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.