“Goblin in the Shadows”

First I want to talk about the needs of a story. In a basic framework of a story you can use Aristotle’s writing on dynamic storytelling. In that basic layout of a story you have a beginning, middle, and an end. In the The Elizabethan Arch, an extended format of three parts there is five acts

• ­Act I: Introduction of Characters and Place
• Act II: Introduction of Problem
• Act III: Usually known as the Climax of the Problems “All hell breaks loose”
• Act IV: The Emotional Climax of the Play. Every thing is on the line here and there might be ways of solving all the problems setup in the previous acts.
• Act V: Conclusion of the story.

I find that I use this story format when I design There are two arches I wanted to have for this book. The easy one is that it takes one night. The second arch is the apple [the main character] and how it turns red.

So Let us start at the beginning.

First Spread:

I wanted to introduce our title, and introduce our main character or “hero” of the story. So there you are! He is right there. Yes my hero is the apple. Something kids like and would relate to.

Second Spread:

A story needs a place. I have introduces the apple, and the tree that it is in. I would like to give a point of reference to the Rockwall and how it relates to the apple trees. It is also important to clearly point out the time. So a shot of the sunset beyond the trees and Rockwall is crucial at this point.

Third Spread:

Now that we have the Hero and the Environment I wanted to reveal our Villains. The Creatures of the Rockwall are the villains of this story. They attack a tree and poison our apple. They are dark creatures and they only work in the dark so this picture needs to show that it is dusk.

Fourth Spread:

Time to introduce the other major piece of the story. The “Poison” bottles are the last point of interest for this story. This is where we make the great conflict. The creatures pull out of the dark cracks of the Rockwall glass bottles of odd shapes that are filled with black liquid.

That would be the completion of the First Act: I have built a small diagram that talks out the points of the act broken into the time gage, Spread Number, and the point of the act.

So, to review the book to this point has used four spreads and they have covered the place, the characters and the time. Now on to ACT 2

Spread 5 & 6:

So we need to cause some conflicts. In this next couple of shots we need to bring our characters together. In these spreads we want to show the creatures intention of leaving the rock wall and traveling to the tree.

Spread 7:

The creatures siege the apple tree. The creatures and their bottles of poison have arrived at the apple tree. They are getting into the tree and bringing the bottles with them. I need to show a way to keep time so I introduce the moon.

Spread 8:

I was using this panel to give an overview of the story up to this point. I want to very clearly connect the story because this story doesn’t have text to help. So I have pulled our “point-of-view” back to encompass the elements of the story: the apple tree, the creatures getting into the tree, and the moon.

That finishes Act 2 let’s review.

Act 2 can be very cleanly broken down into the invading of the apple tree by dark malicious creatures.

Act 3 is when the book gets exciting.

Spread 9:

We have just hit the half-way-point of the book. In this panel I want to show the creatures squabbling over the apples and traveling through to the tree to the apples. These panels they should look dark and evil.

Spread 10:

The greatest point of conflict is in this panel. This is the point were we really see what the creatures are up too. A dark and scary creature is poring a black liquid from a bottle that has a screaming face on it all over a pretty green apple.

Spread 11:

Lets ramp up the excitement by making it not just one apple that is getting “Poisoned” but all the apples on the tree. I want the creatures snarling and fighting over the apples. I want them smearing the apples with this black ooze.

Spread 12:

I want to re-show the apple we started with. I want to show it with a claw print on its surface to show a creature attacked it. I want to foreshadow that the ink is actual red. The black ooze should have a slight red shine. But should the ink should be predominantly black and blue in color scheme. The moon should be past its peak. It should start to be setting.

Act 3: can really be summed up into the simple of action of our hero, the apple, is in trouble. It has been attacked and seems to be damaged.

Spread 13:

The creatures seem to be pointing out to the distant hills. The villainous creatures seem to be scared of something. I want to be showing a change in the light. The moon should be very low. And the stars should be disappearing in the sky.

Spread 14:

The creatures should be fleeing from the tree. A mad rush of creatures out of the tree and back to their home the Rockwall.

Spread 15:

One creature should leave the tree too late. It should be struck by the rays of the dawn and should be hurt or shocked into dropping its bottle of poison which smashes on the ground.

Act 4 the night has ended. The creatures have fled from the tree.

Spread 16:

As the creatures disappear into the rock wall and the sun rises we need to see the broken bottle of “Poison” and see that it wasn’t really black but really red.

Spread 17:

Show the hero in his new form a bright red apple. Show that it is marked with a claw print to bring it back to the apple from the middle of the book, and to reveal that our creatures are not villains at all but just doing their job of painting the apples to red.

In review of the last Act we see how the book concludes with a twist. And the seed for the leason of the book. Which the things that live in the dark are not always bad or evil. Or in other words question what should be feared because there might be no good reason to fear it at all.

In the next installment I am going introduce the characters of the book. Next couple of posts will be on the EVOLUTION OF GOBLINS TO ROCKS.

Cut every illustration down to its elements you should have a black and white image, and you will most likely see some triangles. Cut a story down and you should have a sentence or two for a synopsis. Well, cut an idea down, and you sometimes start with something that grows into a different shape. Like an acorn that ends up growing into an oak tree; the oak tree looks nothing like its originator.

The Rockwall Goblins Sort of started that way. It was out of another book, The Secret Magics of Maine that these creatures and concept came.
The Secret Magics of Maine was a practice in making new myths. Not modern myths but myths that would sit by the Norse creation of the world and not seem like it was a flamingo in a flock of penguins. The book was an exploration of the small-unexplained moments that make my home state of Maine “worth a visit worth a life time.” In the research of this book I asked anyone I could ‘what makes Maine special?’ I came up with a pretty grand list of things. And some never made it to that book. One that I thought was worth thinking about but was cut was “noticing that all the apples of a tree have turned red overnight.”

Most idea just sit in the back of my brain, and wait till I can act on them. My first storyboard for this book was completed back in the summer of 2002. I took initial photographs for this book that fall. And then I ran into too many things to overcome. Mostly I didn’t have the artistic maturity to take on what this book demanded. And then after that I didn’t really touch this project until 2006. I kept this drawing as a reminder of the project.

I finished two other books and learned a lot. After finishing the book The Commute on Sea-Line I spent time looking over the project and brushed off the dust. I felt like I had learned enough to produce a book with such a high standard of art. I was going to undertake a book that was going to explain how apples turn red. I was going to make it dark, atmospheric, and without text and then life got in the way. Now it is the end of 2008 and I have tree books that are fighting for my attention.  These postings are an attempt to not forget the book but also in the slow process of explaining the smaller steps of Making a children’s book I hope to discover the charm and magic that in need to finish the book.

In the next installment I am going to walk through my storyboards and the shortcomings of my own artistic talent when it comes to this project.

The Next Installment: Thumbnails and Storyboards

But I am getting ahead of myself. First I should unveil the three challenges I set forth with this book.

First, I wanted to make a book unlike my other books. See the attached art pieces that display my other books.

ANTS: Another Nice Tasty Sweet was a more cartoon cell look with the backgrounds that were mimicking shallow focused photography.

The Tin Fairy was a more Oil Painted look.

Bo Peep’s Lost Sheep was a combination of the two previous books. It was a juxtaposing of the real world represented in digital oil paints and the fairy tale world designed in a stylized cartoon look.

Secret Magics of Maine Uses a high finished painted look in its spot illustrations with usage of pencil sketched and some pen work for framing devices.

&
The Commute on the Sea-Line which was a combination of pen and ink and pastel.

Second challenge I set for myself was to tell this story with no text. It is an interesting challenge to make a story that is all visual. More on this later.

The third challenge was that I wanted to create a creature type to populate this book that would be scary and menacing but still fall well in the realm of a children’s book. I needed to make these creatures varied, mobile, versatile and well rounded. I will unveil more design needs for these creatures later in the upcoming sections.

The easy decisions of this book are I wanted to use a standard page size art falling on a page 8.5 by 11 bleed. And I wanted to use a standard page count [32], or at the very least use a multiple of [4]. Ok now that I have laid out the ground rules we can start discussing the idea but that will have to wait for the next section.

The next installment: THE IDEA

I first want to introduce you to a little about myself. My name is Matt Watier. I have been a professional illustrator and graphic designer for the last 12 years. I have a degree in illustration and design from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. Illustration and storytelling have been part of my life since I was in high school. My experiences are varied from being a graphic designer for packages and national collateral to being a co-play-write and set designer for a professional theater troop. I have worked on mastering children’ book production since for the last 6 years. I have finished 6 books and I have been honored to have first book published internationally and in two languages. Does this make me a master at what I do? No, but it gives a bit of perspective of the development of a children book from idea to print setup.

So without further ado this blog will fallow my design of The Rock Wall.