The Plant Witch

The plant witch is a girl with magical abilities to control plants. She finds “fun” ways to use her powers, but is there a better way to use her talents?


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Themes

The Plant Witch, by Gabriella Balagna, is a comedic fantasy adventure that will warm your heart. It focuses on themes of benevolence, responsibility, forgiveness, and friendship. The adventure revolves around a girl leaving, but then returning to mend relationships. With few words and a family-friendly story, this comic is perfect for all ages.


Inspiration

The story came out in October, and thus takes inspiration from Halloween and autumn themes. Gabriella’s love and knowledge of gardening contributes to the comic’s “plant” theme. Also, Gabriella loves the idea from artist, Ezzy Van Der Heever, that fancy tools are not needed to make great drawings. Thus, the comic is drawn on simple paper and only uses black and white.

Additionally, Jake Parker’s Inktober is a major influence of The Plant Witch. Inktober is a challenge where an artist makes a traditional drawing (on paper,) with ink for each day of October. The project allows artists to focus on creating strong line-work, rather than relying on color or digital shortcuts. The medium may be a struggle; additionally, so may be creating an image each day. Gabriella modified the challenge to suits the needs of The Plant Witch.


Materials

The script created for The Plant Witch is digital, and the thumbnails used to plan out the story are sketches in the app, Procreate. The sketches for the project are on plain copy paper. Light shining through a window was used as a light-box so the sketches could be transferred onto 9″ x 12″ mixed media paper from a Canson sketchbook. The line-work is done with black Sakura Pigma Micron pens. Finally, the drawings are digitized in order to be shared online.


Special Thanks from the Creator

Gabriella is so thankful for her family, for beta-reading the story and giving her encouragement to create it. She is also so grateful to her online followers, who continue to show their support for her art. Gabriella is especially thankful to God for giving her the tools and abilities to create and share the story.


Read the comic to “grow” your joy!