Hey y’all! It's a whole new year and a whole new decade, so I think it's about time to share my new series! I am excited to announce that I am working on a new series of pieces inspired by Neil Gaiman’s Sandman characters: The Seven Endless.
This is my first, focused series since my senior year of college. The idea developed when earlier this year I was asked “What would a dream freelance job be for you? What offer would you leave your day-job for?” and my response was, “Right now it would be to work on covers for the Sandman universe comics that Vertigo is publishing.” (Which is unfortunately no longer a possibility because Vertigo has recently been shut down and its titles merged with DC's new branding. But, of course, working on DC covers wouldn't be too shabby either...)
I am a huge Neil Gaiman fan. He inspires me creatively and personally and I love just about everything he writes (I could also listen to him read anything for days on end--his voice is smooth like nutella). My favorite book is American Gods and I listen to his “Make Good Art” speech several times a year to keep the important creative message fresh in my mind. So I feel this series is not only inspired by the Sandman comics that he wrote, but also a kind of tribute to him and these evergreen characters and stories.
The Sandman universe has a lot of stuff going on, and there’s a lot of material to read if you want to catch up on the series. In a nutshell, the main character is an entity named Dream (or Morpheus) and he presides over...you guessed it…dreams! I’ll use a description I found on Wikipedia because I think it sums it up better than I was about to: “The series follows a tragic course in which Dream, having learned a great deal from his imprisonment, tries to correct the things he has done wrong in the past.” Dream is one of 7 entities that represent different concepts and they are collectively called “The Endless”. The other six are: Destiny, Desire, Destruction, Delirium, Despair, and Death.
I have spent some time planning out each character’s piece so that I can see an overview of the series as a whole before diving in. One thing I love about these characters, and something that I think works well with my art, is that they are archetypes and shape-shifters, rather than “set in stone characters” and this leaves a lot of room for my own interpretations and personal touches. I expect some compositions to change as I work on them, but these thumbnails will serve as my roadmap:
I will keep the above image updated with my progress on the series as the paintings are completed so that everyone can keep tabs on the whole set as they appear together (this is part of my planning process as well and how I work on a collection to keep things cohesive).
I don’t have a set timeline for when they will all be completed, but this will be my primary focus (outside of freelance work) in 2020. If you'd like to be the first to know how my progress is coming along, consider joining my Patreon community. On my Patreon page, I share sketches and behind the scenes of my works in progress as well as time-lapse videos of both my traditional and digital processes. All Patrons get early access to announcements and sales and first looks when I complete new pieces!
I can't wait to get back to work on this series and I hope you all are excited to see my new work as well :)
Wishing you all a Happy New DECADE & a Wonderful New Year!