Snow




Here are a couple of finished images from a wordless story book I'm working for Illustration for Publishing with Mark Todd and Esther Pearl Watson.

These are the first two spreads in the book, the second reveals the first to be the view from a plane window. To create these pieces, I drew the same images twice, once in graphite, and once in ink. Then I combined them digitally, using Photoshop to multiply the graphite image over the ink one. I am liking the effect.

The story is based on memories from my trip to Beijing in 2002 (when I was 13) for my grandfather's funeral. I'd never met my grandfather prior to his death, nor any of my relatives, and I'd never been to China before. So, the story is less about my grandfather, and more about experiencing death within the new or uncertain, and about the mixed emotions surrounding death...which I feel makes this story more universal. Although this is a strong memory for me, there are many details I cannot remember from 8 years ago. I've chosen to preserve integrity of the memories by focusing on details I can remember and omitting those I don't.

I have not gotten all the images to a finished state yet, but I do have the entire book mocked up in ink wash, and would love to do a video and go through the story with you all when I can. In the meantime, here are some pages as they are from the book dummy...



The car ride to the cemetery...my aunt is holding the box with my grandfather's ashes, which I was not allowed to touch.


The double tombstone with my grandfather's picture, and an empty space for my grandmother.


Burning the Hell money...

I am hoping to finish this book and print a few copies by the end of term.
Thanks for looking.

1 comment:

Cassia said...

wow I love that idea of omitting the things you can't remember and the cathartic feeling of the blurred images from memory. very cool