A cartoonist's eyes can see what's hidden

After each class session, I took a picture of my students’ drawings, and at the end of the semester, the peer mentor for the class (Hi, Dublin!) traced over the drawings to make digital copies in Procreate, which I repurposed here.

Big thanks to Scoot McMahon for letting me share an inside look at his workshop. Check out his awesome comics here! And follow him on Instagram. And buy his newest comic, Ninja Kaiju, here!

You probably know what prompted me to look up the origin of the word gerrymander this week. The Supreme Court invoked the idea of gerrymandering in its terrible ruling this week. It found that voting districts that were created under protection of the Voting Rights Act of 1965—which was designed to protect against discrimination—are essentially “unconstitutional gerrymanders.” Dissenting Justice Kagan called this decision the “now-completed demolition” of the Voting Rights law.

The next zoom hangout for paid subscribers is Saturday, May 9, 2026 at 11am ET. More info and registration links can be found here.

Thanks for reading The Habit of Art by Kelcey Ervick, a Substack Featured Publication (twice!). I love writing and drawing these posts and am grateful to everyone who follows along. I’m the author of four award-winning books, including the graphic memoir The Keeper, which I was happy to share with teens at the book festival last weekend. I’m a professor of creative writing in Indiana, and I live on the banks of the St. Joseph River.

-Kelcey