How we carry Alex part 1

Or how to handle an idea that won't die.

I realised I had a small but solid readership and wanted to share something a little deeper and more involved on the creative front. Something that ran over more than one newsletter. So I'm going to take you all along with me on a journey.

Four or five years back I had this idea for a story. It was called “how we carry Alex” and was about a boy with an unusual pet.

I made a short, scrappy version just to get it down on paper and put it aside.

It wouldn't go away though. I kept coming back to it, I broke it down into a proper, children's picture book layout and page count but it was still wrong.

It took me some time to realise it was badly built. Stories are usually something I just have to get out of my head, so there's often nothing in the way of planning, which usually leads me into a dead end where I can park them and forget them.

Not this one though. This was different and that threw me. It took a while but eventually I realized what it needed was thought and planning.

I have the story, the easy bit one this occasion, but now I needed to make it work.

One of the first things I realized was that I had given no thought to the look or personality of the main characters. I'd just drawn my generic small boy as my lead. So that's where I'm starting. The best illustrators create images full of individuality. The characters are people, even when they're animals, they differ in size and shape and build and posture.

I've started sketching headshots to get a feel for Alex’s owner. He's a small boy who needs to learn more towards Dennis the Menace rather than softy Walter, but not to far towards Dennis.

So far I'm leaning towards the top picture, slightly gawky and a bit scruffy. Bottom left looks too grown up and bottom right looks 70s generic.

I'm going to continue to work on sketches for Alex and his owner over the next week and I'll update you then. Now I need to get back to it.

Pete