Week Spot

 Just for reference: "Saturday" is arranged so that each day of the week is two facing pages.  So when you're looking at Tuesday, the first half of the day (morning routine, going to school, etc.) is on the left page and the evening (dinner and everything that happens before bed) is on the right page.

We return you to your regularly scheduled programming in progress:

It's Tuesday in India McGreevy's world, which means the day begins again at the beginning with the morning routine followed by a reluctant trip to school.  It's shaping up to be a not-so-stellar week for the McGreevy family in general.

Sometimes when you're already having a bad week, even school activities that are meant to encourage fitness and build confidence become exercises in just the opposite:

I had a lot of these days in school (mostly in middle school).  Like the time I fell down the stairs in the hallway just before the bell rang and almost every kid in school saw and gathered around.  Ahh, the memories.  Painful, painful memories.  Anyhoo, if you're having one of these days at school, the trip home is merciful:

Coming up next: Home, sweet awkward stormy, home.

Cheers.

The Monday Evening Report

"Saturday" begins (perhaps ironically) on Sunday afternoon.  We've just seen some of what the first half of Monday looks like: alarm clocks are resented, breakfast is eaten, teeth are brushed, buses are taken to school and cars to work, etc.

On this page (page five for those keeping track at home), we're looking in on Monday evening.  India's home from school.  Dinner is on the table at the usual time:

When pretty much every day looks the same, you can fall into a routine.  Routines can be boring or frustrating or comforting, depending on the week.  Sometimes it can be scary if part of your routine changes unexpectedly.  Particularly if the part that changes involves someone you love unexpectedly not showing up for dinner.

I think I've mentioned before how much I love detail, but it's worth mentioning over and over again because it's such a driving force behind this book.  I wanted this book to be something you could read again and again and be able to see new things each time.  Here are a few of the details in these panels I love:

1.) The towel on the oven door.  It has ducks on it.  We always had towels hanging from the oven door handle in our house when I was growing up (it's something I still do).  I'm not sure why.  But it makes it feel like home to me.

2.) Photos on the walls.  Sassy appears to run in the family.

3.) India's sitting on a stack of books so she can get a better angle on her spaghetti.

We're just barely beginning to see what life is like for the McGreevy Family.  It's going to be an interesting week for them.  For some of them, it's going to be boring and stifling.  For some, it'll be infuriating and dramatic.  It's going to be frustrating for all of them at different times.

And (hopefully), it's going to be fun for you.

Cheers.

Ah...Mondays.

As if a bad Sunday weren't enough, you have to go to bed and wake up to find Monday morning staring you right in the face.  You have to fight your way out of the comfort of bed only to be rewarded by having to trudge off to school or work.  And that's where we find India on this page.  Her day begins the way you would expect any standard day to begin:

India's not too downtrodden, though.  Even though the weather's rotten:

After all, the start of a new week can bring all sorts of opportunities.  You never know what might happen during the course of any given week.  A LOT can happen in just seven days.

Return of the thing...

Maybe you've noticed a rather lengthy hiatus in terms of the posts here (sorry).  Well, there's an explanation for that: In thinking about this site and what I want it to do, I came to the realization that it was getting to be a bit too much "inside baseball".

So I've decided to tone down the process part of this (there will still be some of it) and instead post a couple of panels from every page of the book.  I'm going to start with page one and post until we're caught up with where I am currently (I'm working on page 27 right now).

To make up for the long silence, here's page one in its entirety.  I'm not going to make a habit of posting full pages (there has to be SOME surprise once the book is finally released), but this time I'll make an exception:

In this first page we see how India's spending her Sunday: She's trying to draw but it's going...badly.  And the more she tries, the more frustrated she gets.

A lot of this book comes from personal experience.  I mean...not the experience of being a little girl (except when it comes to spiders).  But I know exactly what it's like to be stuck.  And sometimes figuring a way out of it isn't exactly straightforward.

Cheers.

Word to your mother...

In honor of Mother's Day, I thought I'd introduce you to India's mom.  Her name is Elizabeth McGreevy.

One of the earlier posts actually has a super early version of India's mom (here):

Early on, the story was going to be about how boring India thought her life was (school, parents, neighborhood, etc.).  I had (clumsily) designed the character to fit the original story.  As the story changed, so too did Elizabeth:

 This version is a little more realistic, but still very stylized.  I can't remember why it was so important for her to be drinking iced tea all the time.  I think it had something to do with the fact that she was always outside gardening.  I don't like this concept at all, but it was part of the process so it had its purpose.  Now let us never speak of it again.


Eventually, I decided I wanted some of the characters and story elements to have a 1950s feel, mostly because I'm a big fan of 1950s illustration.  This sketch is the first design of Liz that I felt was getting pretty close to the mark:

And this is how Elizabeth looks later in the book:

It was a long time before I started to recognize just how much a character's expressions make that character who they are.  There are tons of scenes in "Saturday" where we actually get to see what the characters are thinking.  But in the moments where we don't physically see what's going on inside their heads, I wanted their expressions to suggest some of that complexity.

If you're a mom, happy (early) Mother's Day.


Cheers.

You've been down too long in the midnight sea.

Time frame: Still early in the book's development.
Percent of book complete: At this point, all the "photo" drawings were finished, but I hadn't started on the pages yet.

First off: Apologies.  This was supposed to be the Monday post but I was out of town.

Here's the last of the photos.  The genesis of this one came from the fact that I've always been fascinated by the ocean.  It's dark and kind of creepy.  It's full of life of every size from microscopic to gargantuan.  We're still discovering new stuff.  And I've always wanted to explore it.

This desire was (and admittedly still is) partially fueled by "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea".  This is only the first of several references to the classic tale in this book.

This drawing is still one of my favorites.  The lighting is mostly what does it for me.  To be fair, I have no idea where India would get an antique diving helmet.  Even if she had a real one, there's no way she'd be able to lift it.  And if that's a prop she made out of cardboard...well, she's a crazy genius.

But realism is way beside the point in this book.  The reality is elastic.  I'd like to think the emotion of the book is true enough, but the story and the images run wild.  That's a big part of what I love about drawing specifically and children's books in general: They don't have to follow the rules of reality.  In fact, I think there's way more fun to be had if they don't.

I swear by my tattoo.

Weird Science

Time Frame: Just after the hypothesis stage
Amount of book complete: Less than one percent.

Remember science fair projects?  I never cared for them.  Mostly because I didn't understand or have the patience for the process involved in good science.  My projects were always half baked ideas that started with a theory and ended with "Oh crap is that due tomorrow?".

In fond remembrance of my ill-fated scientific career (I once pioneered the discovery that mold will grow on a sandwich if you accidentally leave it in a plastic bag in a closet for a week), I drew a photo of India doing her own version of science.  Here are the rough sketches:

As you can see, I had a decent idea of the layout before I began.  Once I had that established, I started adding other details like the jars and the car battery.  There always seem to be things floating in jars in the movies, though I'm not sure why.  Is it so the mad scientist in question can remember all the failed experiments?  Is it for sentimental reasons ("Oh, yes," he said wistfully, "I remember the first corpse I dug up...sigh")?  Do they keep those things for posterity?  Maybe I'm over-thinking this.  They probably keep it because it's good for atmosphere.  After all, it's important that you feel comfortable in your workspace.

But I digress.  Here's the final version:

This might be my favorite of the photos.  I love the light, the expression on India's face, and the fact that she's wearing dish-washing gloves.  I mentioned this before, but at this point I began to understand just how much fun making this book was going to be.  More fun than the first time I dug up a corpse.  Sigh.

Cheers.