Do you Remember, Mooneyes?

31/5/2015

Do you Remember, Mooneyes?

The book

¿Recuerdas, Ojos de Luna?

Picture Book, 32 pages.

This is a story about the encounter of a house cat and a mysterious girl, a spirit of the night who wants to reach the sunrise despite being bound to existing only under the moonlight.

It's also a story about not denying the nature of the creatures we find, about acceptance, understanding and failure.

Pages:

Printed book:

Do you remember the Girl of the Night
with her clear eyes and bright smile?
How she jumped across the stars,
the dark fields and stormy skies?

Sometimes she still flies from windows to trees
But the Girl of the Night grew tired of it.
“Let me go, let me go!” She cried at the moon,
“Let me go, let me be! let me smile at the sun!”

Do you remember, Mooneyes?

DEVELOPMENT

My starting point was the girl, the cat, the starflowers, and the poem directed to the cat about that improbable encounter.

The story naturally went into narrating their first encounter: how the girl’s personality clashes with the cat’s, and how it makes more sense to work with their nature than against it in order to achieve their goal. Also, it led me to reflect about how some goals are unattainable yet something positive comes out of pursuing them, like a new friendship.

I wanted to keep a limited cast, since it was logical to me that a cat in the night and a girl who is as tangible as moonlight wouldn't be easily noticeable.

The initial story and character exploration culminated in 24 storyboard panels.

Basic story outline

Character Exploration

Storyboard

About the characters

The Girl of the Night

Night spirit, playful, stubborn, willful.

Everything about her is otherworldly. Cloud scarf, bluish skin and stars on her hair, she belongs to the night. She is also weightless, and her wild hair floats around her, always pulling her up to the night sky.

Mooneyes

Just a big housecat afraid of going outside.

He is BIG, even for a cat. Pear-shaped with a severe facial expression, big pointy ears, and 4 sharp fangs. And striking light blue eyes that resemble two crescent moons over his dark fur.

Before going all the way into production...

Sketches and figuring out the layout of the pages

Limited color palette and mock-up of the book

Figuring out the style, to make it something doable in the timeframe I had and that made sense for the story

EPILOGUE

Every night when there is a crescent moon in the sky, the Girl of the Night visits her cat friend's memory. In the silver glow, she feels her friend's sight, never completely gone.