The Holidays are here!

With the holidays fast approaching I can no longer kid myself that I will do any work on my book over the next few weeks. So today I started to clan up my studio in preparation for the upcoming festivities. I thought I would take this opportunity to share with you one last photo for this year.

People have asked me about where I find all the props that I dress my sets with. The short answer is I keep a library of things that I have found from all over and throughout the years. Every time I find something that is interesting and the right scale I grab it. Some of these things I have been holding onto for years if I think I might be able to use it and what I don’t have, or can’t find, I make. I spend lots of time at MICHAEL'S. Here is just a small sample of some of the props that I have used in the last few photo illustrations that I have shot over the past few weeks.

I am truly loving my current project. The photos are stretching my creativity to new levels. I am using every technique I have ever learned, and I am creating some new ones. Some of which have worked well, others not so much but that is the creative process and it is something that I excel at. As always, I will keep you updated on the project but for know I want to wish everyone a Happy and Safe holiday season for whichever holidays you may celebrate.

Good Luck, and Keep Writing.

Morgan

Behind the Scenes for Spencer the Spider and the Witch in the Wood

I broke through my writer’s block last week! I found the inspiration I was looking for by looking at the dramatic lighting in some promotional stills from the BBC and I am now on track with the next chapter of my graphic novel. This break through means that I will need to create a new character for the book but I already have a design in mind and will start the construction this week.

Many people have asked me questions about the sets that I build, such as, “How big are they?” or “Where do you find all the props that you use?” So I thought I would share some of the behind the scenes photos that I have taken with you this week.

This is a set that I build for Spencer the Spider and the Witch in the Wood. It was about five feet wide and included all of the puppets for the book but the final photo only featured one character.

This is the final photo that appeared in the book.

Here is a look at another set for the same book. This was the beach set for the clam party in the story.

Here is the finished photograph.

These next two pictures are of sets that I created for a composite shot. I wanted a photo that would show above and below ground at the same time but constructing one set was proving to difficult to build so I build two and planned to put the together digitally.

Here is the finished composite shot that did not appear in the book. After all the work on the photo it did not make the finale edit.

And finally, here was the minimal set that I put together for the cover.

The finished photograph was much better looking then the set itself because I used an old trick called forced perspective.

I hope you find these behind the scenes photos interesting. I have more for every book that I have done. Please keep the questions coming and I will share information about my creative process when ever I can.

Good Luck and keep writing.

Morgan

Plot twist.

  

I have had a slow week working on the project. I have gotten stuck on a plot twist. I’ve worked the story, or the story has worked itself, to a point that I am not sure what direction it should go. I guess you could also call it writers block. When this happens to me I try looking for inspiration in all sorts of places, but mainly in artwork. They say that a picture paints a thousand words and I can look at an obscure work of art and see a whole story some times, but even this is not working for me this time. I think I will take a bit of a break from the story and instead turn my attention to editing the work that I have already finished. This too can allow me to see something that I have already done in a new way giving me a new idea that I had not thought of or taking me in a new direction. Until next time . . .

Good Luck and keep writing.

Morgan

Title to be determined

With my latest book project (title to be determined) I may have bitten off more than I can handle. To refresh your memory, because I have not posted a blog in several months, I am working on a photo novel. That is a graphic novel done entirely with photo illustrations. I have been working on it none stop for several months now and I have only finished the photos for the introduction and first chapter of the story. And when I say, “finished” I mean taken. I will still have to edit those photos and add text to them to be able to call them finished.

Even thou this project is becoming bigger than I thought it would be I am not giving up. In fact I am more committed then ever. The sets, miniatures, and characters that I have created for this project so far are amazing. I love looking at what I have done and if I am enjoying it this much I am sure that you will too.

I received a boost of energy and inspiration when I revisited one of my favorites, Wallace & Gromit, by Nick Park. On his fist project, A Grand Day Out, Park was working a lot like I am currently, by himself and creating all the props and puppets on his own. That first film took him seven years to complete.

On my previous projects the average number of finished photographs was 25. On this project I am up to 1600 (unedited) and I am less than half way through. The number of finished photos will be less than half of that but still that is a big difference.

I am also trying to stay true to my style of not allowing the photos to tell the whole story. This is becoming a challenge for some of the chapters but I am still up to this challenge. I have, and will go through periods of despair with this book but I just have to stay with it and keep telling myself that it will be worth it. Also there have been, and will be moments of exhilaration with this project when everything goes right. It is at those moments that I don’t have to convince myself of anything. I can just sit back and enjoy the moment. And those are the times that I remember why I do what I do.

Good luck, and keep writing.

Morgan

FYI, NEW PROJECT

New Project

Last week I started a series of photos for my new book project. It is a bit of a departure from what I have done to date. I have listened to the feedback and constructive criticisms of my current works and one thing that has always come through is that people like my photos and story ideas a bit more than my writing. Well, as I have always said, “I am not a writer, I am just an artist who likes to tell stories.” So like with my last book, Flight of the Christmas Witch, my new one has a greater focus on the photo illustrations, but with a bit of a twist.

I have always looked to my childhood for inspiration, and when I was a kid one of my favorite books was Star Trek The Motion Picture; The Photostory edited by Richard J. Anobile. I had several other photo novels from numerous films and television shows all of which were science fiction based. Science fiction has always been my favorite genera and I have always wanted to do a sci-fi project. So that is what I am doing now, and I am turning the story into a sort of photographic comic book. This will enable me to tell a bigger story than I normally do with far less words and a greater focus on the photo illustrations as my fans have suggested. This project will also give me the opportunity to pull more extensively on my filmmaking background. In a lot of ways this book will be like a photo-finished storyboard for a film.

Believe it or not I have never be a fan of comic books. In fact as a boy I only ever had two, The Star Team, and a Star Wars adaptation, So, I have been buying some comic books lately for research and have been surprised to see how little their format has changed over the years but they have provided me with some good insights. I still intend to stay true to my philosophy of not allowing the pictures alone to tell the whole story. My illustrations will still be designed to inspire the viewer to read the written words to find out what is going on in the book, there will just be a lot more of them.

I will continue to up date you on this project throughout the year.

Good Luck and keep writing.

Morgan

Mistakes I have made.

I have been very neglectful lately where this blog is concerned and that is not the only mistake that I have made since my adventure into publishing began back in 2010. The story I want to tell you today is that of my biggest mistake to date and to give others a heads up so that they can avoid the same pit fall.

In 2009 and 2010 I spent a lot of time and money sending my manuscript for my first book, The Deep Black Pond, to many publishers and agents all over the country and in Europe. I received many rejection letters before it was finally accepted, then a few weeks later another publisher wanting to publish that same book contacted me. I told them that I had already signed a contract with someone else but I had just finished and new manuscript for my second book, The Gray Garden, and I asked if they would like first refusal on it. They accepted and to my complete surprise they wanted to publish it. I could not believe my luck! That was where the good feeling ended. That Publisher was Publish America.

Even up until the book was released there were problems and after The Gray Garden came out the problems seemed to grow. The biggest being that no one seemed to be able to buy my book. I was, many times, contacted by people wanting to get a copy and could not. The on line channels did not seem to work. And even when I knew for sure that some copies had been ordered Publish America (now called America Star Books) reported that they had not had any orders. For anyone who has had a problem getting my work I am truly sorry and if you would like to contact my directly I will try to make it right. I have tried for a long time to make the best of it and have tried to convince myself that I did not know enough about publishing and that maybe things like this just were normal issues. Well, four years later I do know better. I do not want to go on at this point; instead I am attaching an article so that you can draw your own conclusions.

http://timetowrite.blogs.com/weblog/2014/01/considering-publishing-with-star-america-beware.html

Good Luck and keep writing. (and Beware)

Morgan