Primative Ethers of the Imagination

The Challenge

Writers possess the gift of crafting worlds that transport readers through well crafted words. They bring to life vibrant settings, imbued with rich details and emotion, building landscapes that kickstart the imagination in vivid strokes of lush greenery, towering mountains, and sprawling cities. As an illustrator, it’s been my pleasure to realize their words visually which, hopefully, ring true to the writer’s vision.

Translating the writer's vision into tangible visual art requires a delicate balance of interpretation and creativity. The challenge lies in preserving their vision while infusing it with my own artistic flair. My greatest fear, artistically speaking, is that I stifle the story and confound or subvert the writer’s creativity. Yet, within this process, there are also remarkable advantages. The act of rendering their words is a privilege that allows me to contribute a new dimension to the narrative. At my best, I provide a visual companion to the writer’s words, enhancing the reader’s immersion and understanding of the story. This convergence of literary and artistic expression is a rewarding journey that enriches both the text and the visual representation, forging a profound connection between imagination and creativity. Between the writer and myself, there’s often a rewarding and mutually benificial relationship that has made me a better artist and collaborator.

Now, as the writer and artist myself, I’ve removed the impediment of interpretation but, also, I’ve lost that collabrative spirit and the expertise of a wordsmith to help navigate me through the creative process.

So, how should I start?

Well, that’s where you come in. I’ve opened up my process to you. My hope is that you enjoy yourself getting to peek behind the curtain, but also hope you’ll be a sounding board, constructive critic, and avid collaborator. This idea is somewhat scary to me. Creating is an inherently vunerable act that opens the craftsman up to biting opinions and, possibly, even abuse. (We’re all on the internet. We know.) It also creates community, trust, and higher levels of imagination than without it.

I hope you come along for the ride.

Characters of Depth and Intrigue

After the deciding to write my story, my first thought was who is my main character?

Usually, the first and last thing I remember about any book, film, or script I’ve digested are the characters. For example, the film Notting Hill is a romantic comedy starring Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant. The plot is fairly standard and the main characters a lovably stock. What makes the film shine is the supporting cast of oddball and idiosycratic friends that sympathize, motivate, hinder, obstruct and conspire to help Grant’s William through his romantic travails. Plot and story structure are important. A good twist or two can galvanizing an audience, but, to my mind, the character make the story worthwhile.

Sherlock Holmes, Captain Nemo, Mina Harker, Batman, Heathcliff, Anne of Green Gables, Indiana Jones, Huck Finn, Wonder Woman, and Warrant Officer Ripley the audience remembers. We revisit them almost regardless of the plot taking place around them. We blame the story sometimes of not living up to stature we regard character we love. Why? Intuitively, we identify with their unique, complicated, brilliant, and flawed humanity. They’re all relatable and intriguing, even though we might not share anything in common with them.

Matthias Brand wasn’t created with these thoughts in mind. Instead, mentioned in my previous post, I simply started with the thought experiment of how Connor MacLeod and Rachel Ellenstein relationship would change as Rachel grew older while Connor remained the same. She would walk through her years once with an unchanging man that has lived, possibly, through many relationships like this one. Matthias would be a man full of experience and wisdom. He would be more human in the sense that he’s lived and lost more than any normal person. But how would it seperate him from his fellow man? How would it make him more alien, and hence unable to relate to us?

These complications of a fictional life, I hope, will create a protagonist with all the allure and humanity that I’ve found in my favorite characters.