The Nine: One Wednesday Morning

"It began like every other Wednesday morning. Cold toast and jam at eight, teatime and the paper to follow. I am a man of regular habits, you see. Being a tad late, it was with haste I hopped on my bicycle and rode down the hill towards the weald."

{Illustration and writing a section of work from my story. }

WHAT I DID:

As you can guess, "The Nine" is a reference to the nine days I had to work on my first project for IP. To be honest, seven of those days were spent in the mire of fear and indecision. I feared committing to a particular project in case it meant I had to continue with it for the next seven months. Indecision came from not having a thought about what I wanted to do in IP, excepting knowing I wanted to create a printed publication. On Tuesday I addressed the concern to Stephanie and Jim about what this nine day introduction project was for. Jim said something that resonated with me, that part of these nine days was to see what you don't want to do. Since I had made an oddly resolute and unfounded decision against writing and illustrating a book, this is the first thing I decided to do. It was by no brilliant move on my part, just a decision to go against my first instinct and try it. I had a fear if I didn't address it, I would always wonder if I had. In my class presentation of my previous work people tended to respond more towards my illustrations rather than my design work. This and other factors enabled me to set out working on a spread for an illustration. Based on a previous work that dealt with thought trails, I chose a portion of the thought trail, a little sentence that delt with an area of ancient english forestry, the Weald, and the inspiration it lent toward writers like Kipling and Milne. "Amidst the sunken lanes and paths the soft-fall pitter-patter of Pooh Bears' feet slow the steady pace the ramblers and cyclists seek to set." The new writing is essentially a story told in a letter about a fanciful man's travels to work on his bicycle, and about the spotting of the peculiar stuffed bear. The end would reveal A. A. Milne to be the author, and the letter one to his publishers/editors.

So, what I did was write. Illustrate. Research. Design.
Tuesday-3 hours spent on deciding on a project to address, research, a bit of idea collecting.
Wednesday-About two hours of sketching and ditching random ideas for the book. probably about another hour and a half of writing. 3 1/2 hours spent on the sketching, inking, painting and scanning.
Thursday morning-15 min of designing.... just preliminary layout.

Total: 10 hours.
Notes: short 2 hours, probably should work on spreading out my work.

...

WHAT I ACCOMPLISHED/DISCOVERED and Such

As stated, I accomplished settling on an idea, doing a bit of writing and illustrating, and basically completing one page of the book. I am not sure weather the lengthy description of what I did belongs in  the previous section or here in what I accomplished, I presume whatever I did I accomplished.

Previously most of my illustrations were made on heavy cardstock, which allows for a smoother image when scanned in and used in a document. I used not only a bad scanner, but watercolor paper. Altogether a bad combination.  I also discovered the close integration of research, narrative, and illustration. When my research was lacking (this being based in a real place and on real people and events) my script was lacking as well... I'm thinking that the veracity of the story is a little thin. Milne was not inspired from a fantastical ride to work to write Winnie-the-Pooh, at least not in any of my research.

...

ONWARD!

I've found myself lost again in the paths and scraps of description, and in love once more with the art of illustrating. I am not ready to rule this out as an IP project. I must still do battle to decide weather I ought to pursue what I want to do or what I think I should do. For now, I plan to perhaps hammer out more of a complete script. I want to also get in contact with Annette Haines to see her collection of artist books. I might work on a few illustrations as well and exploring other vains of story plots, thinking of a projection for a piece.



I expect this is probably the longest post I shall have on here.