With this post, I have finally caught up with up all my works as I aim to write a log to capture the creative process and thinking behind each of my work. I aim to make these logs as detailed and accurate as possible, as they are meant for my 80-year old self and all my readers!
When I first made the decision to become a children’s book author, slightly over two years ago, I had no idea what I should write about, what story I could tell, what pictures I could draw, or even what kind of style I could adopt. My mind was totally blank.
Finally, after much struggle, I managed to conceive an idea of a story to celebrate the sacred unit of the 'family', and something about 'food' to go along. So came along my first book, which was created completely using traditional media like sketchbooks, pencil and eraser, water-colour paper, and some photocopying and tracing. It was a grueling process that took me a very long time to complete- half a year if I remember correctly. I even sent the work (sometime in Sep 2017) for a competition, even when it was half finished- in Portugal! Of course I didn’t win anything! My book wasn’t even mentioned in the final results. How sad!
The story was about a boy who had to run errands for his mum as she had run out of eggs, which she needed to cook dinner. Along the way, other things happened. The story ended with Dad coming home and acknowledging his son’s contribution to the family dinner, a symbol that each member of the family plays a part in making things work.
When it was finally completed in December 2017, I tried to submit the book to several publishers (not a single one replied by the way, and one even took the trouble to send me two rejection emails!) As it was done in the traditional medium of water colour, I found it hard to do a proper submission as I had no proper equipment that would eliminate the reflections from my photos., which came out distorted too! No wonder no publisher would even consider it!
At that time, I also had the concept that all children’s books should be written in rhymes. And I’m absolutely hopeless with that! In the end, I had to enlist the help of my elder boy (who happened to be the protagonist in the story) to help me with the phrasing. All these challenges added up and it all seemed so bleak that I think my writing career would never take off!
I knew that I had to go ‘digital’ for it to work. So I took out a very old iPad (generation 2) which was forgotten in the wardrobe for the longest time. Then I bought a very cheap touch-screen stylus and started. The rest was history. The stylus was horrible and fortunately I broke a few by dropping them on the ground, and each time I destroyed one, I managed to find a better one, until I finally settled on the Apple Pencil- which is unrivaled!
After this initial failure, I went on a short holiday to a nearby country with my family, it was a depressing trip that I would never forget. During the trip, however, my younger son drew a childish picture of a Pokémon (a 'Raichu' if you know what I’m talking about). This picture was so spontaneous and lively that it inspired me to pick up my pen again (this time a stylus!) and my end creation was none other than the ‘Luminous Cat’. So that was how it all started.
Sorry for the long background, but this was exactly the backdrop for the creation of my latest work ‘A Family Dinner’- exactly the same name as my first ever, unpublished work. The name was in fact given by my wife, who’s really good with coming up with names! So in fact, everyone in the family contributed to my book- my elder boy helped with the ‘rhymes’, my wife helped with the title, and my younger boy encouraged me and kept me company throughout.
After releasing 4 books, I felt that it’s time and I'm ready to go full circle and revisit my first unsuccessful attempt. Hence in a way, my fifth book could be considered the finished product of my first book.
Like how ‘Theodore’ was inspired by the image of a random piece of cloth draped over an arm chair, ‘A Family Dinner’ took its inspiration from the scene in ‘Theodore’ where the bear climbed up the open fridge looking for candies (which happened to be one of my favourite frames in that book). Coincidentally, in the first unpublished ‘A Family Dinner’, there was also such a scene.
And since all the members of the family have had their outings in one of my books (my wife in ‘A Dream’, my elder boy in ‘A Hero’s Cape ‘, and my younger boy in ‘A Very Special Cat’), I thought it’s time for the ‘Dad’ to make his appearance.
I had always wanted to write a story about an ordinary outing gone completely wrong, but with all ending well eventually. And I wanted to show, through a very simple and mundane thing like carrots, the immense and limitless love the Dad had for his family, such that he would never flinch from facing dangers (the wolf) or unpleasant tasks (the worm) to make happiness possible for his family. The trials and tribulations he encountered were analogies for the hard work and unpleasant experiences all parents encounter at work, in order to put food on the table: Reprimands from bosses, difficult and demanding customers, and of course long, never ending meetings. All for the sake of the family! Such is the noble love of parents.
And as parent/s go away to work in the morning and come back only in the evening, most of the time their hardship goes unnoticed, very much like what happened in this story. I know of many parents who even had to go overseas or a very far away and unknown place to work for many years, just to send money home to their families, such as foreign domestic workers and construction workers. So this story is really a tribute to the boundless love of all parents, be it the Mum or the Dad, or both, who have to work hard to bring home the dough.
Lastly, I’d like to bring to your attention a new device I've used in this book, which is the 'adaption' of a masterpiece. If you are familiar with the art of the Early Renaissance, you may have come across the work of Peter Bruegel the Elder, a marvelous artist of Dutch/Flemish origins. His works were similar in many ways to the older and more famous Hieronymus Bosch (who painted haunting scenes of hell and fantastic magical gardens) but I’m more fond of the younger artist’s works which was more grounded in reality. Being less far fetched and out of this world, Bruegel's works in fact become more believable than Bosch’s, as you can actually imagine such scenes happening in your backyard!
One of my favorite work of Bruegel was none other than the woodcut print ‘Big Fish Eat Small Fish’ (do check it out!). I’m a huge fan of art history, having taught this subject in school for many years, and I wanted to make use of my work, where possible, to educate and induct young readers into the world of art history. (I’ve even thought of starting a page on my website dedicated to the teaching of Art History, but that would have to wait.) So I suppose you will have no difficulty in guessing which frame in this book that made reference to Bruegel’s print. In my future works, I hope to continue to be able to make references to important art works or artists that I like, and hopefully use my work as a medium to spread the love of art history to young readers around the world.
Overall, this book took me a very long time to complete- almost 3 whole months! It was mostly due to the fact that there were many nature scenes in this work, and I had to draw every leaf and blade of grass, one by one- even the overlapping of leaves and grass was carefully captured. The colouring, too, took me a very long time, as you may have known by now that colour is my greatest enemy! I am conscious that I still have a very long way to go to really master my craft, and this can only come with practice.
So, with that, I'm signing off for now as I'd soon be going into hibernation mode as I plunge into my next work.
Thank you for reading!