Here’s an illustration of the first scene in Silver Antlers. We meet the stag in a place of…maybe not hardship, but frustration, definitely. We meet the man who stops on his way home at the end of the day to help the stag free his silver antlers from the snarled brush, sacrificing the day’s gatherings, leaving him and his wife without supper. Hopefully, one way or another, the man’s kindness will pay off. We’ll see.

I drew this scene and the rest of the show very quickly the night I picked this project back up. This was, perhaps, the first time I ever tried to draw a deer. Many details in the story had not been born yet—for example, those antlers? Not silver. At this point it was just a talking deer. (I don’t even think the stag is going to talk anymore!) I’d like to share these early sketches with you, along with new ones as I create them, but I’m torn.

I’ve been trying to decide how much of the story to share in this pre-production blog. If I show you everything I’m working on, I could spoil the show. But if I keep the last few scenes secret, we won’t get to share and discuss some of the most interesting and challenging aspects of the production. Neither option seems right.

I was thinking out loud about this dilemma the other day and a smart friend told me that (and I’m paraphrasing) if the most interesting parts of the conclusion are the fact that they’re secret, then there is likely a bigger problem with the story itself.

A confession: I saw Disney’s Sleeping Beauty for the first time just a few months ago. I had already pored over stills from the film, marveled at Eyvind Earle’s magnificent concept art, memorized every moment of the Once Upon a Dream scene, and even found myself inside Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland more than a few times, absorbing the recent reopening of its walkthrough adaptation (go figure). I knew the story.

But I didn’t see the film. The canonical reference point for all of these pieces of art was still mostly a mystery to me. So I took some art off my walls, fired up my projector, fixed a cocktail, and watched it. And I was as moved as I ever could have been. Seeing Maleficent become a dragon in Fantasmic didn’t make her original transformation any less scary or suspenseful. Knowing that kiss with my eyes closed didn’t mean I couldn’t appreciate it with my eyes open. If anything, knowing the subject matter so well enhanced my viewing: releasing some of the energy required to follow the story allowed me to focus on the details.

So yes, I’ll be showing you the scenes and I’ll be telling you the story, and if you still really want to wait for the real thing, I understand completely, and you can skip those parts of the process for now. But I promise you that knowing the forest will burn down at the end will not remove any of the impact of walking under the flaming timbers.

On Sunday we’re going to talk about the biggest reason why Silver Antlers and Pirates of the Caribbean are different, and no, it’s not because my show will have more Johnny Depp animatronics. See you then!