Stories on Silk--China: a boat from Jinghong to Thailand?

Easter morning on Vashon Island

When the day starts like this, the whole week is infused with joy --which is bound to carry over into my work!

I finished the first draft of the text for my little book, Stories on Silk--China. I confess, it was a little intense, transcribing my journal notes and trying to decide what people would find interesting or insightful and what I should leave out. I'm getting some help with this part, the deciding part.

a page from my travel journal

I'm giving parts of the text to various friends to get their input, asking what should I leave in when I edit? So far I'm getting comments like, "It's all interesting!" or "You could leave out the part about the cockroach and the headache." Both are helpful; I'm too close right now to make an objective decision. In the end, though, the decision is mine.

Ive been checking my facts, too. I was sure, at the time, that I could take a boat down the Mekong River from Jinghong, China to Cheng Kong, Thailand. It's true the same river goes past Jinghong and down past Cheng Kong before going into Laos. What I should have realized--if I had bothered to look at a map--is that it also passes through Laos before it touches Thailand! And where would I be getting visas to go through Laos from China to Thailand? No wonder we couldn't arrange a boat from Jinghong!

Emerald City Comic Con

I went with questions:

by Pam Wishbow

     What formats were people using to publish their graphic stories?  What sizes and shapes of books or booklets? How were they laid out? What are people charging?
     What concepts are people addressing in their work? Anything besides Dungeons and Dragons, Vampires, Combat, and other hero "good guy/bad guy" fantasy?
     Who are the people buying?
     Would I find artist/writers I want to follow or to keep in contact with?

I found so much to like, I would be  broke if I bought everything I wanted to! The sixth floor had more of what I was looking for and was less crowded.

One of my favorites was this sweet little book, only 4" square, by Pam Wishbow. At first glance, the illustrations look like wood block prints. In a genre where so many stories are dark fantasy, this one nourished my soul.

pages from As The Crow Flies

I found insightful coming of age stories, like "As the Crow Flies" by Melanie Gillman. This one is about 7" by 5.5", with 23 pages.

"Sing Ninety Nine and Ninety" is only 12 pages including cover, printed on 8.5" by 14" and hand stapled. By "Anne Notation", it is very well drawn and laid out. I would probably not have bought it except that the title is the title of a song my mother used to sing, as the coloring made me think it would be rather dark.

I found humor, such as in the work of Carrie Potter and Sara Williams in their Juniper comics. I love their "Juniper Sampler",  horizontally bound (stapled) 5.5" by 8.5".

All of these appeared home grown; i.e. printed and stapled by the artist. The Kid Beowulf book, "Shild and the Dragon", a 9" by 6" little book of 40 pages,complete with barcode, seems professionally printed.

So, as far as size and formatting, it seems anything goes as long as it's more image than text. I take that back. One artist/writer did a book on Japanese Ghost stories which was more text with some illustrations. His name is Zack Davisson, and he is a translator, writer, and scholar of Japanese folklore and ghosts.

The little hand bound books ranged from $5 to ..... maybe $12. The more established writer/artists work, such as Girl Genius, were selling their work for $25-30.

I'll talk a bit more about the people, writers, artists, and Comic Con visitors, soon.

New Story: Family Gathering

It is traditional. Every time we have a family gathering at Great Gramma Marj's house, a bunch of us take off together for a walk in the woods, either before or after a gathering at the dinner table. The woods by Marj's house is the most beautiful woods I know.

This particular gathering was for River's Great Uncle Steve, who was visiting from China. Four generations gathered to visit him: River and her three yr old cousin Sebastian, River's father and two uncles, her Gramma Suzanna the artist, Grampa Rifaat, Great Uncle John the sailor, and Great Aunt Jeannie, Great Uncle Don, and cousin Morgan. Whew! Who could remember them all?

While Jeannie, Don, and Morgan were still on their way, River went for a walk in the woods with Dada, Uncles James and Jeremy, Great Uncle Steve, and Gramma Suzanna. Gramma Suzanna made a story out of the walk.

 Here is a draft of one of the panels in the story. I am Gramma Suzanna, of course.

New Project: Stories on Silk--China

This bridge was at a park in Huzhou

When I visited China, it was as a family member, not as a tourist. My brother Steve Watkins, fluent in Mandarin and with an extensive knowledge of Chinese culture, married Xiao Ning, a delightful Chinese woman who lived through the Cultural Revolution and spent her working life as a television journalist in Jinghong, Yunnan Province, China. Steve has spent most of his working life in China.

letting me know what I missed in my sketch of the bridge

With Steve and Xiao Ning as my guides, I got a deeper understanding of China than I would have as a tourist visiting mostly the tourist spots. I collected folk tales and family stories, sketched daily life and places of beauty, talked with locals, and took over 1000 photos.

When I returned to the U.S., I wanted to share some of this adventure. I painted illustrations of some of the stories on silk and created a slide show I shared with my friends.

But that isn't enough. Several of you have mentioned that you would love a book of the stories behind the paintings. At last I have started on it! I'm calling it Stories on Silk--China from the Studio of Suzanna Leigh.

Some times it takes awhile for an idea to season before it can burst forth in the form it needs to take. In my case, it may take years. When it does blossom, it takes form with a depth and understanding that would have been impossible sooner.

Stories on Silk--China will feature paintings on silk with the stories that inspired them and the context from which they emerged. Each painting is associated with a city I got to know. There will be sketches, photos, and anecdotes to give you a fuller picture of the China I experienced.

I expect to have a limited first edition ready by May 1st. I plan to keep you informed with Wednesday blog posts.

Jamila's Story

Here is the finished story, ready for you to see and enjoy. I would love your comments, both what you like about it and where  it is not clear. I can see already that the words on page one are hard to read. I'll fix that in my next book. Also....Oops! a misspelling or two! My spacial relations brain and my speller brain don't communicate well. Note to self: Always, Always get a proofreader!!

thumbnails for page 1

 I'm done, I'm done! My first ever story in pictures is finished! Here are some of the steps in the process.
1. list story points that might be images and the story arc (setting, characters,  problem, etc.)
2. decide on format (12 frame story? 6 frames? 9 frames? etc)
3. decide which story points go on which frames
This part can change as the story progresses.
4. draw thumbnails of images in frames. arrange, re-arrange, as necessary. This might require several drafts.

final pencil drawing page 1

5. final pencil drawing
6. transfer to final paper, ink
7. add values with ink wash
8. paint with watercolor washes

Steven Reddy builds his color and his washes layer after layer after layer.

This story is based on a story my friend Jemilla told at a gathering to honor a well loved friend.

ink and ink wash

I love this way of telling stories! I already have a dozen more I want to do this way. I have stories of Island life, of adventures in the desert, of travel to distant lands. I have my uncle's stories of being a pioneer missionary during the communist take-over of Laos. There are my mom's stories of growing up during the depression. and on and on. I can't wait to get started on those!

I expect I'll be doing several collections of stories.

I'm still working on how to integrate this way of working with the three dimensional fabric art of my last show. I want to continue to work in both mediums. But how do I present them? How do I let my current fans and friends know about this new way of working?

final color, part of page 1

Tip toeing into Graphic Stories

How DO I tell my stories? How do I make them accessible to friends, family, and the rest of the world?

Open Heart

 My latest series of work, "Heart Centered Crone Stories"--or whatever I ended up calling it--is magnificent! The colors are luscious, the concepts I think resonate with people, and I used many of the techniques I have learned over the past few years as well as learning some new ones. 

But concepts are not stories. A painting can tell a scene, an event, but not a sequence of events. Not a story. 

Searching for a way to tell stories visually, I found Steven Reddy's class "Sequential Illustration". Bingo!

OK, OK, so I haven't been much of a fan of graphic novels or comics or what ever you want to call them. I'm just not interested in super heroes and aliens, or in the acerbic wit that passes as humor these days, or the adolescent plots, or, or…..

not in English, but you can see the very different artistic layout

Then my sons introduced me to "Girl Genius", and I found "Buddha" by Osamu Tezuka. Marjane Satrapi's "Persepolis" and "embroideries" showed me that graphic stories can be about different cultures  and can be done in many ways. Steven Reddy introduced me to memoir writing in graphic novel format, and that really got me going! 

 Lately I've discovered "Heaven, LLC" by Wayne Chinsang and Dave Crosland. What amazing expressions he gets on the faces! Interestingly,  my love, Rifaat, and I picked up on different things in the story. He caught the cultural references I missed, and I read the visual plot in places he missed.

So now I'm hooked. I have a list of stories I want to do as graphic stories, perhaps even graphic novels. Reddy introduced me to a way of journaling that brings out the stories in my life and the details that make it interesting. He gave me a structure that works!

Here is a piece of the first frame of my first graphic story, “Jamila's Story”.

In my next bog post, I'll show you some of the process.