Sometimes it takes a momentary glimpse of something or someone and it gets the creative mind running excitedly in all directions. Sometimes it takes painful soul-searching. But once the spark is there, the mind goes exploring possibilities.
My wife and I went to an evening Mass at a church we don’t normally attend and there was a very friendly, kind-looking man who was very thin. Everything about him was skinny right down to the width of his head. He looked like a caricature of himself! I knew I had to create a 3D model of him.
Before I could find the time to make a model of the man from memory, I got thinking about what the situation would be where I would place him. He had to be a kind storekeeper. It would be in an old wild west town general store. I thought he’d be giving a little girl a lollypop. She would be very happily reaching for it. Her mother would be with her having just finished picking up a few things from the store. They would be in matching peasant outfits.
Picture a general store that has a variety of goods for sale. Two older cowboys are sitting over by the front window playing checkers on top of a barrel. There’s a jug of moonshine on the floor next to one of the cowboys and you can see the town buildings across the street through the window. The room is dimly lit by lanterns and the front windows.
All of this all because of seeing a skinny man in church. But the creative juices don’t stop here. My train of thought goes outside to the streets of the western town. More to come…
