Current Shawnee State University senior, Holly Brown, and recent Shawnee graduate, Uriah Brown (no relation), run a web-comic called Kri: The Unseen Essence for which they recently attended their first convention appearance.
Through this personal project, Holly feels that she has grown as an artist and would like to encourage others to pursue any dreams they are passionate about because it has been such a good experience for her so far. Kri was started in 2012, when Uriah asked Holly if she would be willing to draw a comic idea that he had been imagining since his high school days. Holly drew the first few comics but they soon became too busy with classes to maintain it. This February, however, they vowed to revive and stick with it and Kri: The Unseen Essence has been faithfully updating on Mondays since then.
Being in full swing with the comic, Holly and Uriah have begun making convention appearances; their debut having been the first weekend of September when they attended Sukoshicon in Bowling Green, KY. A one-day convention, the small size was a great place to start for the ambitious comic creators, as it allowed them to talk more personally with people who stopped by their table. “I was expecting to have to promote and wasn’t really thinking anyone would be that interested,” Holly recalls, “I had pretty low expectations to be honest.” Much to their delight though, the Kri table was one of the most popular at the convention; Holly made around $200 in hand-drawn commissions. “It was unlike anything I had done before,” she said, “I wasn’t used to presenting myself as a professional artist. I got to meet a lot of really nice, interesting people. At first, I felt self-conscious because we had nothing to really sell, like the tables around us did, except for the ‘on-demand’ commissions.” Holly was delighting that there were quite a few commissions for Kri-related characters, showing her peoples’ interest in her comic, which was ultimately her reason for going.
When asked how she finds the time to keep up with the comic and her classes at the same time, she said, “It’s really hard and I always put classes first and sometimes have to sacrifice a little quality on the comic because of this.” That having been said, she then went on to explain, “Doing art only for classes can begin to feel meaningless. You need to take what time you can for yourself.”
Making money off her art was an eye-opening experience.
“I used, to be honest, to think making money with my art may not have actually been an option,” she said referring to the concept of profiting monetarily from her talents, “It really started as a hobby. This has given me hope that it’s definitely possible.” As well as being a huge motivator and boost in confidence, the money made was a much-needed real-world example of how artists really can make money off of the things they love if they apply themselves and just go for it.
Holly’s parting words to her fellow artists at Shawnee were, “If it’s your dream and you’re passionate about something, you should do it. It may seem odd at first,” she said referring to that first step outside of the comfort zone to really push your own art and projects, “and there’s a big ladder to climb, but you can definitely do it and it’s worth it.”
You can support Holly and Uriah by reading Kri: The Unseen Essence at kri-comic.com, and you can catch them at their next convention appearance at Kentuckycon in Lexington, KY from October 3rd to October 5th.
The Chronicle 