Let's return to a pivotal change in the making of my story.
J. had also given me this book called Writing Picture Books, where the author stated the importance of having children cast as “the heroes.” Apparently, children don’t like see-reading about adults solving the problems.
I actually hadn’t wanted to draw ANY humans, because humans are hard, and made-up characters/animals are easy. But even in 2005 I realized that humans would have to come into the equation. I started searching for literal references like “Shepherd” and “farmer,” and so this picture includes my first attempt at human drawing.
But with this new intelligence, it was clear that “Farmer” would have to be replaced with “Farmer’s kid.” SO, the next questions were: who should these characters be? How do they fit into the story? Does a kid get stuck in a well? Will they be friend or foe? And how on Earth will I learn to draw kids?