Perfect Dreams

Yesterday evening, working late, I found that the ending of number9dream suddenly made sense to me. I felt a bit of a wanker for not getting it before. I'm probably the only person who's ever managed to read the whole thing twice and not figure it out. You're supposed to be disappointed at the end, see, when you turn the page and there's nothing there. That last page, that's your alarm clock, burring and squawking and busting up the dream-castle you've spent all night on building. I hate David Mitchell for engineering such a perfect dream, then wrecking it. I hate him so much I'm going to buy all his books from now on. He's got a new one coming out on the seventeenth of this month. I can't afford it till Amazon gets in some second-hand ones, of course, but I still get excited whenever I think about it.

On the subject of perfect dreams, I'm nearly finished with that rat painting I've been on about lately. I've been a bit heavy-handed with my paintings lately, so I've been trying to keep more of a delicate touch on this one: no blaring primary colours, no great messy brushstrokes where they don't belong, no distracting details in non-focal areas. I've had to erase bits and do them again several times, but I think all the hard work's going to be worth it. If it isn't a masterpiece, it's as close as I can come. A couple more days' work, and I ought to be done.

After this, I'm not going to do any more digital art for a while. It takes too damn long, to begin with, and I've never quite gotten used to it, either. I'm going to concentrate on inks and acrylics. When I can afford some gouache, I'll concentrate on that, too. One day, perhaps, oils will once again become financially feasible, but until that day, I'll expand my horizons.

I have a new project in mind, as well. I had been saving it to publish all at once in book form, and had, indeed, promised it to a small publisher already--but I can't wait any longer. I need to sell the originals as I do them, if I'm to keep from swirling away down debtors' toilet. Reckon I'll stick it on my website instead, page by page, as it's drawn. It's about all these funny creatures I found in my brain. (That didn't sound quite right, did it? I mean, I haven't got cranial parasites, or anything like that. Imaginary creatures. There. That's better.)

I'm hoping to sell the sequel, (Weird Audubon vol. 2: Urban Pests?), to a publisher wealthy enough to give me an advance, so I've got to do a good job. Whether I succeed marvelously or fail miserably, however, this'll be fun. I've always wanted to explain the difference between the Lesser and Greater Short-Necked Spatulate Vultures to the rest of the world, and extol the virtues of the Fork-Tailed Lily Rat. Birds with noses, too, those deserve their moment in the sun.

All this talk of work is making my fingers itch--better get back to the drawing board now. I had nothing much to say, anyhow.