The shirt points to it

Early in building this I had to make a decision that ended up being a very important one.

There's a difference between a photograph of a stoop and a sketch of a stoop. A photograph is that stoop. A specific building, a specific block, a specific person's memory.

But an illustration is different. A line drawing, done right, in the right register, with the right amount of specificity, is every stoop. The ambiguity is the mechanism. It's what makes a stranger in another city look at it and substitute their own.

So the illustration system isn't aesthetic. It's philosophical. 19th century scientific naturalist register with minimal fill, tone, and hatching. Structure by line only. Every mark confirmed by observation from source material. Because the act of looking closely at something is ENGRAINED in physical form.

And then the decision that everything else flows from: the illustration is the primary object. The shirt points to it.

Not the other way around. The shirt is a flag. The illustration is what the flag is pointing at, and everything the illustration points back to. The stoop that raised you. The kitchen table where everything happened. The desk where you learned what they were teaching and everything they weren't.

The whole point is to see the work first, then the shirt. That's the whole point.