Sadly he’s injured now and out of action for a long while, but our bond makes that old tale feel more real than ever.”

What I’m about to share with you is a series of illustrations I made based on that true story, making that childhood tale feel more real than ever.

Ímir is special. I saw it when I saw him for the very first time. I fell in love immediately, and even though I knew he had a history of injury, I knew I had found my horse.

He had a serious leg injury, so he needed care and rest. Instead of riding, I took care of his injury. I had a horse, but I found myself walking, and walking, and walking.

I dedicated my time studying and learning more about horses, and I spent many days, weeks and months drawing and sketching them. I learnt so much just from watching—how they move, how they sleep (by standing still), and how their limbs move in different gaits.

Things I didn’t learn just from watching, I learnt in the quiet hours just from listening and looking up into the night sky. I missed the riding, but I knew I had to be patient and wait for him to be strong enough to carry me.

Spring passed, and then summer. By the end of the summer, I had climbed many hills and mountains. I was grateful for the sweet and loyal company I had along the way. I think without them, I might have started questioning whether I was doing the right thing. And I kept going.

When we got tired, we stopped and rested. When the heat of the day slowed us down, we found a cold stream to fetch some water. In the most desperate hours, we discovered some unexpected beauty, often with wings or even tails.

You might ask—what’s the desperation about? Well, without revealing too much about how the story continues, I think I am generally not comfortable with not-knowing and open endings.

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Pareidolia (/ˌpærɪˈdoʊliə) is the tendency for perception to impose a meaningful interpretation on a nebulous stimulus, usually visual, so that one sees an object, pattern, or meaning where there is none.

I’m using this phenomena as a source of endless inspiration when I use the guest bathroom at our home. While sitting there I stare at the fine lines and patterns of the floor tiles, and all kind of phantasy birds and other creatures stare back at me!

This is really a lucky find as it happens totally effortless and almost accidentally. I then use these “accidents” as a starting point for my character drawings, adding a few details until a new species evolves (not only of birds, but often).

It has now been researched that “faking” faces activate the same visual mechanisms in the brain as real ones. Obviously recognizing others is important for our coexistence and even for survival, namely being able to recognize enemies and potentially dangerous animals in time. So there is an evolutionary advantage to recognizing faces.

I made my pareidolia birds into a set of postcards of eight. If you’re interested in purchasing them (€ 10), please don’t hesitate to drop me a line: info(at)andreapricedesign.com

There are many ways to tell a story. For me as an artist and illustrator the best way is by sketching ideas into my sketch book. Words come later, and sometimes they don’t come at all. Ideally, the visual is so strong that not a single sentence has to be written in order for the story to unfold.

Or, sometimes just one single word or phrase is necessary to guide the viewer along those invisible lines that suddenly (or eventually) turn into a totally new experience.

Just think of some of the all-time best-selling children’s book, like The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle, first published in 1969 — the simple story of a caterpillar eating her way through all kind of food, before pupating and emerging as a butterfly! The small, robust picture-book stands out because of its distinctive collage illustrations that were innovative at the time of publication, real ‘eaten’ holes in the pages, and simple text around educational themes – counting, the days of the week, foods, and a butterfly’s life stages. Almost 50 million copies of this book have been sold around the world!

Where the Wild Things Are by the American writer and illustrator Maurice Sendak is another great example of how a complex topic or emotion, can be tackled by the limited use of only 338 words on 40 pages! I personally adore Sendak’s illustrations even more after having learnt a little bit more about the making — apparently shortly before starting the illustrations, Sendak realized he did not know how to draw horses and without further ado changed the wild horses to the more ambiguous “Wild Things”, a term inspired by the Yiddish expression “vilde chaya” (“wild animals”), used to indicate boisterous children.

Ever since I was a child I adored books, in fact many of them are still crowding my bookshelf, and I have grown my collection even more since I had my own children. One of their favorite books has always been “Der Hase mit der roten Nase” (The hare with the red nose) by Helme Heine, first published in 1988.

Unfortunately entirely written for the German market, it’s a lovely, simple story about a unique hare with a red nose and one blue ear. When the fox doesn’t recognise him as such, he realizes how lucky he is and loves being different.

The whole story is written as a poem:

Once upon a time there was a hare with a red nose and a blue ear. This happens quite rarely.

The German “hare” rhymes with “nose”, and “ear” with “happens … rarely”. Probably the book couldn’t be published world-wide because those carefully chosen words that rhyme simply don’t allow for an appropriate translation.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed viewing a small selection of my own ideas for a children’s book. Another book I have already written and illustrated together with my daughter Sami you can view here.

I’m always open for licensing and/or a cooperation of any kind. Or maybe you already have the corresponding story in your mind? In either case, please get in touch with me!

It was an incredible feeling to finally hold two copies in our very own hands — one of which we gave “Opa” (Sami’s grandfather) as a present for his 90th birthday! The other copy still remains with us, and I’m excited to finally share the content with a larger audience. If you like what you read and see, please comment and share, as I’m wondering whether there might be publisher out there who would like to publish it?

But first let me tell you a little bit more about how it all began:

Sami (our daughter) and I were thinking about what present to give the children’s grandfather for his very special birthday, and we came up with the idea of writing a story and illustrating it. It might have seemed a bit daunting if we had known then that we would end up with a whole book, but we took it step by step, and thereby we witnessed the process effortlessly unfolding in front of us — word by word, sentence by sentence, page by page.

Within a few days we had written the story of a boy’s long journey in search of his father, his intimate relationship with all kind of animals along his travels, and in a joint effort we had drawn seven pictures to illustrate it. But let’s start at the beginning:

Most stories begin with the words “once upon a time …”. We let our story begin exactly like that: “Once upon a time there was a little boy.

He lived with his mother and he loved animals. He had a beautiful fishbowl with two goldfishes in it.”

The fishbowl had been a present given to him by his father just before he set off on a very long journey — traveling so far that nobody would be able to join him, not even his beloved son.

The fishes were orange-golden at the head and had bright red tails.

By now you’d probably want to know the boy’s name? His name was “Wal”, which is the German equivalent for whale.

From: Wal’s längste Reise | Sami and Andrea Price

His parents had chosen the name because he was born on a ship in the middle of the ocean somewhere in between Africa and Australia exactly at the very same moment an enormous blue whale appeared at the horizon.

From: Wal’s längste Reise | Sami und Andrea Price

Can you hear the voice of a ten-year old girl coming through these lines? This for me is the beauty of the whole process — it’s the very personal story of our own daughter becoming inseparably intertwined with the story we found ourselves in within the process of writing. Here it is important to mention that she is not our biological child. We fostered her on from the very beginning of her life, and later adopted her.

This is her story. I just happened to write it down:

Wal lived happily with his mother and his goldfishes in the fishbowl. But he often thought of his father. He missed him.

When he turned fourteen, his mother gave him binoculars, a compass, a map, and a small sailing boat, and she sent him off to find his father. He took his fishes along with him, keeping them in a small fish tank that had a handle to carry it like a handbag.

When he turned fourteen, his mother gave him binoculars, a compass, a map, and a small sailing boat, and she sent him off to find his father. He took his fishes along with him, keeping them in a small fish tank that had a handle to carry it like a handbag.

From: Wal’s längste Reise

Of course this was not going to be an easy task for Wal. We then witness him facing all kinds of difficulties and new challenges as he sails on — a boy in a small boat in the company of two goldfishes in the middle of an ocean.

When he gets caught in a massive storm, he finds himself stranded on a small island. Surrounded by rare birds, enormous snakes and shy deer, he learns to understand the language of all animals. Again and again he hears them say that fish don’t belong in a fish tank.

Of course, this makes him very sad. In the end he trusts the voice of an old owl, and he decides to set them free. But this is not so straightforward as you might think: Even though he is surrounded by water, the water is salty, and his goldfishes are clearly not suitable for that.

Wal has to come up with an idea for them to survive unscathed in freedom, and again, it’s his own wit that helps him solve even such existential problem. He had to be very patient and cautious as he was carefully preparing his friends for them to be released into nature and freedom. Until finally the day came …

For a very long while they swam next to him and his boat, when suddenly far in the distance at the horizon the silhouette of a whale appeared …

For a very long while they swam next to him and his boat, when suddenly far in the distance at the horizon the silhouette of a whale appeared …

From: Wal’s längste Reise | Sami und Andrea Price

And they lived happily ever after. This is how many stories end. Not so our story: Our story ends as it once began — with a whale appearing at the horizon. It is easily possible that the end is in fact only a beginning. The beginning of another new story that once has to be written. It is then another story — your very own.

And they lived happily ever after. This is how many stories end. Not so our story: Our story ends as it once began — with a whale appearing at the horizon. It is easily possible that the end is in fact only a beginning. The beginning of another new story that once has to be written. It is then another story — your very own.

From: Wal’s längste Reise | Sami und Andrea Price

Please tell it.

The book is not yet available as a printed version, but who knows, maybe soon? I’ll keep you informed!