Aaron Becker's Blog, page 19

Working on the full trailer but in the meantime, here’s a sneak...

Working on the full trailer but in the meantime, here’s a sneak peek from Book 3(!)

COMING HOMEThe internet is filled with clear examples of...

COMING HOME

The internet is filled with clear examples of artistic
success: entire blogs dedicated to displaying paintings, sculptures, music, and
books in their curated, final form. For those hoping to break into their chosen
field, it can be daunting to imagine how to get there. Or how to even start.
I’m writing this entry to let you know that even for those of us that make our
living with our art, it is hard work. And as far as I can tell, it stays that
way.

At the end of February, I finished my last painting for
RETURN, the final book in my wordless trilogy that started with JOURNEY. It’s
now December, so it’s been a full nine and a half months since that exhilarating
moment. During that time, I’ve generated hundreds of pages of journal
scribbles, several folders of fleshed out book ideas, and drafts upon drafts of
stories. It’s all necessary and good work; there are morsels of stories that
will probably one day see the light of day, but none of it is ready for
pitching.  

At first, my approach was to go in the opposite direction of
JOURNEY and do a lot of writing (with words this time instead of pictures).
I’ve heard it said that to be an illustrator, you have to be a storyteller
first and I’ve always enjoyed using that side of my brain. The most ambitious
story that I’ve been working on has grown into an illustrated novel and it will
take me a few more years to work that one out.

I’ve also spent time on other forms; early chapter books,
activity books, lyrical manuscripts for picture books. Something inside of me
wanted to see what I was capable of. A friend told me a few weeks ago that it
seemed to him I was trying to touch the boundaries of my talent. I tend to be
unbelievably optimistic and figured the sky was the limit. And while this
delusion has helped me dig for new ideas, it’s also put me through the
proverbial wringer.

This past week, I finally decided I needed to take the
pressure off. I contacted my agent and suggested some different approaches;
maybe collaborating with an author or simply illustrating someone else’s
manuscript. And just like that, an idea for a new wordless picture book came to
me. Actually, about four of them at once. I’ve distilled them all down into
something that is working and the ideas are flowing effortlessly.

I’m glad I’ve taken the road of trying out new things. I do
think that in the long run I will be able to find my way back to some of those
stories. But for now, boy does it feel good to be home.

A New SpaceBoth children and adults alike often ask me where I...

A New Space

Both children and adults alike often ask me where I find my
stories. I think this is probably different for every artist and writer, but
for me, I simply cannot move one inch forward with my characters or plot until
I am firmly grounded in the environment they will eventually inhabit. For me,
space is key.

The first thing I did when I started on Journey (even before I knew it would be called that!) was draw a
big picture of the realm’s castle. For some reason, I turned its streets into
waterways. And then I drew a girl in a red boat approaching its gates. From there, the
story took form.

The work on Return,
the final chapter in the Journey
trilogy, is finished. The design work is done, the dedication is written. All
that’s left now is the long wait until next August when the book will publish.
I’m starting work on a whole new project; something I’m really, really
excited about. So it’s probably no small coincidence that the first step I took
before embarking on this new “journey” was to find a new space; a space that
would help my mind both wander and focus; a space that would help my ideas take
form. I’ve always wanted my own studio but up until now have managed to work
out of what was available: a shared artist co-op in an old mill, our upstairs
guest bedroom, our sunny mudroom, our un-sunny basement, and most recently, a
shared office in Spain. So when the opportunity came up to rent a studio in an
architect’s office inside a converted church here in Amherst, I decided it was
time to take the leap. It’s an investment in myself and hopefully in the
characters and stories that will emerge from it.

Wish me luck!

For a long time, I’ve kept my print shop up and running over at...

For a long time, I’ve kept my print shop up and running over at Square Marketplace. And it’s still there. I like the clean design and easy user interface of their online shop. 

One problem, though. They don’t allow international orders. Enter Etsy. 

So if you call football the sport with the round ball that you kick with, you know, your *foot*, I present this new shop to YOU! http://JourneyTrilogy.etsy.com  Thank you all for your ongoing support!!!

The landing. Never as easy as you might imagine. I think it’s...

The landing. Never as easy as you might imagine. I think it’s because we are so focused on the departure and the place we’re headed to that we rarely consider what it’s going to be like when we return.

In July, we came home after 11 months of living somewhere else. A month long book tour, some time with family in North Carolina, and nine months in Spain(!) where I finished work on the final book in the trilogy. I knew that our life schedule wasn’t going to normalize until school started (yay kindergarten!) so I gave myself a project that would get me back to the drawing board. The seasons have always been important for me; the sensory overload of Fall, the joy of Spring, the long days of Summer. And when I moved from Baltimore to California for college, I became even more aware of how much these seasonal changes provided an internal calendar for my creative output.

I remember Calvin and Hobbes’ creator Bill Watterson would always paint these lovely season-themed spots in his comic compendiums and so I thought - why not?! So here they are: the four seasons à la Journey. I hope you enjoy them!

More images available at my print shop, where they’re also available as mini-prints: http://mkt.com/journey-official-store

Today we visited the original Legoland in Billund, Denmark,...

Today we visited the original Legoland in Billund, Denmark, nearly 31 years after I came to the park as a young boy. According to my mother, It rained most of that day in 1984, but as you can see in the picture, and certainly in my memory, it was nothing but clear blue skies. That entire trip to Europe had a big impact on me - a land full of fairytale architecture and scenery that would one day inspire me to imagine my own worlds. It was beyond wonderful to revisit one of the sources of that wonder today and share it with my daughter who continues to amaze me on our big adventure.

Only one week before we head home…

It’s Saturday and the warm air is hanging around a bit...

It’s Saturday and the warm air is hanging around a bit this
evening here in Granada. In three days time, our trip here is ending and I’m
starting to understand why the warmth is sticking around tonight. After eight
months of living abroad in Spain it’s only now at the end that I can begin to
see the value in what we’ve done for our family. There are the obvious, travel
guide bonuses of life along the Mediterranean. Cobble-stone walks to school
each morning, markets selling cheap, delicious food a stone’s throw from our
terraced home, views of a fourteenth century castle right from our bedroom
window; all that you imagine life here might be and more. The reality is that
the romance of those things fades relatively quickly. It’s the tangible stuff,
the experiential nature of living abroad, that will stick with us as memories
of flamenco recede; our friendships with locals and fellow travellers, adapting
to a culture, a way of life, a language. Finding hidden caves and streams off
the beaten track. Children running around plazas at 10PM on school nights.
Realizing that much of what you thought your kids needed in life they don’t. I
think it’s easy for us to believe that once we’ve started a family and found
our routines, the travel we did in our youths is an unreachable dream best put
off until retirement. But in many ways, this whole experience feels like a
trial run for something much bigger down the road. I think we’ve planted the
seeds for a life we’ve yet to discover.

This is what peeling off the tape from the last painting of a...

This is what peeling off the tape from the last painting of a five-years-in-the-making book trilogy looks like.

This week, I have hit a wall. With seven paintings to go onthe...

This week, I have hit a wall. With seven paintings to go on
the final installment of the Journey Trilogy, I have lost the ability to pick myself
up by my proverbial bootstraps. To a normal person - a person who, you know, rests - this should come as no surprise. I started work on the trilogy in March
of 2010 and since then I’ve been working pretty much nonstop on these stories,
the latest installment alone since the summer of 2013. Nearly two years! On one
wordless picture book. There were times when, after, completing a finished,
polished draft I simply realized there was something missing and I would start again. And then when the final
edit was completed, there were many paintings I would finish only to realize
that to do the book justice, I’d have to redo them. And what I’m finding now is
that there are limits to this sort of thing. It’s especially hard, because I
can literally see the end, just a few paintings away. But the truth of the
matter is, I have run out of steam. The work of an author is a solitary one,
but also an uncertain one. We spend a lot of time creating work that we have NO
IDEA if it will be well received, or even earn us a living. I love my work and
feel fortunate that the successes I’ve had thus far give me some breathing room
to create something potentially greater still. But now, after starting over again and
again in search of a terrific story or a lovely brush stroke, I find I’ve reached
my actual limit. It’s good to touch down here but even better to recognize it’s
time to take a break. Give me a few days, though, and I’ll be back at it I’m sure.

After spending the first few months here in Spain in relative...

After spending the first few months here in Spain in relative isolation while I began work on the paintings for RETURN, I decided it was time to get out of the house a bit when we relocated to Granada. So I found a co-working space downtown - an experiment to see what it would be like to work again around others. And I figured, if nothing else, I’d learn some Spanish. What I didn’t count on was that I’d also meet some really AMAZING people, including my friend Antonio who put together this fabulous video chronicling a day-in-the-life of my work on the last chapter in the Journey trilogy. The space I work in, as you’ll see, is right by a window, along a narrow street in downtown Granada, in a neighborhood that seems to be surprising the whole city with its creative energy. Hair salons for hipsters, quaint shops selling artsy paraphernalia, and our own little co-working space filled with videographers, journalists, and animators make me feel like I’ve moved to the Mission District in San Francisco some twenty years ago as it began to emerge from its ashes. I feel fortunate to have landed here and even with the easy-going pace of life (read: morning coffee break(s), afternoon siesta) I find that I’m able to focus on my work like never before. I’ll have to see about starting up something like this when I get back to Amherst!