About the Writer
Full Name: Monika Montoya
Gender: Female Age: 33 Birthdate: March 2, 1984 Sign: Pisces Region: Orange County, California Languages: English Only Hair color: Black Eye color: Brown Joys, Pleasures, & Delights: The color orange, Mushroom soup, Raspberry cheesecake, Lemonade, Paper crafts, Home decor, Long walks and bicycling. Talents, Skills, & Special Abilities: Drawing and coloring, sewing, cooking, singing, storytelling, |
About the Series
The early winter of 2010 I was diagnosed with schizophrenia and ever since, I've experienced many unexpected bouts of hallucinations annually, resulting in frequent trips to the few rehabilitation centers that specialize in my mental sickness. The damages left from my hallucinations made simple things like thinking and decision making difficult for me, thankfully, art is considered by experts to be the go-to therapeutic activity. So I began keeping a sketchbook of my drawings and colorings to help me in my healing process. While I was doodling, I made a quick sketch of what looked like two singing Muppets and that became Do-Mi and Do-Ti.
They were so adorable together, I wanted to do more with them than just one single picture, such as make a collection of short stories with them and a few friends following their daily lives. Amy loved my drawing of them as well and encouraged me to create a gag-a-day style comic for them. Unfortunately that idea failed because I couldn't think of enough comedy for it, so Amy advised to try a long-form story instead, and even offered to draw the whole project for me. At the time, she was finishing up livNPC and was already looking into previously completed stories to adapt into a full color, mobile compatible comic. Because the production of livNPC was a success and Amy had proved that she could keep working when I was in rehab, I agreed to go through with the project.
Amy designed my characters to be much thinner, with flat, fish like heads, because she thought the aesthetic was humorous. She gave me a short amount of time to complete my narrative, so she could read it over from beginning to end and revise it. I felt pressured because, at the time, it had only been a few years since I first developed schizophrenia, my thinking skills were still not up to par, and I seldom finish any of the stories I begin. So I decided to develop my story from previous inspirations.
For example, during the earliest days of my healing process, Amy and I would go for long walks around our city and come across many kinds of strangely colored or oddly tall birds. Amy pointed out that many of the most beautiful birds seemed to have the weirdest calls, specifically pointing at a crane we found perched on a bridge. It screamed something that sounded like “BAG!” and for a long while we used “BAG!” as a sound effect for any beautiful bird that makes a weird sound, in any of our stories, until one day I decided to use it as inspiration to develop my story's villain.
In the process of creating his comic design, I had originally wanted to make him some kind of crow, but Amy advised to give him some color like the red-winged blackbirds we used to see, flying around in our local regional park. He came out much better than what I was expecting. Over all the story took about three days for me to write, thanks to the beautiful atmosphere of the Cerritos Library we frequented during the final months of livNPC's production. Regardless if my finished product was good or bad, I did my best! I believe it also took Amy about three days to revise my work and create the plot seen here on this site. I'm very happy with the changes that Amy made, like giving Do-Ti and his friends the desire to be unique individuals and giving Do-Mi and her friends leadership skills, she really gave the story more depth and vibrancy.
I hope you enjoy the completed story of HoHumDeeDum! As much as we enjoyed working on it. |
About the Artist
Full Name: Amymone Montoya
Gender: Female Age: 29 Birthdate: December 7, 1987 Sign: Sagittarius Region: Orange County, California Languages: English Only Hair color: Brown Eye color: Brown Joys, Pleasures, & Delights: Doll collecting, Office supplies, Anything yellow or lemon flavored. Talents, Skills, & Special Abilities: Drawing, Designing, Style replicating, Writing, Singing and Speaking. I’m also open to teaching if you’re interested in learning. Tools: Paintshop Pro 6, Paintshop Pro 9, Paintshop Pro X2, Staedtler Staedtler Pigment Liner 308 Pens 6 Piece Set
E-mail: [email protected] Master: Amymone (Αμυμώνη)
Site Title: HoHumDeeDum! Site URL: http://hohumdeedum.weebly.com/ |