Evolution of My Very First Book
I was going through a bunch of my artwork today and ran across some memories. I found the original drawings from The Colorless Forest and thought I'd share some of those pages and the story of how the book evolved. 1976 (ish) - The book is born.
I started this book with a big marker set I received and a flimsy paper sketch pad. I just started drawing a picture that evolved into a series of pages that visually told the story of a forest that was black and white. As each animal in the forest opened their eyes, the color of their eyes changed the color of the landscape. Once the drawings were complete, I wrote the text to go with my drawings. I typed the text out with my trusty typewriter and probably a lot of white-out. I then cut the typed words off of the paper and literally stapled them to the corresponding pages.
Here are some samples of this first work:
1980's - The book is revisited:
Several years later, I decided to revisit this "book" I wrote. I invested in better paper and new markers and began re-doing all the drawings. Not knowing what I was going to do with it or how to really get in it book form, I began drawing away. But, halfway through the book, my makers started running out and I didn't have the money at the time to invest in new makers, so the drawing stopped.
You can see below my struggles with finishing.
2016 The book is revisited part 2
In 2016 I decided I wanted to attempt to write a children's book. I was going to write something to inspire kids and give them hope and send positive messages. I began working on a book about following your dreams and having positive thoughts. As I began working on this book I got stuck on what to do. (I will have more information about this in another blog.) I then remembered that book I wrote way back in the '70s and thought, why don't I just attempt to redo that one. After A LOT of research and A LOT of trial and error, I completed the book The Colorless Forest that is now published on Amazon.
Here are those same pages from above as they appear now:
I am so proud of this book because it was my first. And because it was something I worked so hard at in my late teens/early twenties. I have learned a lot when I completed this book and I have learned a lot more since then. After completing 9 books, my characters and technique for drawing have evolved. And that my friends will the subject of another blog post.
I hope you enjoyed this post!
