Dearest Alex,
I've been trying to figure out the composition for my next illustration, and I have hit the proverbial wall. It's as if all my creativity and energy went into the owls, and now I have no idea what I can do with lizards. All I know is that I want to have a penny present to show the relative size of the tiny lizards, and I want my penny to be Canadian. Why Canadian? Because a. I'm Canadian and b. Canadian penny has maple leaves on the back, which = nature (I hope to have my book raise funds for endangered animals and support nature conservation.).
I also know that I will need to draw 10 lizards. Some of them will have to be babies, others grown up. I know what territory they can be found in, I know their diet, etc. What I do not know is how to present all those elements together, so that my readers will say "WOW!", or at least "That's neat.".
So, what do I do?
Well, there is another project I'm interested in, and while my brain is cooking up a scheme regarding lizard design (I always go through this thinking process, before I begin thumbnails--it saves paper, which in turn saves trees), I'll explore that project.
I have recently listened to a romance novel that has a short story embedded in that novel. The novel was a bit too advanced for my taste, but I absolutely love the short story. I have not encountered such a lovely short story since "Lady of Shalott" by Tennyson. I think it will be a brilliant picture book, or graphic novel, but I need to convince the author and get her permission.
Shortly after I finish this entry, I intend to continue sketching ideas, and hopefully, I can come up with two illustration designs by the end of the day.
I think taking a break from "AIMH", will help me figure out what to do with lizards. It has been a long while since I drew princess and kings, and people in general, that I think I will enjoy the change. Though I love drawing anything alive, my preference has always run to people. I love people! I love their diversity, their complexity, and the tremendous challenge they present to any artist. People are the most difficult to create, because everyone know what a person should look like--they all see a person every time they look at their reflection, or at the people around them. For this reason, even though most people are not artists, they can intuitively detect mistakes in realistic portraits and figure-drawing.
An artist must take this perception further, by enlisting an emotional response from the viewer. An artist does not copy what they see, they absorb what they see, and project an inner reflection of their subject spiced with pieces of their own soul onto the the surface they choose to work with. If they fail to do this, they may still create a pretty piece of artwork, but will never achieve the level of greatness that will make that artwork memorable.
So, the struggle continues, "the agony and the ecstasy".
Always.
M
