The preliminary universe sketches for my thesis project "Identity." What these drawing helped me do was flesh out the world that would tell my stories. I relate through food and drink and shopping and exercise and creating, good husbandry, good stewardship and most of all compassion.

While I think of my world as a child friendly utopia, I also see the opportunity to bridge certain topics for a young and developing mind as an educator.

The observation of patterns in society and human behavior informed the narratives. Conflict, reconciliation, friendship, responsibility, physical violence, emotional loss, effort+choice and most of all, love.

One of the surprising revelations I had personally was how a really developed world actually creates it's own characters and it's own narratives. For instance, if grandma is on a hike with the grandkids and they get to a tricky to navigate rock face...what would that look like? It is out of those questions that life is breathed into the marks you might say.

The highest goal for this work is to animate into a feature film. I believe that because I've seen the need for help in further realizing the universe and reaching a broader audience, a creative team is needed. Print and Digital books are another option but again I see those as complimentary to a film.

To the keen eye it is clear that the exact style of the world I'm representing is fairly inconsistent within this collection. The style is far more refined as a collective in the thesis material. I like to think that there is more room for refining the message based on the audience and what a creative team would envision. I am also drawn to the concept of making a reading guide along with an alphabet bestiary as part of this collection.

More to come in 2018...