Illustration Notes for Episode Sixty-Three
Hi all! I hope you’re all still safe and healthy through this remarkable season of ordeals! Shannon and I haven’t been out of the house because of smoke for over a week. But we are still far, far away from the actual burning that so many of our close friends and family have been navigating—all safely so far—for which we are grateful! Surely…the law of averages will kick in any time now and cause something to go more smoothly—for someone…right? In the meantime, I hope you’re getting a few minutes of therapeutic distraction each week from TWICE. I know I am! :D
This week’s image strikes me as a good opportunity to explain something about my whole general approach to both illustration and writing. You may have noticed that I rarely illustrate the ‘most acutely interesting’ elements of a scene. This is not accidental. One thing I have learned—over and over again—as a writer is that NOTHING I can write or draw is likely to ‘fill in the blanks’ half as vividly—or ‘perfectly’—for any given reader as that reader’s own imagination will do for itself—if allowed to. This seems to apply even more to the most dramatic or emotional elements in a story. Offering too much information at such moments—in the art or the writing—turns out to accomplish little in my experience but fill a space with the creator’s take on a powerful moment that the reader was just about to fill in themselves with JUST what THEY wanted to experience there. If I don’t leave enough space for them to fill there, they’re kicked out rather than invited in to participation in the story—not only by being left nothing to contribute, but by the fact that what I have supplied isn’t what they would have put there. So, my take feels ‘off’ to them, which is ‘off-putting.’ :] Fear, awe, sex, mystery, etc. seem most vividly presented where I don’t over-describe the focal element. My job is to provide enough ‘pointers’ to direct YOUR imagination toward what I want it to generate—then let YOU provide what those pointers are pointing at. Of course, sometimes I get carried away and start describing such things in all sorts of detail anyway. When I come back to those passages later, they often feel ‘bogged down’ by my detailed descriptions, rather than enriched by them.
That’s why I have tended more and more over the years to use imagery to frame or sum up whatever is happening, rather than depict it directly. The most interesting parts of the tale are the ones I most want YOU to imagine. So, here, rather than draw the interesting people Matt meets out on the Avenue, or even depict too much of Lita’s ‘Goth’ living space, I’ve chosen to frame this episode by depicting the moment when Matt stood at her window on a sunny day, gazing out at the inviting world, wondering whether he dared go out into it. The bits of Lita’s decor visible here are all intended to convey narrative ‘clues’ to her nature and role as a character—without spelling too much out: the mask, the woman standing alone, the graveyard, and the dark bedding. …Strangely at odds, perhaps, with the grounded, direct, caring and competent persona she has been projecting? …Possibly… We shall see, in time. :]
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As always, find an uncropped and uncluttered version of this week’s episode image below. See you here next week! :]
