The Story of the Project
First of all, if you don't know who I am: my name is Gavin Gifford. I am a part-time freelance artist based in Utah. Besides visual art, I also enjoy reading, the theater, and writing (stories, poetry, and the like). And this is a brief tale of how this project called "Underearth" came to be.
A few years ago, I had been in a bit of a creative slump for a while. The amount of time I spent staring at a blank page, pencil in hand, was more than I would care to admit. I began actively searching for something to inspire my creativity.
Then, during a visit to my grandparents' house, I happened upon a book that caught my eye: "The Search for Wondla" by Tony DiTerlizzi. Its cover art (which you can see here) had a certain whimsical feel to it that intrigued me. I flipped through the pages and enjoyed the many illustrations.
I must admit, I only read the first half of the book before putting it down. The illustrations simply inspired me too much. My mind was spinning with ideas and images that demanded attention. At last, my creative block was over!
Immediately, I grabbed a pen, a piece of paper, and started drawing. No plan, no preliminary sketch; I simply began the drawing. Though I did not know what I was drawing, I knew what feelings I wanted the drawing to evoke. It was hard to put into words the vibe I was going for, but the closest I've come is this: surreal whimsical horror. As such, I figured that the visual style I would use would be heavily inspired by the art of one of my favorite artists of all time: the amazing John Kenn Mortensen.
The first drawing I completed is the one you see here: a drawing of two children hiding under a stone bridge, narrowly avoiding being seen by giant hooded creatures that are guiding a caravan of mask-wearing monsters, each carrying a cage full of disembodied heads.
Satisfied with this drawing, I did another, letting my mind wander while trying to capture the same feeling as the first illustration.
The second illustration showed the same children from the first drawing, this time on a raft floating above a deep cavern. A monstrous figure guides the raft with his long pole as a black sun shines on them.
My mind was excited by the images that I had drawn -- imagining a story to explain them.
And it was then that a new idea entered my mind. With the intriguing nature of the drawings, and the unique feel that I found in them, I wished to continue drawing more and more, using the children as a way to connect all of them. Of course, me being me, I decided to make a project out of it.
I decided I would do a series of illustrations, with the two children as the characters showing up in all of them, giving no thought beforehand as to what the pictures would be. Then, when I had done a lot of the drawings, I would come up with a story that the illustrations would be for.
And, with that, my creative slump was over. I did a slew of new drawings, each of them an absolute delight to create. With each new drawing, more and more story ideas sprang into existence within my mind.
The story that coalesced was of two young brothers making their way through a surreal, almost dream-like, world full of strange creatures. It was a story where the world was as much a character as the brothers.
Originally, I planned for the book to be more of a picture book, with little prose to go with the pictures. I toyed with the idea of even having no prose at all, letting the 'reader' come up with the story as they flipped through the illustrations. But, ultimately I did decide to have prose to tell the story -- and after I wrote the first sample chapter, I realized that the story I had come up with demanded a more long-form format.
So it was that the project turned from a picture book for young children, to a novel that was at more of a middle-grade to YA reading level.
I also did not originally plan to have this be a whole thing, with plans to create physical printed books. This all started as an exercise to help me draw more and get me out of a creative slump.
At first, I figured that I would simply write the story, do the illustrations -- I decided that I would have to do better illustrations once the story was complete -- maybe print a few copies and give them to family and a few close friends.
It was around this time that an artist I knew, and whose work I adore, Rachel Allen Everett, was putting together a Kickstarter for her graphic novel "The Manderfield Devil". I backed the project when it launched and eagerly watched as the Kickstarter met its goal.
I was greatly inspired by her, both the project itself, as well as its success as a Kickstarter. So, with the start of 2022 swiftly approaching, I resolved to fully publish "Underearth" when it was finished. It has been a lifelong dream of mine to one day publish a book. That dream did not seem to be in the cards for me until now, which is one of the many reasons I'm so excited by this project.
With this new goal in mind, I knew that I would not be satisfied in simply writing the story, doing the illustrations, then releasing it. I knew that what I created, especially if I was eventually going to ask people to financially support the project, needed to be of the highest quality I could create.
This means that I have a long road ahead; a road filled with many hours of writing, many hours of revision and editing, and many hours of drawing.
And I am looking forward to every single one.
Thank you for your interest in this project. I hope to make this something to be proud of. I think I have a good story to tell, and I truly believe that it is more unique in tone and feel than a great many other middle-grade and YA stories out there. I hope you'll consider supporting this project; whether that be financially (once I launch the Kickstarter in the future), by following one or more of many various art pages which you can find here, or by signing up for the Underearth Newsletter here. I hope you stick around with me on this crazy journey to fulfill one of my dreams!
Best wishes,
Gavin Gifford