Pumpkin Dream Sketchbooks #1: Surreal

Some days before deciding (for certain) on a more vintage, representational style for "The Pumpkin Dream" there was some thought of creating pen drawings, and in a more surreal style, somewhat more akin to the pen and ink drawings seen here on wobblebox. There was really only one sketch to speak of in this mode - seen below where there was an attempt to take elements from the poem, and then sit down for a session of surrealistic doodles... (this sketch would have paired with the first eight lines of the poem):

When tattered oaks of autumn lend
prophetic chatter to the wind
and gremlins from a branch dispatch
with felon deeds upon your latch

We trust our tale illuminates
of bogymen whose hunger slake
on children in a sugar feast
the fearless know as trick-or-treat

While I would still love to find the time to do this illustration style (perhaps in some later edition down the road), the thought of trying to create 37 drawings that I would be happy with... while so many other tasks needed to also be done (this book was DIY on everything), I gave this up for something I thought would be more editable - vector art (see the first blog entry Sketchy Beginnings and/or A Brief History of The Pumpkin Dream (Part 4) - Cautionary Vectors).

Well, in going back into my sketchbooks, it appears I did almost a full round of more representational style art, and then for some reason (probably the zero budget) vacillated back toward the possibility of pen and paper once again (see below). I think this next drawing (probably inspired more so by being very tired) was a thought toward doing something sort of retro, loose, and surreal with lots and lots of negative space.  And I was apparently still trying to figure out the first lines of the poem, which were perhaps the hardest lines of the poem to complete - and there are likely hundreds of versions of the beginning)....

I guess part of me is very interested in Halloween imagery with a little surrealistic twist - and in looking back through the sketchbook - even before the idea to do "The Pumpkin Dream" was settled in my mind... I found this whimsical drawing that takes the Jack O'Lantern into some weird realms - such as the octo-pumpkin?

Next up: Pumpkin Sketchbooks #2: Versions

Bindlegrim's Sneak Peek Pumpkin Video

While my ultimate goal has not yet come to pass, to create an audio and/or video presentation of this book (maybe available through iTunes...?), I gave a quick go at this little promo video that covers a little under a third of the book... (continuing to play on that inspiration of graphics/animation from the 1930's, with some olde style title cards, etc., that developed from dingbats and borders in the newer version of the book that is available on Amazon).

I cringe to say it now, but I also did the music mix that is on this video. It is a not so great mix from the previous year with samples from various vintage Halloween songs, and was named after a really great short story by Peter Straub called "Pork Pie Hat" that captures the same mood of those old songs.

I, uhm, was doing a few holiday mixes at that time... but I would prefer to remix them all. Another one was for Christmas, and it featured samples from a now infamous radio interview with Joan Crawford and family... for the brave, both the Halloween and the Christmas mixes can be heard here at the moment:

Pork Pie Hat (a Halloween song mixed on AcidPlanet)

Ho Ho Hopalong (a Christmas song mixed on AcidPlanet)

Ultimately, I would love to remix them all and put some video imagery to them.... but, as my favorite mad scientist in the old Bugs Bunny cartoon says, my brain is "a wee bit small, but it will have to do"...

The Coincidence of Pumpkin Dream Symbolism

While I think that everyone's personal experience of life is too rich and complex to be pared down to a set of symbols, (and this seems even truer during the layered rambles of dreams), I though it was interesting to note that while searching for "The Pumpkin Dream" via search engines, I kept running across results for sites that indicate what it supposedly means to have a pumpkin in your dreams.

What the heck..., I thought I would look into it, and got a fun surprise. The supposed symbolic meaning of the pumpkin really lends itself to the events in the poem... and I should probably be approaching this as something I meant to do, but it was just too fun not to share the coincidence.

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1) Openness and receptiveness to new ideas and experiences

Well, to be fair, the generality of this statement could lend itself to a host of events -- and pumpkins on Halloween night really are the beacons of new experiences. If you light a pumpkin on your doorstep you are asking for all hosts of creatures to come a knocking. And as a trick-or-treater it's a grand adventure into a strange night (with a pumpkin pail in hand to help you reap the rewards).

In "The Pumpkin Dream", the pumpkin Jack is the catalyst of experiences far beyond the norm of door-to-door trick-or-treat. He bears it for a while, just long enough for the main character to fill his head full of candy, but after that he's got much more to share. As the situation changes, he states, "It’s time for me to lead and sow these plastic pumpkin seeds, near open graves where boney sort in Danse Macabre now cavort,” and draws the main character out into the night for experience that involves real witches and monsters.

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2) A situation in which time is running out (as in Cinderella where a carriage returns back to pumpkin form) 

Okay, again, to be fair, nothing lasts forever, and there's a time limit to most, if not all, experiences. But in some ways, pumpkins, especially those plastic candy buckets, are a symbol of trick-or-treating, and that, not only is Halloween night but one night a year, but that we all end up retiring those trick-or-treating costumes as we get older.And, maybe as Jack fears, the plastic pumpkin pails too!

Nothing is so serious in this story, but the clock tick tocks (see first image), and the warnings are there! Granpa has told our main character of all the lurking dangers that await a hapless youth on Halloween night. And Grandpa ought to know - he's got a hand full of educational brochures, and elderly wisdom to back up his story, that mere mortals who adventure too far will lose their souls to all sorts of haints and witches!

And of course matters turn worse, as the willful pumpkin Jack draws our main character out into the night after the trick-or-treating is over, and commences to stir up trouble with the Halloween natives none too happy with the turn of events. Our characters are in trouble and, yes, just like in Cinderella, there is indeed a time-sensitive situation here. They may not make it back home, and the clocks is still ticking!

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Well, all that aside, the story is intended for most readers as a fun romp through Halloween night - but I couldn't resist a small amount of fortuitous literally interpretation. And while the poem is actually intended to have layers so that both adults and children can appreciate it, the symbol of the pumpkin as stated here was a complete though happy accident, and I thought it would be fun to share the observations. Muahahaha... Happy Hallowe'en 2011...!!!

PS - The sepia tone images used above were from an experiment for an alternative printed edition later abandoned due to unsatisfactory printing results - however I still love the way these look on backlit computer screens, and have saved them for a possible video version of the story this future season.