Tuesday, October 06, 2009

Brain Pictures


My new science fiction fantasy The Fourth Harmonic takes place in the future, during a stark and foreboding time. Words can paint a vivid picture but I finally concluded that a few pencil drawings could put the icing on the cake. This is a fine idea except that I am no artist and I do not know anyone that is. Before giving up on my idea, I decided to check out the resources on the Web.

After a bit of searching, I discovered a fantastic website called Guru.com. The site is an intermediary between client and artists. After signing up with Guru, a simple process, I posted my project and had forty-two proposals in less than forty-eight hours. That is where my problems began.

All forty-two artists are wonderful. They provided samples of their work that I have pored over for the past two days. The fun really began when I started communicating with a possible candidate.

“I’d like to know what visions are in your head,” the artist said. “Can you draw a few sketches for me?”

Well nothing is easy.

Of course, I have pictures in my head of every character and every scene in the book, but transforming them to a picture on paper is well beyond my capabilities, at least in a final form that someone might actually enjoy seeing. Alas, tomorrow I will attempt to put a few of my brain pictures on paper. Maybe the artist can interpret the blobs.


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