How we carry Alex part 3
Or the importance of a sense of place
One of the things I realized in doing prep work for this picture book is how easy it is to place the characters in a void. By this I mean, to avoid backgrounds, environments and just place your characters on a blank stage. But by doing so I was missing a key element in telling the story. Look at the best of children's fiction and it always has a sense of place, from Tom’s Midnight Garden to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to His Dark Materials place is important. The same is true of the best of picture books. Where The Wild Things Are,Shirley Hughes various picture books, the Tiger Who Came to Tea, Mo Wllems Don't let The Pigeon books, anything involving Quentin Blake, all feature a grounding sense of placement in space. Even the Blake cover of Michael Rosen’s Sad Book gives a clever sense of physical and emotional place through the use of colour and objects. The grey gives a sense of sombre mood and the dustbin and abandoned bike emphasis the sense of loss and emptiness. It places the figure of Rosen both physically and emotionally and, as with anything Blake does, is a master class in illustration design.
With that in mind I sat down with the Pinterest app and looked up pictures of buildings. I go through phases with drawing buildings and needed to build up the muscles again. I wanted to start the book with a postman delivering Alex and wanted a house that reflected the family that lived there. It's a minor thing in terms of the story but necessary. It's what they call in the movies an establishing shot.
These Are just sketches and the final house will be within a street. Essentially they are warm up exercises.
But they're also about figuring out how to give a building a sense of character. Essentially everything has to work as part of the story, even on an invisible basis. The environment and backgrounds should pass unnoticed when reading but their absence should make the pictures feel lacking something. If they distract from the story then they've failed too. It's a tough balancing act that requires a lot of thought.
Now go make 2024 a year full of artists
Pete
Hi Pete - As you know my primary outlet for the artist in me is through words. That said, I have always loved buildings and construction generally. Also when moving to a new area we always have a City of Habitation and refuge in mind. The maker's instructions tell us that unless the Lord builds the house, the labourers labour in vain. We all need to feel a sense of belonging, so in stories, fictional or not, it makes sense that place will be important. I had not registered your observation intentionally, so have absorbed the point.
As pictures often best describe place I will include more of them. I like Tolkein's approach where he puts his stories into a place he has sketched - even quite seriously painted - so he can then better describe them, but he leaves the reader to populate the gaps in his narrative, so places are better owned by the reader. As you say there is a balancing act.
Thanks for your clear observations - as always creative and fresh.
God bless.
Ian