Imaginary Fiends project
Generally, at any given time, I have 3 categories of projects going, and I suspect this is the case for most career creatives:
- not all creative, pretty boring projects (the bill paying kind)
- somewhat creative, but still unexciting projects (also that pay bills)
- really fun, weird and challenging projects (that don't pay ANYTHING)
Right now, my #3 is definitely something new for me... collaborating on a children's book.
The creator of the project is Isaiah, a good friend and author I took headshots for awhile back. Isaiah, who goes by "Izzy B" for his kids' books, approached me with this crazy idea last year...
What if we did a book together that combined photos and text (which I'm no stranger to)... AND illustration? The idea was proposed in a "dry spell" during which I was crazy busy with only #1 projects and didn't have time to do anything fun at all, much less sleep or eat or other stuff like that. So I immediately said YES, it would be one of the first things I'd turn my attention to when things slowed down in 2016.
This was the first image we worked within the project, facing challenges like creating realistic shadows from things that weren't actually in the scene...
We're over halfway through the year and now over halfway done with the book as well. I take the photos, Isaiah wrote the story and adds the illustrations.
I can't reveal everything of course, but here's what I can tell you about the story:
The tale focuses on a young boy and his imaginary friend, following the course of events when the boy's friend becomes disgruntled and comedically tries to "go bad". He learns the value of real friendship and the price of converting to... an imaginary fiend.
Here's some of my favorite things about this project, and some images to accompany...
Isaiah is super fun to work with. Because he's ridiculous. And, well, so am I.
"testing" the props. Our crew is small, so we have to do the grunt work ourselves.
My son gets to be the main "real" (non-illustrated) character. So that's been super fun.
Acting is hard enough, but it gets even more challenging when your co-stars are invisible.
turns out, he's got the skills.
We've gotten to expand the collaboration out to those helping us with locations and actors. A highlight so far was the day we got to meet the incredibly kind and helpful Dallas Cook, owner of the area's only legit boxing ring in Galena, KS.
Dallas had some amazing stories to tell us. He's been in this sport for a long time.
final shot from location above...not everyone "gets" boxing, apparently...
I love collaboration, and I love transmedia/intermedia work; fusing one art form with another in an unexpected form. I've done a lot of this with my photonovel projects, and this is more or less like a photonovel for kids.
He's being such a teenager.
I love making things for kids. Making things for adults is great, but making something primarily for children really gets you into that mindset of tapping into your inner creativity in a pure way. Really thankful to Isaiah for inviting me into his vision- can't wait to see it enjoyed by many kiddos down the road.
