Full page illustration from the kids’ fantasy series “The Conjurers”
Arthur C. Clarke said “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic”. Today’s peek inside “The Conjurers” shows where magic and science meet. I kind of knew from the start that eventually there would be a conflict between the unknown and the known.
Clarke’s third law became the catalyst for the third book. A super cool showdown between magic and science isn't interesting enough. I wanted to explore the human side of that idea. In other words, how far would a woman of science go for someone she loved? Sorry, I have to be vague to avoid spoilers. Book three’s “villain” puts that concept to the test. Don’t worry, the outcome will surprise you. As one thing science teaches us, one second of understanding opens the door to an infinity of questions.
Today’s drawing from book three shows the antagonist in her lab. And I’m sure you can tell the dude in the chair is not having a great day. Let’s get down to the drawing choices here. First off, why a full page? If you’ve read my previous posts, you know nothing is random about choosing what to show.
So why a full page? Why not focus on Derren, Latiff and the chair dude? While that would heighten the tension, I wanted, as much as I could, to give a sense of scale to Latiff’s operation. Unlike the Conjurian, which is a bit of an anarchical mess, Latiff’s world of science is organized, efficient and focused on a single goal which is...nope, can’t tell you.
Using the full page allows me to show that Latiff has a gaggle of scientists working for her and it also lets me show the reader the device that comes into play later. And this drawing visualizes the lengths to which Latiff will go to achieve her objective (you’ll have to wait and see what happens to chair dude). One single page illustration can pack a wallop of story.
That’s what you should try to do with your drawings. Let me clarify. You should experiment with how much information you can broadcast with a single illustration. You should also weigh the impact of that information. If your drawing is stuffed fuller than a subway car at rush hour, you might confuse your reader.
Let your story dictate how much or how little you put into the drawings. And always ask, “does this move the story forward and enhance the reader’s experience?”. My first sketch of this scene only included the chair dude and the egg shaped thingy on the platform (really, I wish I could tell you more). It did the job of explaining what the egg thingy does, but I already had that in the text. Then I added Latiff. The drawing was more intimate now and gave the reader a snapshot of her evil genius.
After reading through the text again, I realized this was the first time the reader meets Latiff and her secret science group, “Sanctum”. Pulling back and showing the scale of the laboratory gives the reader a whooshing pop sensation of what Alex and Emma are up against. Kind of like the opening shot in Star Wars that pans along an entire imperial star destroyer. Right away, you know the rebels are fighting an insurmountable force. Which, of course, makes for a satisfying victory.
The takeaway tip today is to play around with what you put into your drawings. Experiment with taking things out and adding things in. Always consider the effect it will have on your reader and also what effect you want to have on your readers.
