‘It is the brain, the little grey cells on which one must rely. One must seek the truth within-not without.’ — Poirot, Agatha Christie
Spoiler alert!
The following drawing reveals the end of Lord Edgware Dies - and therefore, who did it -, a book written by Agatha Christie.
This is entirely outside of my expertise, but it is something I drew recently I wanted to share, particularly, because it involves the power of imagination.
Most of the fiction I read falls into the category of either murder mysteries or dystopian sci-fi. I have mentioned in previous posts that me and my partner have a little book club and read each other aloud Agatha Christie’s murder mysteries, performing the different characters and accents. The last book we read was Lord Edgware Dies, a classic Christie’ story plot in which every word and chapter is perfectly written to deceive you if you’re new to these sorts of stories, but to give you the clues to solve the puzzle early on if you know her tricks.
This last time, I grabbed my iPad when my partner was reading to me and I started sketching the characters as they were being described and as I imagined them. The drawing became a story on its own. Almost like an evolving comic strip in one page. I kept updating the character tree with new faces and names, adding notes, and even colouring in red the new murders.
This is the result at the end of the story:
Sometimes it’s good to change media or even focus on different outputs entirely from your regular practice to get the inspiration going.
✏️ A little assignment:
Try drawing if you regularly just paint. Try drawing buildings if you normally draw landscapes. Or try designing furniture if you normally design fabrics. Change the rules, change the game, change the constraints. Learn from them.
This drawing not only was fun to do but also a great way to exercise my imagination. I am not a professional illustrator, and character illustration is entirely outside of my practice. But the mere process of listening to a story, imagining a set of characters, and putting them on paper, whatever they are and look, has helped me exercise both my creativity and my imagination, which I can then apply to my own practice.
The power of our imagination is a precious skillset that we need to nurture any chance we have.
✏️✨
Happy sketching!
ana
Thanks so much for reading!
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All images and text © Ana Vila
PS.
I did know who did it from almost the very beginning, I must admit.
What would be the greatest story to tell with this set of characters? I asked myself.
This below is a previous version of the same drawing. An earlier one in which nobody else but Edgware had died and the ladies took more of a '60s look I corrected later on to bring them back to the ‘20s/30s.
Following this character creation, I also sketched a couple of characters from our D&D game (something my partner dragged me into) which you can also see below.
That would be another story…!
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