An Update on The Three Year Book.

BEF Makes, 5/6/2025

Welcome to my blog. I'm going to start using this like it's my sketchbook so please excuse typoes, grammar etc. (Yes, that first typo was on purpose, I'm tryna be funny) Come hang out with me whilst i navigate art, life and the rest of it! Let's begin...

The short story is my life has changed shapes a lot recently and I've been having to work harder to fit art in around life. I've not been posting as much or exhibiting so much but, behind the scenes, I've been writing another book... for three years.

Back in the spring of 2023 i wrote, illustrated and published a book in three weeks. Then i re-wrote, illustrated and published the book in a three month time scale and now I'm finishing up the three year version of, you guessed it, the same book. only, this time it's a bit different.

i spent a lot of time thinking about what i wanted this book to look like. Would i find an agent and seek out traditional publishing? Would i delete everything and start again? I had no idea. But i loved the three week book and didn't see much added value in the three month book. I have an awful tendency to procrastinate so I'm pretty sure over he three months i probably only put in another couple of weeks effort - not to mention that i was also working full time now.

For the purpose of the project, this is okay. It's about exploring the value of time, energy and effort as well as figuring out what production means for artists. I've learned a lot about the way i work, the things i prioritize and what i think 'good' work looks like. The three year book doesn't need to be a duplicate of the three week book because i don't have only three weeks to make it.

It can be anything, It doesn't even need to be a book. The idea was to put together an idea ina fixed time scale. Increase the time scale, adapt the idea and so on.

The three week book had a bunch of stuff in it. Poetry, essays, lists, advice and even a comic strip about dinosaurs evolving into dragons which i made in one caffeine fueled night. So, I'm going to take each of those elements and bunch them up into their own fully formed outcomes. I'm pretty sure they will all be books, or zines, but who knows.

It's currently the 5th of June. Pretty much halfway through the third year of the project and boy, did a lot happen in those three years. That was an important part of the process. In the three month edition, i didn't feel like i had much more to contribute and so i focused on tidying things up. Now, i have new life, ideas, stories and lessons to reflect on but i haven't made a massive amount of progress on physical outcomes.

The idea is:

-poetry collection

-dragon comic

-'Notes from my coat pocket sketchbook' zine/book

-lists zine

-print edition for the typewriter notes

That might make more sense if you've already read 'This Isn't Everything' the three week edition.

The good new is, I have finished the dragon comic. It's called 'The Truth About Dragons'. It's a lovely pocket sized, hardback book. Every copy is hand painted by myself. There are orange editions and blue editions and multiple cover variants you can buy ! Either from me, over on Instagram @befmakesart or, if you're around Plymouth, UK then you can grab a copy from Queer Out Loud over at The Plot on Union Street.

The comic has also been exhibited at FOYER, Plymouth which is pretty cool and it was added to the Arts University Plymouth Independent Publishing Collection! And you can read it online at antiburnout.co.uk for free!

That's the main update for now, so see you next time! But first, here are some photos:

All photos belong to @befmakesart and should be credited as such if used.