#30 / Storyboarding

or we are always editing

Draw me something yellow. I sat back on the hispanic woven blanket that was aging gracefully and keeping my feet off the hot sand. They both looked at me with wide eyes. “What does she mean?”, I could hear them think. Beauties they were. Approximately 5 and 8 and perfect little sponges overlooking the Atlantic, only west. The beautiful Praia do Tamariz and its golden sands is the main beach of Estoril, Portugal. The boys and I were visiting my grandparents and biological father the year of 2000.

It was a picture perfect summer day. It was probably before noon. The boys needed beach toys, apparently, and without a Walmart within 6000k, I resorted to good old fashioned imagination. “…here are you paint brushes…, “ as I handed them each a stick, “…your canvas is the sand.”

Back to “draw me something yellow.” The obvious, inherently apparent, a sun was drawn. Then a flower of sorts was revealed…a boat, a cat, a triceratops, and a boy. You know, all clearly a form of yellow to this age bracket. It wasn’t long before the drawing game was mute. My attempts of distraction were typically slivers on a sand dial: we are always editing.

What if we thought like a child and asked ourselves does yellow have a shape? Or perhaps a smell, size, sound or taste? Can I pinch yellow and will it scream? Could I examine yellow from all angles? If I could imagine it, could I explain it?

---

Pages 1 / 2

There once lived a cat and a hound. Not any normal cat nor any normal hound, mind you.  Magnus was a Norwegian Forest cat. He was feared in the neighborhood. Perhaps his beard and outlandish eyebrows were shouting?  Or maybe his bold prance demanded attention.   When Magnus spoke, his words left his fellow friends mesmerized at how little they actually lived.

The storyboard isn’t a work of art. Lisa! Let it go. My playful fingers want to just start drawing. This is not the time. This is the time for playing with ideas, (ideation) and exploration. Focus.

So many thoughts when thinking on a Norwegian Forest Cat. It’s commanding appearance. Lion-esque. Confident. All these characteristics easily conform and play with the words of the first paragraph.

Magnus was a bit of an arrogant…cat. Rightfully so since he lived an exuberant life, as a cat, and felt accomplished and worthy and wordy and just wanted to share. He felt beautiful. It literally fits a Norwegian Forest Cat.

Yeah, but this is my story. I want to not showcase his external beauty. Slightly…, at the beginning of the story.

I mean, you should know Magnus, the cat, is talking to Bounder 90% of the time in this story with exception to talking only to himself. Bounder, the extra, is our blind hound.

So - Bounder doesn’t really know what Magnus looks like - maybe he is a beautiful sophisticated cat? What would Bounder know of it. He can’t see. Yes? No?

Page one is blank. Page 2 we introduce Magnus obscurous. Some opaque fence-like thing hides most of Magnus from us. Ahhhh, but this is the first illustrated page and we will revisit this (per the experts - do the first page LAST) and this idea when the rest of the book is illustrated. 😳

Pages 3 / 4

Magnus had been all over the world!   He had been schooled in London.  He had dined in Lisbon. He drank water in Greece.

Now I already insinuated that Magnus had a lux life. For pages 3 and 4 I want to go big and bold with just minimal text. The idea of a lonnnng winding road across both pages… with houses and landmarks eloping a route to hopefully give a sense of travel, adventure and allure. Perhaps knowledge. Perhaps not. But big and busy and noisy with lots to look at and talk about.

Oh. Dang. One thing I forgot to mention is that up to this point - this is a very muted illustrated book. In fact, thus far none of the pages have color. Well, except that I will utilize every inch of grey scale from #000000 - #ffffff (or for you geeks the entire spectrum of grey from white to black). No other rgb color.

Color comes - but later.

Pages 5 / 6

Magnus was not a meager cat;  Magnus was “the cat”.

On to ( or onto? I have dreams that I select the wrong vernacular and sound adrift [but really don’t care]) a slightly better introduction of Magnus. The whacked-out-crazy award goes to…. our Norwegian Forest Cat - with a monocle. (thanks Ty) Why is he wild looking? I felt it was important that attitude, confidence and compassion were qualities I wanted to develop in Magnus. Besides…it will be a lot easier for me to pull off a whacked out cat than some beautiful Norwegian Forest Cat. I mean, those cats are the ultimate cats meow.

Oh, yes Magnus still has no color. Maybe eyes?? Thoughts? Oh please, thoughts everyone!

Recap of the first 6 pages (gosh, if you are reading this God love ya).

I want to move from curious, to big with lots to look at, …to minimal. Or quiet-ish, loud, quiet, loud. …a page with minimal stuff, to a page which has every square inch covered with dense detail will be followed by something much more simple and pared back. Maybe lots of white space. Quiet-ish, loud, quiet, loud.

Storyboard pages 1-6

Which brings me to the Grin Principles

Draw the unwritten (implied but not said). Use childlike thought.   Subtle - stay ‘sotto voce’ (super quiet_)

Chalky free dreaminess

Allow mood to progress..wonder, interest, happy…

Story is about vulnerability and open-mindedness

Send visual clues.  Complicated ideas to simple.  Adding a small link the entire way… [hint hint Bounder at end!!]

And especially when I start including color. Oh man. Fingers crossed I keep to my principles. We are always editing.

---

Hear the music and see the shape

Synesthesia is when you hear music, but you see shapes. kinda. Thank you Professor Joeseph Lipson, CDES, CSUC, 1991.

Wouldn’t it be interesting to see, feel, smell, hear everything at all times? I mean for a moment?

Synesthesia is fascinating. It is the interweaving of senses.  I think that most of us think, our senses have boundaries.  A sensory fence. Smell is smell and sound is sound.  What if we had the ability to cross the synapse? Be a “synesthete” on demand? What if we could hijack our systems?  Maybe we can grab them by the lapels and shake them into ‘what?’.  Would it change our perspective?

You know, if you read me, I am all about perspective.

If we could hear or watch or smell something, simultaneously, and one of that ‘something’ has been previously rejected in our long line of ‘no’s’ ….perhaps we find something new?  Perhaps we now have a new perspective. Synesthesia a condition or a dream?

I have increasingly watched my succulents bloom.  They are beautiful and weird.  Though I don’t see them through the same lens as a gardener or botanist or flower fascist.  I see them innocent and fresh every view. The more certain anyone is of something the more likely they toss away small observations and - often to our own destruction - we miss the thing.  The experience.

We are always editing.

---

Children, especially boys - 3 words. Castle on beach. (I have another story…but someone needs to ask)

Adults, all - 2 words…Portuguese Riviera. It extends from Cascais to Lisbon - amazing.

Please subscribe. :P)