touch the dream

 

"Touch the Dream" by Ludovic Leleu, a good-luck gift to the writer of Saardu, and she won her first award the next day!

The year 2009 was eventful and heady as Saardu and Carma racked up points for best writing. She had been networking on Facebook with people in the animation industry. A young man in France was doing the same thing at the same time. Ludovic Leleu, a highly imaginative artist in his early twenties, was looking for a way in and saw Carma's posts. He bravely asked if he could read the script and she sent a PDF copy to him. Ludo was hooked on Saardu, like most people who walk into that world. He wanted to be a part of it and asked if she would mind if he did some artwork based on her creatures. What writer would mind? Carma was thrilled that he wanted to do so. 

Jaggy Boy 1986

Ludo asked Carma several questions about the creatures, especially the jaggens, which are her favorite. She sent him a picture of her cat, Jaggy, and said other than memorializing him in the story, she had no fixed ideas. She said that like cats in our world, the jaggens of Saardu should have different colors and patterns, though Jaggy--the main jaggen in the story--she always visualized as a horse-size version of her cat. 

What happened to his tail? Jaggy was born that way. In her mind that was true, once it happened, it seemed that it was meant to be. How did it happen? His tail had gotten run over in the middle and it was not healing, no matter what the vet did, it was too damaged to recover, it was shriveling and the skin was turning black, so it had to be cut. Once the deed was done, that cat began to act like it was the coolest tail on the block. 

Jaggy was more like a dog, everyone who knew him said. He would come to you when you said, "Come here, Jaggy," and he would lay down in front of you and roll over so that his belly could be rubbed. Carma loves this cat to this day and he lives forever larger than life in the fifth dimension, imagination. 

Ludo's first sketch was based on this photo (right) of Jaggy and description in the script. Carma showed it to Tim, and he gave several notes to Carma and Ludo about his vision of jaggens. 

Ludo drew a second version especially for Tim. 

"Tim's Jaggen" by Ludovic Leleu @ludopencil, Copyright 2009

Carma and Tim both loved this, but there was still something not quite satisfying. 

It was the ears. 

Ludo went back to work on another concept of Saardu jaggens...

Saardu Jaggen (3) Copyright 2009 Ludovic Leleu

...and touched the dream!

__________ ❤ __________

• Carma's New 2025 Blogspot (URL: https://herzenity.blogspot.com/)
• Follow Carma @herzenity on Instagram
• Please support indie authors. Share. Post reviews after reading. 
• Questions or comments about this blog? Post below.