Hey Jillian! I noticed a small phrasing that could be confusing. Guillermo didn’t create Hellboy. He adapted it for film. It’s actually based on a comic book created by Mike Mignola who also co-wrote the 2nd film.
Plotting out the biographies of your characters helps to flesh them out and make them more "real". Even if no one else understands them, the author should.
The absolute best of notebooks. Makes me long to annotate and sketch and bring a notebook to life like this. It feels like an artefact that could live in one of his worlds.
I love people like this - this is why his worlds are so enveloping. His imagination is all-consuming - yet, it doesn't actually devour reality - it seeps into it like a gorgeous organic ink, saturating the mundane with a dark innocence, a sense of foreboding that ends up being a doorway to the birth of self.
Wow! He writes 8 to 10 pages of biography for his characters. Yes, of course. The answer to my prayer. Duh! Why didn't I think of that. Thank you, Guillermo. Thank you, Jillian. Elizabeth George does this as well.
What a rich exploration! Once you see the notebook, del Toro's process makes so much sense. Of course, an artist who is intent on drawing from his internal mind would privilege letting go and welcoming messy, free association! Most fascinating to me is that del Toro simultaneously envisions his notebooks as gift for his daughters. The world sees the final product, but they will have the keys to the source from which the films were composed, the most personal and formative aspects of himself. This revelation suggests a connection to his acknowledgement (in an interview about the making of Pinocchio) that all his films, so seemingly different form one another, are really all about his relationship with his father. Now we know that they are also about his being a father.
Excellent article. There's a whole college course here. Great starting point to research and study. Thank you.
Thanks, Patrick! I can definitely imagine teaching a course on del Toro.
This is a ciphered message! How timely for me! Goes perfectly with the tarot I drew this morning.
Ooo how exciting!
Hey Jillian! I noticed a small phrasing that could be confusing. Guillermo didn’t create Hellboy. He adapted it for film. It’s actually based on a comic book created by Mike Mignola who also co-wrote the 2nd film.
Thanks for pointing this out, Rae! I'll edit the language to avoid any confusion.
No problem! Is this the best way to do so or would you prefer an e-mail?
It's extraordinary how directly the contents of his notes show up in his movies.
Plotting out the biographies of your characters helps to flesh them out and make them more "real". Even if no one else understands them, the author should.
Thanks, David!
He seems to get somewhat " Zen " with his notes, although observations such as that have become a tad overused.
"Zen" is such an interesting way to think about it!
My inner cultural anthropologist has entered the chat..... !
Jillian, I was so inspired by your post (so much to contemplate) and intrigued and fascinated by his notebook I had to get a copy. Thank you again.
I'm so happy to own a copy! It's such a source of inspiration.
fascinating. thank you !
You're welcome!
Thank you for posting this - so interesting to see the pages of his sketchbooks.
I thought so too!
Jillian this is exactly what I needed today. Thank you
❤️
Thank you so much for the post, I enjoyed it a lot!
Thanks, Sebas!
The absolute best of notebooks. Makes me long to annotate and sketch and bring a notebook to life like this. It feels like an artefact that could live in one of his worlds.
I know! I want a big leather notebook with a clasp--and magical content to live up to it!
I love people like this - this is why his worlds are so enveloping. His imagination is all-consuming - yet, it doesn't actually devour reality - it seeps into it like a gorgeous organic ink, saturating the mundane with a dark innocence, a sense of foreboding that ends up being a doorway to the birth of self.
Oooo--what a gorgeous description, Heather!
Wow! He writes 8 to 10 pages of biography for his characters. Yes, of course. The answer to my prayer. Duh! Why didn't I think of that. Thank you, Guillermo. Thank you, Jillian. Elizabeth George does this as well.
Oh, yes! I did some research in Elizabeth George's practices a while back and I was very impressed. She'd be a fantastic subject for a future Noted.
Fascinating and incredibly inspiring. I so wish I could read all his notebooks now.
You can buy a beautiful edition with many pages from them. But, I also wish I could actually hold his notebooks in my hands.
I didn’t know that. I’ll look that up. Maybe someday he’ll publish the whole collection.
What a rich exploration! Once you see the notebook, del Toro's process makes so much sense. Of course, an artist who is intent on drawing from his internal mind would privilege letting go and welcoming messy, free association! Most fascinating to me is that del Toro simultaneously envisions his notebooks as gift for his daughters. The world sees the final product, but they will have the keys to the source from which the films were composed, the most personal and formative aspects of himself. This revelation suggests a connection to his acknowledgement (in an interview about the making of Pinocchio) that all his films, so seemingly different form one another, are really all about his relationship with his father. Now we know that they are also about his being a father.
Such an interesting point, Elizabeth! I also see his movies differently when I center fatherhood.
He's so psychologically astute, isn't he? So self-aware. And the notebooks are such a key tool for him — and art objects! Fascinating.