Evil Eye

Okay.. this is a very rough "sketch" of this page, done very quickly with Photostudio 5 to see how it would look.

I've been thinking for a while that the story was lacking a darker aspect. Which isn't to say that there aren't moments of peril in the story - there are, but I'm not convinced that they won't get lost in what is otherwise a fairly upbeat story (obviously, the music will help a lot there!).

One of the picture books I've been referencing a lot during this project, both for composition/page layout and tone, is Tove Jansson's "Who Will Confort Toffle?". This is simply due to the fact that it's a picture book that I much admire, and I think it strikes a fantastic balance of light and dark tones, both thematically and image-wise.

I think the most striking and memorable image in the book is probably the confrontation with the Groke, which provides a climax of sorts to the story (or certainly to Toffle's quest).






The book alternates between pages packed with detail and movement, and a page such as the Groke one, where suddenly there is just one crucial event being focussed on.

I've always considered that part of the reason that the Moomins stayed with me from my childhood is that I was very aware at the time, aged 7 or 8 and watching the animation, that there was something a bit weird and different about it. It was very dark in places, and it was partly this that caused it to make a big impression on me I think. The program felt like a window into a strange alien world, and I remember it felt strange to me that no other programs were telling me about this world.

Very recently, I was watching the Time Shift documentary "Oliver Postgate: A Life In Short Films". Having thought myself well-versed on all things Postgate, I was surprised to see things in the documentary that I recalled from my childhood, but hadn't known were to do with him. In particular, I was literally gobsmacked to see a (very short) clip from the series Tottie. It really felt like suddenly remembering something very familiar after a bout of amnesia - a door had been thrown open somewhere deep in my mind that led to a room that I had forgotten was even there, and yet was instantly familiar.

Upon further research, it transpired that the series had been infamous at the time as it featured a scene in which one of the characters is murdered by another.
It's clear to me, looking back now, and given the intensity of sensation I felt upon first seeing the characters again, that this program had a great influence on me, and is in fact very likely the reason I am fascinated by dolls faces, and the work of Jan Svankmajer (to which one suspects it owes a debt).

I can only further conclude that the dark resolution to the story is the reason that it made such an impact.




So.. to try to get back to the point.. it's clear that it would be good to have a darker aspect to the story!

Risk of death-by-falling/cannibals aside, I've found a way to inject a little eeriness into the story (stopping short of squirrel murder for now) with this "looking house" notion.. sort of a CCTV lighthouse, I suppose. The single-page image will provide a segue from the light-hearted mood of the previous scene (in the boneyard) into the more perilous past of the journey that follows, while also breaking up the double-page spread layout.

It's meant to be ominous, and portentous, more than anything, and I think it succeeds in that. The significance of the house, and whether it is actually benevolent or threatening, is something which will remain unaddressed in the text, but the image is echoed in the first double-page spread which features a small bird-house looking-house eye. From this idea of the looking-house, an ambiguous subtext, created through the eye motif, and references in the text (ie. the Observation Cats), has emerged.

This is really the fun part of the story-writing process for me.. something that I was thankfully reminded of by Salvatore's workshop - it becomes like a game, to attempt to resolve all of the loose ends, and add little suggestive elements here and there to strengthen potential interpretations.