Jane -- 2009

A lean, female american field mouse with blue eyes stands on her hind legs, wearing a night gown, in profile, trying not to look at the camera. The fur on the top of her head is long, giving it a rounded, human-esque appearance

Medium: #2 Pencil, red pen, and blue pen, on recycled paper.

[Vectorized version]

Notes

Now this drawing has an interesting story. I had been developing Jane, as a literary character, for years, but I had never quite been able to get an image on paper to show how she looked like.

But in early 2010, at the start of the term, I got to my class slightly over an hour early. Naturally, the classroom was empty; and having nothing assigned yet (and having had a pretty weird dream the previous night) I was overcome by this urge to draw. Anything. Right there and then.

I had always been able to see Jane perfectly in my mind, but when I tried to capture that on paper, I always failed. I knew I was good at drawing, but without a model, how was I to capture the image?

Then I had this crazy idea: I closed my eyes, and imagined her standing right in front of me. I took my pencil, held it up before me at the angle of her nose-bridge, and opened my eyes again. There was the pencil in mid-air; the correct angle captured. I brought it down to the paper and drew the line.

I did the whole drawing in this way.

When I finished it, and gazed upon my masterpiece, I noticed it was time for class, the classroom was still empty, and the one next door was full. I checked and I was in the wrong classroom! Oh well, at least it had let me work in peace.

More Jane: [Comic 01 - Gift Horse] [Sleeping -- 2009] [Sleeping -- 2011] [Dishwashing] [Contest entry] [ID card] [Thanksgiving mouse] [A special christmas moment] [13-year-old character design]