My New Residence

Hello!

I just wanted to pass along a quick note to you. For one thing, I've had a change of residence, and I wanted you to know. My new address is here: cedennison. I do hope you'll stop by and see what I have been up to--amongst other things I've finished my book and had a little show! I've enjoyed ever so much posting in this quiet wood now and then, but it seems I've outgrown this space. Perhaps it would be more true to say I was forced to leave this country garden for a while and take up an abode in the city. I hope to plant a nice row of new creations in the windowsill and see if anything will grow. I hope you'll pop by and decide to stay.

silently have I gone

Really, it seems quite funny to think that most of you haven't met Mac yet, or seen any of the final illustrations going into the book. It has been a busy few weeks. Stephanie said we would find that time in our last month of IP would expand, and truly it has! I've gotten more done in the month of March than any of the months together it seems.

I had every intention of sharing photos of the illustrations I've been doing lately, but I really haven't had time to address this space at all. I've been on a tight schedule to illustrate, and as it is, I'm just now finishing up my last one (three days behind schedule). 

Well, here they are: 

I'm hoping that after April 1st rolls around I'll be able to spend some time posting here again, as I've really enjoyed seeing the progress. April 1st is my due date to send my book into Blurb to be printed, and then I'm going to earnestly pray that they get it printed in time for the show on the 19th and that there are no major flaws with either production or design. What that means is that I have one week to get the book in a printable format, and to finish and incorporate the text. Even typing the word text makes me start to hyperventilate a little. I'm just going to have to go with something not 100% polished I fear, so that I can have a printed book in time for the show. 

Peace At Last

Here's Mac after the Fearsome Fellows have flown. I think I shared this one because it makes me desperate for some peaceful moments of my own. I've been snatching them from early mornings and bus rides to retain my sanity.

"The next day the weather wasn't nice." 

Here's my IP to-do-list/schedule for this week: 

Monday: 

                -Scan all illustrations and edit.

                -Put into InDesign. 

                -Print quick copy and mock up for Tues. 

                -Print form of working text. 

Tuesday: 

               -Crit in class. Share mock-up

               -Work on refining text

               -Make cover and extra pages (what are those called anyways, you know, the ones that go at 

                the beginning of books?). 

  

Wednesday:

                -Put text into book. Design  

Thursday:

               -Refine. 

Friday:

               -Refine. 

Saturday:

              -Easter! No work. 

               -Just kidding.... Refine. 

Sunday:

               -Refine. 

Monday: 

               -Set up to print online. Print. Pray. 

Bother!

Happy last day of February!

So this was going to be the first in two posts about my research I've been doing all week. I was going to say, don't worry! the research I'm talking about is the kind any book and illustrator enthusiast would love. I was going to show you the hordes of treasure I found on the eighth floor of the grad library. I was going to describe the trek I made up eight floors in the grad library to check out the Special Collection's children's Lit. How I once again did not adhere to the U's library strict code of conduct in looking at books. And how I stubbled wonderfully into several old and delicious copies of work by Arthur Rackham and E. H. Shepard. 

Looking at the Arthur Rackham Fairy Book

And then my joy overshadowed by that cloud of confusion they call "Copyright Law!" 

So I did some research to see if I could even show you some of the examples of their work that I found, but after an hour (oh what a wasted hour indeed!) I settled on not sharing them, even though they are pertinent to my discussion here on the blog, because I just couldn't figure it out. For one thing, this particular book by Rackham was published in 1933, if it had been published in 1921 I could have shared apparently... I think. As for the work by E. H. Shepard, fruitless + futile attempts to discover if they are or are not under copyright prevents me from showing you the wonderful work by E. H. Shepard, especially as regards his work for A. A. Milne. 

>_<         however, upon reflection I think I'll show details from a few just to illustrate my points. 

So with that introduction, settle in with a cup of tea to read my tale of discovery and admiration (with out the 20 or so great illustrations that were going to make it interesting) and try to imagine the rest instead. 

To start with, the books are so old and fragile you have to lay them in these spongy platforms to look at them, but it made me glad to handle them. Old books are better than new because they retain the memories of many hands; they are the point upon which time and kindred spirits converge. I was able in the time I had to look at three books: Arthur Rackham's Fairy Book, and E. H. Shepard's illustrations for At The Back Of The North Wind, by George MacDonald, and The House At Pooh Corner by A. A. Milne. So here's a few notes I made on both Arthur Rackham and E. H. Shepard, two illustrator's of note. 

Arthur Rackham

One thing found interesting was that Rackham's book of fairytales contained three distinct styles of illustration that all worked together. He had full color illustrations with pen and ink, and watercolor washes. He also interspersed pen illustrations throughout the book, some more detailed and complete and other's just sketches. And finally, he also had a silhouette style that appeared several times throughout the book. I learned later that he developed the silhouette style post WW1. The reason this practice interested me is because I am not sure if all my illustrations in The Reluctant Sparrow will be full color illustrations. Because of time constraints, some might end up being ink sketches and not watercolor. The way that Rackham is able to successfully integrate pen sketches with complete watercolors showed me the possibility of doing this well. 

Detail from Arthur Rackham's Fairy Book.
This is okay, right?

Detail from Arthur Rackham's Fairy Book

Detail from Arthur Rackham's Fairy Book

Detail from Arthur Rackham's Fairy Book

I was also interested to see how Rackham used the frames of his illustrations on the page. The above detail from Rackham's illustration incorporates the page as part of the image and thus seems to exist without a frame. Below is an example of how he creates a set frame for his image, but still retains a hand-sketched and organic quality.

Detail from Arthur Rackham's Fairy Book

Detail from Arthur Rackham's Fairy Book

And again, another detail from one of Rackham's illustrations, this time showing how he breaks his frame with his illustration. In this detail it's hard to see, but the foot of the elephant extends beyond the bounds of the rectangle border he has set up.



E. H. Shepard

I believe my love for Shepard's work has already been evident on this blog. There is an expressiveness to his simple but expressive line quality that I admire and should like to imitate a little in my own work. But because gushing is not really an appropriate approach to discussing an artist's work, I'll try to refrain a bit. For discussing Shepard, I want to talk about two things; the first is the way in which his illustrations interact with the text on the page, and the second is his trees.

1. Text + image relationship.

E. H. Shepard's illustration from The House at Pooh Corner

Here, the text is moving around Piglet, so that he and the text almost appear in the same field. This happens again in this image below. Notice how the this style also emphasizes the lines that are broken out of the paragraph.

2. Trees. 

Shepard's trees are at the same time both heavy and light. They are homes and architecture for the character's to interact with, and simultaneously they are the light filigree that fluffs up the landscape. 

Illustration Detail from At The Back of the North Wind, by George MacDonald.

Illustration Detail from A. A. Milne's House at Pooh Corner

I think he achieves this by having extremely thick bases and trunks, and contrasting that with extremely tapered and delicate branches. He also gives great depth and shape to the trees by the way in which his lines follow the contours of the tree. 

Illustration Detail from A. A. Milne's House at Pooh Corner

Can't you feel the rough wind tearing through the treetop branches? 

Illustration Detail from A. A. Milne's House at Pooh Corner

And a small Pooh + Piglet down below. 

Illustration Detail from A. A. Milne's House at Pooh Corner

Illustration Detail from A. A. Milne's House at Pooh Corner

And a bit of light reading for over break :) Checked out from the Children's Literature room at the UGLY. I think I'll be visiting there again before I graduate. 

So there you have it. A recounting of my time spent with some of the children's lit at the U. I also went to the natural history museum this afternoon and talked with a lady about Seaside Sparrows and drew from some specimens she had. I shall perhaps do a post about it later, but for now, I'll leave you with a quote from A. A. Milne: 

“You can't stay in your corner of the Forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes.”

Paginations + A Plan

Last week I took a blog detour and made a long post about my postcard making process. Today I want to get back to my development of The Reluctant Sparrow.

Over the past two weeks I have been meeting with Hannah Smotritch every monday afternoon to talk about The Reluctant Sparrow. She has been immensely helpful with figuring out how to move my book along from idea and concept into a more complete and finished iteration.

The first week we met I showed her the synopsis, my idea sketches, and the narrative writing. I also showed her a partial pagination I had made up of some illustrational ideas.

She immediately helped me by doing written spreads of the whole book. I had done this partially before but I had never really committed to them fully.

The blue inked spreads are the ones Hannah did based on her understanding of the plot. I went back and drew out my spreads as they existed then. There was a bit of a difference between the two. Something that Hannah pointed out was that I hadn't addressed what the climax was and ultimately why Mac decides to leave. She had assumed that it was because he realized that his love of home was in some part attributed to his friends, and ultimately his desire to go south is because he realizes that he misses them. 

I started re evaluating my plot arch. Why did he eventually decide to go? Perhaps it was because he missed his friends after all. So I wrote out a slightly different plot direction, one that focused more on Mac's relationship with his friends. I also wrote out under each spread, ideas for the illustrations and what I wanted to convey through them. 

After creating half-size paginations with the illustration sketches, I met with Hannah again. Once more we talked about the structure of the story, and looked at the illustrations as devices for the plot development. So I spiffed them up for the critique for Tuesday, made sure they were all nice and neat, and that the plot didn't have any blatant holes or problems. 

I got a pretty mediocre response in the critique. People were nice about it, and I was given a few ideas for some different places to do research for my illustrations, such as the natural history museum and the children's book collection at the University. I too was a little disinterested with my story; somewhere along the line I had dropped the subtle beauty it had and picked up a bunch of cliche. 

After the crit Camilla shared with me her thoughts about my story, voicing similar concerns I had, and encouraging me to go back and rework my story how I wanted it to develop. 

So I did. Below are the new spreads put up on my studio wall. 

Instead of focusing on the friends, I returned to focusing on Mac's reluctance. He stays because he isn't ready to go, because he loves his home and wants to spend more time there. He leaves because he does miss his friends, but also because he found that his home changed, and that he changed inside. He starts to wonder what migrating is like and starts to yearn for the south and the unknown, he isn't forced to go because of his loneliness. 

Yesterday I met with Camilla again and with both old and new storyboards in hand, created a final storyboard of the plot. I'm so happy with where I've ended up in the story. It feels like a coming home to the place my story grew from. 

I'm glad I met with Hannah because she helped me get into a good work flow and progress from where I was, and perhaps too she helped me realize the story I wanted to tell by showing me one I didn't. 

"The Fearsome Fellows" 

"Staying"

Detail from "A Snail Hunt"

"Untitled"

My goal for next week is to make sure I have all my research done. I want to visit the U's museum of natural history and see what I can find about the Seaside Sparrow. I also want to check out the special collection of illustrated children's books here and study how the masters do it. This coming week will be a prepping week so that when my March break comes the week after, I'll have all the tools and direction I need to jump into a wild frenzy of illustration. 

Late as a Postcard

This week's post (late but present!) is going to follow my journey of making a post card for the show in April.  Being rather ill all weekend, and confined to bed and tea, was rather detrimental to the whole postcard fiasco. To begin with, I haven't had time to work on the postcard image since I've been working on quick concept sketches for the book, rather than images I want published on 100 cards and hand out to whoever may show a partial interest in my book. In any case, I was able to sit down to do some sketches thursday night for post card ideas:

I first started by sketching some scene ideas that might look good as a postcard image. But then I didn't quite want to draw Mac, because then what if I changed something about him in the next few weeks? So I was playing around with objects for a while, especially the suitcase as a stand in for the idea of travel. 

Then Camilla, one of my GSIs, suggested making the postcard a cover of the book. This allowed for me to not picture Mac yet, and also to get out a nice image in the two days I had to finish it.

So I spent some time experimenting with type, and figuring out how I wanted the cover to look. Below  are some attempts at font, as well as some visual components to go along with it. 

and an apple.

I've been really inspired by Kelsey Garrity-Riley's work lately. And I was working on using Mac's environment as the visual element to go with the typography.

Below is one of her month wreaths: 

I was also looking around Pinterest for some hand lettering ideas. Because we can't have text on our postcard image I wanted to make it clear that it was part of the image, and integral to my project. 

I found one image in particular that I thought encapsulated the organic feel of the book, and was also legible for a children's book.

Via Pinterest

I used the found hand lettering as a reference and came up with the above as title lettering. 

And here's the visual component. The snail is a detail from an earlier illustration about Mac. 

He's  curiously addressing the title. 

Both elements together. 

After attempting small hand lettering I realized my folly and did it bigger, to add in on photoshop later. 

A photo of my studio while I was still happy, and still enjoying my cover...

THEN I painted it. 

And  I hated it, a lot. 

Here's what they looked like together...

My grandmother's pajamas. 

But it was saturday night and after a mild breakdown, and a declaration of apathy I drove in and uploaded it. How happy I was, then, to see Sunday that because of a few blessed procrastinators the deadline was moved to Tuesday! 

Here's my reflection on the first postcard design:

1. Too delicate and intricate. I like both words immensely, but not on a postcard about a children's book. 
2. The color. This was a fail on so many levels. Instead of getting the feeling of marsh + sea, instead we are left with grandma's pj pattern. 
3. The pencil. It was suggested that I keep the pencil in and not ink it. What I learned is that while some people don't care for the ink, I do, and I missed it immensely. 
4. The snail. I liked it pre watercolor, I hate it now. 

So I went back to the drawing board, and after a series of more sketches settled on this one. Below are the two angles I was working on: 

The idea for this illustration came from one of my quick sketches, after Mac has decided to leave, has packed his bags and is now looking at the way he needs to go. I returned to the suitcase because journey is so much of this story. 

I ended up going with this version. I thought that it gave us more of a perspective into Mac, as if we are part of his journey, looking at what he is looking at, planning along with him. Perhaps too I also wanted to draw the waistcoat :) 

 Below is the final sketch pre ink and watercolor:

And the finally the finale: 

And now I'm so happy with the postcard! 

It makes me excited to do more full illustrations for the book, and to share them with you. My only regret is not being able to use the title I worked on. I adore it and am hoping to still possibly use it for the book. 

So thankful for all those people who didn't turn their postcard files in on time :) 

Character Studies

This week I've been focusing on doing character sketches. The problem with posting on Monday is that it leaves a rather short week (3 full days) to post about all the work I've done. So really this is more of a check point before I go hurtling into the weekend. 

Here is the first watercolor experiment I've done with Mac. 

I want to keep him light and sprite. I've decided to use the yellow stripe above his eye as a type of eyebrow that will help to convey expression. I'm not really that happy with the vest yet. I like the periwinkle-blue undercolor, but I'm not at all happy about the dark stripes. I think I might have to go buy some masking paint so that the stripes can be white and lend a softer approach to the vest. I'm also thinking there will have to be some masking done around the buttons so they don't get muddy. I like how it fits him though. I also haven't added his spectacles yet. 

After talking with Jim about the character studies and illustrations, he suggested that I do several pencils sketches first that explore different angles and perspectives. It will be natural for me to always choose the profile of Mac, and while it may be easier to paint, it won't always be as interesting. 

The little bird in the bottom left labeled "Stupid" is actually a fellow I'm concerned about. How do I make make Mac look inquisitive without looking absent minded? 

So the plan for the coming weekend (and week) is as follows: 

1. Do more character sketches of Mac, as well as of the Fearsome Fellows, The Marsh Wren, and Blue.
2. Buy some masking paint--I've always wanted to try it but it is rather expensive. In other news, I received a $120 grant that I think I need to start spending. 
3. Finish the half-size whole book pagination to show Hannah in my meeting with her on Tuesday. 
4. Gather some narrative to show her as well.
5. Start finalizing a post card image/text. It is due for me on Friday evening. 
6. Go to B&N to look at children's books. Speaking of $120 grant, I really need to invest in some good research books for this project...

Something that Jim mentioned in my meeting which has been helpful to my thinking about the grid lock of text and image is to allow the image to influence the text. This seems pretty obvious, but as of now I've been working on them separately, or making the images based on the text. I want to experiment with them the other way around now. 

Enjoy the weekend! 

Characterization & Other Conundrums

Happiest Monday Mornings!

Despite the ice storm and snow, sometimes a monday is a lovely thing because it means a fresh week ahead to try to accomplish the mountain of work... as Anne Shirley says, “Isn't it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet?” Speaking of which, this post should have gone out on Friday. 

Last week I worked on several strains of work for IP. On one hand I've been shaping my storyboard even more. I've been doing some finalizing on page numbers for the book, and figuring out the physical qualities of picture books. Most children's books are on average 32 pages, with actual story pages ranging from 24-28. The complete number of pages has to be a multiple of 8 for printing and binding reasons. Right now I'm working with 12 spreads (24 pages), which is turning out to be a good number for now. Looking at other children's books I own, most fall to a higher number of pages, closer to the 28 or even 32. Right now I think it will be to my advantage to keep my page number low. 

I've also been working on finishing the narrative, as I mentioned in my last post. Because I'm coming from a very dense prose writing background, it's been a challenge really figuring out how to whittle my writing down to beautiful sentences and retain meaning, character development and description. I've been trying to approach the writing as one approaches poetry. Similarly, I was also struggling to connect more to Mac as a character, how can I get more of his personality into my book, who is he anyways? 

I've begun afresh by writing out the story line as a form of a log kept by Mac. While I'm not planning on using this in the final iteration, this exercise has helped me to see how Mac views the world, and to move away from just describing things, as I am prone to do. It's also begun me thinking along the lines of writing in first person; I've even attempted to write the whole narrative in a series of questions since this would allow us a view of Mac's inquisitive and hesitant side. 

CHARACTERIZATION

Another thing that I've been working on is developing the characters. So far I have four characters, so to speak. 

1. James Hubert Mackenzie (Mac). He is the main character, the second youngest in a set of five seaside sparrows. It would be perhaps too conventional to call him a late-bloomer, but it is difficult really pinning down what makes him stay. He is not characterized by fear, rather by disinterest in migrating; he is more interested (or rather, still interested) in home and the adventures to be had around there. Still, he isn't without fear either. He is part scientist part poet. He is fond of donning a pinstriped blue vest, a light brown coat, and a pair of glasses. 
2. The Fearsome Fellows. These are Mac's set of companions (something like brothers). They are the four more conventional sparrows, and are characterized by their daring antics and incessant talk of migration. Each is pretty unique, and their personalities will be brought out in the illustrations. 
3. Blue, the Heron. He is the old well-traveled bird that lives on the edge of the marshes. Somewhat of an oddball (think salty sea-faring adventurer), he is the one who tells Mac about what the marshes are like come autumn, and also eventually travels south with him in the end. Discovering his character has actually tied up the ending I was worried about coming to, but more on that at a later date. 
4. The Marsh Wren: he, and the winter, make up the antagonists of the story. He runs a ring of wrens that are the archenemies of the sparrows. Where Mac sees the marsh as beautiful, the Marsh Wren sees it in a bleaker, harsher, colder light. He has never migrated and is rather small-minded. Though he is a bully throughout the plot, he ends up being a character of pity because he can't imagine looking at the world beautifully. 

Well, there you have it. The characters are still developing as I am working but that's where they stand right now. You may be wondering what all the fuss is about developing the characters, giving them histories and points of view, after all, it is very likely that the average reader wont see any of this in the end. I think, however, that defining the characters for myself will ultimately help me to write stronger characters, even if they only end up existing in simplified form on the page. 

RESEARCH/INSPIRATION

Finally I've been doing more research about writing and illustrating children's books. Jim lent me several Molly Bang picture books, as well as her book Picture This: Perception & Composition. It was an extremely fascinating book about the theory of pictorial narration, and I highly recommend it to anyone interested in how pictures tell stories. While much of it seems like common sense to visual creators, it was interesting to see the different theories explored.  I would even recommend it to designers, because much of the book was about how we create meaning based on the relationship of objects to each other. Actually, I highly recommend this book to everyone. I've definitely put it down on my "to buy" book list. 

Some other contemporary illustrators/authors I've been looking at are Erin Stead, whose really unique style of illustration fascinates me. I first came in contact with here work through a book I found in a bookstore, And Then It's Spring, which has an extremely simple and beautiful narrative written by Julie Foglian. I've been enjoying her other work as well, and her and her husband's blog which keeps revealing more illustrators/writer's work I want to find in person. There was one especially called Hello, Hello  by Matthew Cordell (got to love these book trailers!) that I want to find. His article on use of margins was enough to endear me to him as a designer alone :) Finally, another new illustrator I came across last week was the work of Pascal Campion. I'm really intrigued with the gestural qualities of his figures and the atmospheres he creates. 

Looks like I have another trip to the bookstore ahead of me...

LOOKING AHEAD

As for next week, I plan on doing a lot of sketches and quick paintings continually throughout the week of the different characters, scenes, environments. Whatever the status of my narrative, I feel deep in my bones I'm not physically making enough. Post-it spreads and word documents are helpful, but all the metaphysical falls apart when I'm not actually illustrating. Besides, I don't want to hammer out a good narrative and short change myself on the visual elements (which are part of the narrative). Some other goals I have are to set up a meeting with Seth Ellis about my narrative (help! I need help!), which will require facing all my problems again regarding my writing and ideas (will this be a repeat of December reviews? Who cares--It will hopefully help me towards a better narrative in the end!). For this meeting (should it take place) I am planning on having a storyboard, some sketches of characters (words and images), and a written out narrative (of sorts). So I want to finish all of those this week. 

...

January Comes

Before I move on to the new year I want to wrap up the old.

December left in a rush and huff, class exams, papers, reviews, all came thundering through in one accord. My december IP review was amongst them. Going into the review I felt really good moderately good about where I was. I had polished up my project into a tidy presentation entitled A Year of Insignificant Happenings, and made sure all of my seams were not showing. I liken the actual review to setting a broken bone: painful but necessary, and hopefully corrective in the end. My reviewers, Seth Ellis and Hannah Smotritch, easily saw my project's flaws and shared some ways that I can address them. It was painful to have them poke at all its weak spots, because I was painfully aware of them going into the review. While it hurt to have to realize that I was lacking a few important things in my project (such as a plot, a character, interesting illustrations that went beyond a Currier & Ives), it helped me see that if I wanted a worth-while project I would have to address my issues instead of covering them up.  Overall, I came out of the review realizing that I needed to be excited and engaged in my work.

...

So I took some time to think about what I was doing and where I was taking my project. I realized that either I scrap the illustration/story and doing something more design related, or I commit entirely to a full children's story. At this point I can't hover in the spheres of indecision. At the end of the break I hit upon a story line that helped me commit to doing a full children's story. This is a brief sinopsis of the story I wrote for my thesis:

"The narrative of the story is about a seaside sparrow that is reluctant to migrate south with his fellow birds in early autumn. Mack is a stodgy homebody-sparrow who finds rambles in the nearby shoreline enough of an adventure for his taste. The peculiar sparrow is too occupied with baking snail soufflés, exploring the hollows of the salt marsh, and watching the colors change in the approaching fall, to desire the annual migration to The Island. Yet, while Mack enjoys new sites and adventures, he is unprepared for the harshness of the approaching winter, and begins to grow weary of the incessant rain, the dull conversation of the silverside, and the hostility of the marsh wrens. While the narrative deals with the changing landscape, more importantly it shows the changing heart of Mack, as he grows lonely for his fellow sparrows, and begins to wonder about the distant island. The arch of the narrative is one that follows the internal transformation of a late bloomer."

So now I have Mack (or so he's been currently christened). Some things I'm keeping in mind from my review are:

1. To begin with the illustrations, rather than dense prose pieces.
2. To retain the qualities that the "Cold Toast and Jam at Eight" illustration had, such as a sense of mystery, discovery, and movement that the other illustrations were lacking.  
3. To write prose in a way that aids the visuals. Currently my style is not compatible with illustrations, I tend to describe, rather than let the paintings do so. So I'm writing in one sentences per image (for now at least!). 
4. To storyboard: I need a clear plot (I can't pull off a broken narrative at this point). 
5. To develop a character. 
6. Not mentioned in the review, but present in my mind, is to not fear writing a children's story. One reason I was struggling to create something that wasn't strictly a child's book was because I feared the cliche books out there. Just because I'm creating something more conventional doesn't mean it has to be cliche, and just because it's a children's book doesn't mean adults can't enjoy it too. 

Preliminary sketches and script 

The last few weeks have been full of storyboarding, sketching, and writing scraps of sentences. I'm creating a more permanent storyboard on my studio wall, but also making a folded one that looks more like spreads and is transportable. This has been so helpful in creating sequences, scenes, and pacing. There is more freedom to experiment here, rather than doing the full-fledged paintings I was working on earlier. Also I've been doing a lot of research about the seaside sparrows, their environment and habits, because while this is not a naturalist sketch of the bird, it would be terribly embarrassing to have wrong information about key elements of the story. 

Learning to draw the Seaside Sparrow

Experimenting with how to illustrate Mack

Transportable storyboard/spreads

As for next week, I'm planning on finishing the storyboard/initial spreads for the whole plot, ironing out the written narrative. I would also like to have the beginnings for a complete illustration, perhaps something I can use for my show postcard. 

...

Why the seaside sparrow of all things? I bought my dad a book on birding for Christmas. I have an amiable interest in small creatures, like most, and since childhood have been creating my own little histories for the ones that live in a tree outside my window. After giving him the book I was doing some perusing and came across this little bird. Why him? Well, he was blue for one (but strangely isn't blue usually... I found this out after), and he lived in the brackish salt marshes-- how could I resist a bird associated with such a fantastic word as "brackish?" 

Perhaps more on his reluctance in a later post.