Stuck on a sandy beach in the Caribbean- sounds like heaven to most people, to me... an offering to the sun God.. it can be an uncomfortable place. I don't do well in sun and heat... I burn..I faint... I shrivel from dehydration. So, for the last week, I hid under the shade of a lime green umbrella and drew. Some good stuff came out. Some fun characters were on the beach. I forced myself to stare into a mirror and draw my 37 year old bed headed face.
I came up with 1 new idea for a book. And some sketches of an existing idea for a book. "Undercover Hippo"- a film noir picture book. Undercover Hippo solves animal mysteries. The first being for a giraffe. Hippo: "She walked in, her legs went on forever..." I will be watching a lot of old movies for ideas and dialogue. I thought it was funny to imagine a Hippo going undercover..trying to blend in as a giraffe or monkey or bird... This was inspired by a story I heard on NPR of an actual guy who wore a hippo suit to study hippos... seems hippos are quite ornery.
The other book, a graphic novel for kids 8-12, is, obviously a take on Alice's Adventures in Wonderland/through the Looking Glass. So dear to my heart is this book and these characters, that I am trying to dig deep and find a new way to spread the love of imagination and nonsense this book gave to me. My brother, a fourth grade teacher informed me , no kids today would ever read or relate to the original text. So, it is my goal to build a bridge from 2008 to 1865 . Not to be so bold to think I could attempt to rewrite, retell, or re-illustrate. That has been tried by much more talented and notable artists than I. And in my opinion.. they all pale in comparison to the original. My hope is to create a new story that is fun and gets kids interested enough to read the originals. So, I'm gonna get to work.
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