Drawing someone else's story

I'm finding as I work on Kichi, that I really like drawing something someone else thought up. It's a different feeling than drawing from my own ideas. When I'm drawing something I thought up, it's rewarding in and of itself... though it is like eating your own brand in a way. Chances are that I, the illustrator, will impress the author or conceptualist, again me if it's my idea. I guess it's the most fail safe system for getting what was in someone's head down onto paper if the illustrator and author are the same person...

But it gets lonely all alone in my head. And maybe that's why I like illustrating Lila's story. These are someone else's characters and ideas that I'm visualizing and illustrating. Ok, so there's a chance an author or publisher may nix something and that'll be fun to deal with, but if I get it right. Wow! It's kinda like I delivered a character into the world!

Oh well... back to the drawing board now. The jaguars came out great!