A year in a drawer
Awl 1 is one of the few drawings Ian Miller actually likes. It nearly didn't happen.
"Last year, I was working on a very detailed dragon. What could go wrong? It was hardly groundbreaking work."
"But everything I did, try as I might, I could not attach a body to the finished head and neck. Fifty-odd years I'd been at it, and I was scuppered."
He stashed the head away in a drawer, where it stayed, untouched. One year on, he pulled it out and went at it again, from a different perspective.
He grafted the dragon's head onto the stylised body of a dog.
Fitted with mechanical legs, and a wind-up key on its back.
Behind it, a colourful brick house.
"Huzzah! Sometimes, the long way round works just as well."
He had Samuel Beckett in mind when he went back to it:
"Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better."
From the interview Brain, Arm and Pen: The Creative Tug-of-War of Ian Miller.
Sign up to the Haystack Newsletter.
Keep reading
Drew Tucker on Folklore, Family, and the Living Canvas
Drew Tucker builds his fantasy art directly out of his own life. From 1990s scanner constraints to family folklore and sympathetic magic, Tucker reflects on three decades of letting the paint have a voice.
Elwira Pawlikowska: Architecting the Realm One Brushstroke at a Time
From architectural drafting to unforgiving watercolors, Elwira Pawlikowska is building the world of Sorcery one brushstroke at a time.