Illustration Notes for Episode Forty-Seven

Hi all!

Once again this week, my collaborative partnership with illustrator, M. Scott Hammond proved enriching, not just visually, but from a narrative angle too! I’ve been asking Scott these days what HE would like to illustrate from each of these scenes, and this week, he decided to do a portrait of Mikayl Stbrich, a new new character who, along with his two sons, will figure very prominently into Matt’s Tale going forward. The drawing I got back was both VERY faithful to the written description of Mikayl in the previous episode, and not at all what I’d been imagining—which is really fun! For me, working with Scott is proving to be like the difference between writing about people, and actually meeting them!

I LOVE this portrait for all its quirky, unsettling character. The other thing that struck me immediately about Scott’s drawing this week was how very ‘poster-art-ish’ it felt. I’ve thought about my episode images for Matt’s Tale so far as sepia-toned ‘snapshots’ of Matt’s memories from seven years earlier. But this drawing didn’t want to be a ‘snapshot' of Mikayl Stbrich; it wanted to be a ‘PAINTING of the ARTIST!’

So that’s how I rendered it—as poster art; and as I did, BLAM—new backstory started generating itself in the back of my head. So here’s the story now—as influenced by my new collaborative illustrator: This is a portrait painted by one of Mikayl’s two sons (who are both talented artists too) for a poster advertising one of Mikayl’s many gallery shows. We may or may not see the actual man depicted in future scenes, but this is what the artist looks like—as art—to one of his sons.

As always, an uncropped and uncluttered version is available below for your perusal. Enjoy, and stay healthy reading TWICE at home! :D Bye for now.