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Calendar Of Tales Concept Art

Have you ever tried to write something you though would take you a few hours and it ends up being this monster of a project that takes many agonizing hours to drag out from the depths of your mind to the ink on the page? Well, that’s what has happened to my blog post about dreams. I’m not sure when it will finally be finished, but I’m determined to get it written! In the mean time (again) I though I would share with you the concept art for my next project (one of them anyway.)

If you haven’t heart about it Neil Gaiman has teamed up with Blackberry to make this amazing collaborative art project. It started off with Neil asking 12 questions, one for each month of the year, on twitter. He then chose his favorite responses and wrote 12 short stories. The stories have now been released and artists can submit their work to illustrate these stories. Once submission closes, Neil will again choose his favorites and the project will continue, eventually leading to a book among other things. You can find out more about the project here.

I read through the tales and chose two of the images that left the biggest impressions on my mind to turn into artwork to submit. Here are the concepts for what I’m hoping to create.

February Tale:

“Only when my great-niece was gone and I was alone, did I swim upward, letting
the pendant pull me home, up into the vastness above us, where we wander with
the lonely sky-whales and the skies and seas are one.” [1]

Concept art for the February tale of Neil Gaiman

I adore the idea of sky-whales! This guy swam … flew … swew?… into my head and I knew I wanted to bring him to life with my wool sculpture. I am really eager to felt him. I’ve felted a narwhal before, but I want this guy to have feathery fins, so that will be something new for me. I’m looking forward to experimenting with different techniques.
.

July Tale:

“I built an igloo out of books in my back yard….When I went outside I observed that someone had covered the whole world with books: pale-covered books, all shades of white and blue and purple. I wandered the ice-floes of books…I saw the shadows of the bears before I saw the bears themselves: huge they were, and pale, made of the pages of fierce books: poems ancient and modern prowled the ice floes in bear-shape filled with words that could wound with their beauty. I could see the paper, and the words winding across them…” [2]

Concept art for the July tale of Neil Gaiman

This story caught really my attention. I immediately wanted to build an igloo out of mini handmade books. I also want to make a papier-mâché polar bear out of the pages of old books. I wish I could think of a way to make the words wind around the bear and move like in the story; I think to pull that off it would have to be digital though.

I only have 14 days until the deadline, so I don’t know that I will have the time to make both projects. I am planning on felting the sky-whale first. If I can finish him quickly I’ll make a start on the bear.

I would love to hear what you think. Which idea is your favorite? If you’ve read the stories, which story was your favorite? Will you submit any art to the project? If so, be sure to comment with a link to your work so I can check it out!
Have a wonderful night!
– Joules

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