Sketching a Universe: A Personal Look at My First Drawings

For my first post, I want to take you behind the scenes. I'm going to tell you the story of the charcoal sketches from my very first book, the original Turkish version where the whole 'Artificial World Colony' idea began. I'll get into the challenges of bringing them to life, but before I do, I invite you to explore them for yourselves.

Like every great idea, "Artificial World Colony" was born at a table, among friends. The first draft of the novel was finished, and I had shared it with a few trusted friends when that magical (or should I say, cursed?) sentence was uttered: "You should add some illustrations!"

Since my budget stretched only to a fine arts student rather than a professional, I knew I was at the start of an adventure. But I couldn't have predicted that the real challenge would be my artist friend trying to read my mind instead of simply reading the book. My attempts to describe every scene like a film director, I think, wore us both out.

The solution was simple: one drawing per chapter. But this simple solution gave birth to the hardest question for an author: "Which moment?" Building a novel with words is one thing; fitting it into a single frame is a whole other art, and in that art, I was a novice.

The result? A collection of pieces that make me think, "I wish this were different," and others that make me proudly say, "This is it!" There were moments I believe we truly captured the soul of the story—like the image representing an education system stripped of philosophy, the instant Prometheus stole fire, or Juno's famous dream.

At the end of the day, the greatest lesson came from my readers. Some collected the drawings, while others said, "Don't steal my imagination!" That second group was so right that in my later books, I decided to leave the canvas entirely to their imagination. (Also, I won't deny, it was a decision my wallet was very happy with.)

08 / 25 / 2025

Umut