London-based illustrator Mrudula Kuvalekar begins a daily poetry comic series after six months of making nothing for herself, creating one page each day in response to whatever the day brought, building an unplanned and honest record of time passing.
After an unusually busy year, Mrudula Kuvalekar realised she had not made anything just for herself in nearly six months. The response was to start a daily project: one poetry comic per day, each one made in one to one and a half hours, responding to something that happened that day or something she was thinking about.
Poetry Comics, the format, came from a workshop she did some years ago with illustrator and comic artist Peony Gent. It merged the two things she had always loved most: drawing and writing. The process for each page begins with jotting down a memory and any phrases that come to mind, sketching what she was doing and thinking about, and then letting the writing and image develop alongside each other without committing to either one first. Sometimes the writing shifts to fit the image. Sometimes the image shifts to fit the writing. The page decides.
Working within a tight daily time constraint has pushed the process toward intuition. The work leans toward simplicity, though it ranges from illustrative to abstract depending on the day and the energy available. Old monoprints and textures from previous work have entered the mix alongside the drawings, and the format itself has shifted as the project has continued: from one or two panels per page toward simpler single-page illustrations with more collage elements, bringing in bold blocks of colour and graphic shapes alongside the looser drawing.
“The responsive nature of the project to my daily experiences has built an unplanned, honest record of time passing,” she says.
“Showing up for it regardless of when inspiration hits has resulted in imagery that ranges from elaborate drawings to simple silhouettes, expanding the range of work I can create.”
That last observation is the most interesting part of what the project has done: a daily practice undertaken to bring joy back into making has also quietly extended what she is capable of, finding new motifs, new ways of working with text and a more fluid relationship between digital and analogue elements.
Mrudula Kuvalekar is an award-winning illustrator based in London, with an MA in Illustration from Kingston University and a background in graphic design and brand development.
Website: mrudulak.co.uk Instagram: @k.mrudula
30 Days of Poetry Comics, 2025 to present. Ongoing daily series. Mixed media: drawing, collage, monoprint textures, digital and analogue elements.
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