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this is another imaginary work i did last year and just found it in the computer and think I never posted it.

.:: dibujandoARTe ::..

i'll only post two of all the imaginay sketches i did yesterday on a new blank book i started, just to spend some quiet evening on silence, painting without caring about any particular model, shapes or perpectives

.:: dibujandoARTe ::..

an imaginary figure in which i don't care about any real shape or size. it's strange, while i was doing it and afterwards too, i see it and feel an urge to go on with the inner part of the figure in pencil lines.
as it is, in a way it's inviting, to be completed mentally in different ways all the time. i'll leave it just like it is, asking me to complete it each time i see it. :P

.:: dibujandoARTe ::..

Anthony D. Pellegrini is Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Minnesota.  His book, The Role of Play in Human Development, examines the role of different forms of human play in terms of its phylogenetic history, its ontogenetic development, and possible functions, suggesting that human play represents one way in which experience shapes development.  In the excerpt below we learn about the importance of imaginary play.

The transition from solitary to social pretend play is a hallmark of the preschool period, reflecting children’s relatively sophisticated social cognitive and linguistic development… because social pretend play involves, by definition, the communication and coordination of abstract meaning between people, the possibility for ambiguity and the subsequent breakdown of social interaction around a pretend theme is relatively high.  This state of affairs is why social pretend play has been afforded such an important role in the ontogeny of children’s theory of the mind (e.g., Leslie, 1987).  With both social pretend play and theory of mind, children are concerned with others’ intents and beliefs.  Also in both theory of mind and social pretend play research, the role of the close adult-child relationship, such as the mother-child relationship, is central to children’s developing ability to understanding others’ intentions…

There is also a very good biological reason for mothers to spend time in joint interaction with their infants and children.  Mothers are “motivated” to spend time and energy on their offspring because they represent a major genetic investment.  Her offspring contain 50% of her genes, and the mother wants to maximize the survival and reproduction of her offspring, and her genes… Therefore, mothers not only invest in protecting and provisioning their offspring, but also in tutoring them in the skills necessary to maximize the offspring’s survival and reproduction.  Mother-child playful interactions are part of this process…

The offspring, too, have an interest in maintaining a close relationship with their mothers, providing their mothers are responsive to their needs.  That is, offspring depend on mothers for protection and provisioning, and they try to maximize the resources they extract from their mothers… This dynamic relationship of interdependence is enacted in the mother-child attachment relationship.  This relationship is developed in social pretend play and forms an important base of children’s representations of other social relationships.  This developmental progression has been documented in a series of studies by Carolee Howes (1992) and her students.  According to Howes, children’s social pretend with mothers begins at around 12 to 15 months of age when children take pretend play actions outside their functional context (i.e., decontextualization), such as pretending to drink from an empty cup.  In a mother-child interaction context, mothers will structure pretend scenarios to maximize children’s participation…, because the child is now capable of responding to its mother’s pretend initiations, often by watching, complying with, and imitating those acts.  To maximize children’s participation, mothers monitor their children’s behavior closely, being particularly vigilant around pretend behavior; they look at children closely and smile after children’s pretend play acts…  In this way children learn to recognize preten

Whether I am working with animals or with people I like to get to know them, personally. That includes imaginary characters as well as those in real life.

However, with the imaginary ones it is hard to 'see' them unless I create lots of preliminary sketches on paper and in the computer. And here I can see the subtle differences that must not occur in the final sketches or paintings. Consistency is the keyword.


Once I have a good idea of who is who, I will print out a collection like this one and go back to the drawing board with pencil or pen and continue the process until I really know who these people are. They will become my friends, and I often find that they are in part based on people I have known. In this case I was well acquainted with all three of the real people that eventually made their way into this imaginary world.

I am sure that often happens to other illustrators. Does it happen to you? How do you arrive at the final destination for your characters? If you have time, post your thoughts here *:)

The author of the bible I illustrated, Sally Lloyd -Jones has just e-mailed to let me know that the book was spotted on CBS News: Sunday Morning, in a segment on the history of Bible publishing, highlighting how many different types of bible are available today. Ours was used to illustrate a "bible for kids", pretty impressive considering how many children's bibles there must be to choose from.