Whispers
Breakdown. Don't... Book 3
@DRAWNBYAGGIE is the official abstract artist for the Don't... series. Losing herself to the reflection of human nature through her art of complex shapes and symbolism, she's ventured into the dark realm of Don't.... And with Gray and his love of abstract art whispering in her ear... she's getting up close and personal with Jack, Jan, and Gray's twisted world in... Breakdown... Book 3 and -
"This gripped my heart so hard!" ~ aggie
“GOD HAS GIVEN YOU ONE FACE, AND YOU MAKE YOURSELVES ANOTHER."
~ Shakespeare, W. Hamlet.”
WHAT I LOVE the most about the first set of Main Breakdown work in progress videos is how the camera lens zooms in and out of focus when I add the dotted lines on Vince’s ‘V’. In my eyes this reflects the general feeling of Breakdown so well: that ‘in and out of focus’ feeling Jack goes through as we skip between him being 18, then 20 then back at 30 again. The second focus area is the first ‘X’ position of the Tic Tac Toe - it was important for me to incorporate Vince’s ‘V’ into the central ‘X’ theme, and the technique I chose to do it - splashing red paint dots to form the ‘X’ - is once again to represent the whole theme of Breakdown: shattering into smallest pieces, just to form into something solid in the end.
MUSIC I CHOSE for the first Breakdown video is "Savin’ Me" by Nickelback. Wish I could claim the credit for choosing this one myself, but it was Jack L. Pyke - a song recommended to her by a reader. When I heard it in the context of Breakdown, it hit the bulls eye in the most perfect ways.."
MUSIC IN THE second set is "State of My Head" by Shinedown. I have had this song in my head for Jack H and the state of his head ever since I first read Breakdown, so imagine my surprise when I catch Jack L. Pyke mentioning this same song, only later in the series (Psychopaths and Sinners).
"JACK," said Craig, quietly. "ARE YOU AWARE YOU'RE SCRATCHING AT YOUR RIGHT HIP?"
THE FOCUS OF the second set of videos is the painstaking process of ‘colouring in’ between all of the red paint splashes. ‘You live and learn’ is a saying perfect for the work in progress of Breakdown: instead of thinking of taking the easy route and splashing red ‘X’ dots at the very end of the drawing, instead I chose to play with the splashing at the very beginning. And then, because I didn’t want to lose even one red dot in the process while colouring in using black pencil, the process of filling the white spaces was almost as painful as it was for Jack H to claim his headspace back after those 5 months. It is all within the theme though, almost as if I designed it that way.
HUMPTY DUMPTY SAT ON THE WALL.
THE FINAL VIDEO of the main Breakdown shows the finishing touches and we finally see Jack H’s circle in full glory - how Jack’s silver circle can’t help but ‘hug’ the square of his ‘hip’ and Vince’s ‘V’. And here, hugging Jack, is Martin in the gold circle. I needed to show how Martin’s gold is getting increasingly sharper, with less silver streaks as we move through the series. This is all to represent how important Martin is in protecting Jack H, but also his increasing importance as a character in his own. Hence also Martin in the central space alongside Jack.
MUSIC FOR THIS piece is "Human" by Civil Twilight, and this was the song that immediately ‘fit’ Breakdown. It’s all Jack H, but it’s also Jan, and Gray. How the lyrics in this part gripped my heart as hard as Breakdown did:
“There’s one way out and no way in, Back to the beginning, There’s one way back to home again, To where I feel forgiven, What is this I feel? Why is it so real? What am I to say? It’s only love, it’s only pain, It’s only fear that runs through my veins, It’s all the things you can’t explain, That makes us human.”
MUSIC DISCLAIMER: the artwork depicted is for non-commercial usage. Any music used in these videos was used to aid the creative drawing process. Full credit to all artists mentioned.