#violethaze

When I originally read the summary, I was captivated by the description of the boys growing up with a tree in the background, as a touchpoint. I’d planned to do simple illustrations (The Giving Tree came to mind). And then I remembered that drawing is hard!

The story made me think a lot about memory and how, in films, flashbacks to the past are often faded or misty. I decided on a hybrid solution: I would do all white paper art for the background (evoking misty memory), but have bright, digital illustrations for key focal points of each image (i.e. the tree, the boys, etc.)

I like to let the cover set the tone for the rest of the pieces, so I started on that first. Friends, it did not go well. (Drawing is hard!) I scrapped my first idea and quietly panicked.

Failed Cover Drafts

I still liked the idea of all white art, or neutral toned art, but I wasn’t sure how to make it work. (If you’re familiar with what I do, you’ll know that I feel most comfortable swimming in color.) I found inspiration in a beautiful book cover (A song of three spirits, by J. Zachary Pike) and riffed off of it, drawing a stylized tree, and adding Dean, Cas, and Cas’s house to it. I wanted it to be mostly symmetrical, so I drew half of the tree, then scanned the design, put it in a photo editor, duplicated and flipped it. BOOM. One whole image achieved. I printed out template sheets, taped one to the top of the cardstock, and started cutting out all the shapes. The main circle was done by upending a bowl and tracing around it. (I really do not trust my eye or hand when it comes to making something symmetrical!)

I photographed it outdoors in full sun, spinning it around until I got the shadows to fall the way I wanted them to. The top cardstock design is balanced on a shadowbox picture frame, and set on top of some cheap green poster board.

Final Cover Drafts

Okay. So, one down. Now, how was I going to pull off the rest? And still have it fit with the cover? And be interesting? ARGH!

My original sketch for the first scene (marbles scene) was more of a 2D look. But once I had the cover worked out, I started thinking about circles as being one of the visual themes of the art series. The marbles scene changed from a 2D look to a minimalist set of circles. And then, since it seemed a little too minimalist, I added a carved mat and backdrop as well. Set against the same green posterboard as the cover, the two felt more unified to me.

Marbles Scene Drafts

Once I finished that, I decided any pretense of realism was pretty much out the window. For my third piece, I opted to make the prettiest dugout you ever did see, laced with an oak tree motif like the cover. I’d found an artist (Malin Koort) who made these really cool sort of 3D people. (They’re adorable - go check them out.) I decided to adapt that look for my own people (but with less stylistic flair).

Dugout Scene Drafts

Now I was feeling like I was in good shape, I finished up the divider (again with the same oak / swoop motif of the cover).

With a week to go, I thought about the joke I’d made at the start of our collaboration: that I’d make some NSFW art for the first time. Why not, I decided. I had time to give it a whirl. If it didn’t work out, my author still had plenty of pieces to fulfill the DCBB minimum. I again went with white on white, relying on shadow to pull out the edges in the image. There’s a little tiny dick about the size of a sliver of fingernail in the final picture, but the angle isn’t right to show it. It’s enough just to know it’s there, right?

Topographical Map of Sex

Pulling these pieces together, I definitely had Project Runway on my mind. To me, building these pieces was like building a fashion collection. Each piece had to be different and stand on its own, but still be visually and functionally tied together. So, using the same paper, similar techniques, and a repeating pattern really “made it work” for me!

Thanks for reading! If you liked this, please let me know! Drop a line on Tumblr or at my art masterpost on AO3.

Messy Workspace is My Brand