to express the image in my head. I now can confidently use Illustrator, which is a great tool to have. If I had had more time I would’ve liked to add some more details, but overall I am proud of my finished comic. This project showed me that given the right tools, and knowing how to use them, anyone can create art. I learned that everyone has a diverse approach to making art, and this uniqueness is what makes everyone’s projects so special.