I’ve finally got down to writing a blog for this book, almost 11 months since I started working on it in 2018. I must have greater discipline in writing a blog for each of my works as soon as it is completed, as it’s obvious that the longer it is, the less we remember. And I do want to make it a point to record down the thinking and creative processes that go behind each of my work, not just for anyone else but also for myself to read when I’m 80 years old, if I’m lucky enough to live to that age.

Anyway, back to the book. ‘A Dream’ was the first book I have created using the new iPad that I have bought, which of course is now 1 year old. And with it, I was able to tap on the amazing capabilities of the wonderful Procreate software and the miraculous Apple Pencil, which worked almost as well, and in some cases, even better than the actual drawing materials themselves. I often feel fortunate to be born in this day and age which offers us two amazing and incredible tools the world has never seen before.

The first is Direct Indie Publishing: the internet has enabled any writer to reach out to his audience without the approval or censorship of a traditional publisher. As a self-published writer, although I may not have the publicity and promotion machinery afforded to writers backed by established publishing houses, I enjoy a pure, unblocked relationship with my readers, without the interference (and manipulation) of an irrelevant third party known as the publisher. It will be a long way for me to become a successful and selling author, but I’m enjoying every bit of the journey- I’m still dreaming!

The second incredible tool that would make any children’s book illustrators of the past green with envy would be technological advances in terms of electronic drawing media that made it possible for you to carry around your canvas, easel, pencils, brushes, paints and mixing medium (be it water or oil) in a small 9 inch size rectangular device known as the iPad. This amazing device has made it possible, at least for me, to create anywhere and anytime I want, in bed, at the Coffeeshop, or in the park. It has greatly sped up the process of creating a book, shortening the entire process tremendously from start to finish. When I got my new iPad and downloaded the Procreate app, I felt so liberated and empowered as I no longer have to grapple with 5 miserable layers when I was using Adobe Sketch, and I could finally place my hand on the iPad! Sounds crazy? You will be surprised how we take this for granted! And all these also mean greater productivity and consistency to me as an illustrator, something I’m still striving to enhance every single day.

When I looked back at the initial drawings I did with Procreate, I must say the quality was nothing short of embarrassing. It took me a very long time to even decide on a ‘pen’ I like. After all, it felt like a cave man who has just discovered fire. Hundreds of thousands of strokes later, I can safely say that I’m way more confident today in using this virtual drawing tool than a year before (although there is still a very long way to go to achieve mastery!)

Like my previous book ‘A Hero’s Cape’, with this book I’m still having a hard time grappling with the issue of ‘foreground’ and ‘background’. Even today, I’m still unsure if I should start with the foreground or the background. This is an issue that I’d probably visit again and again. Strange huh? For ‘A Dream’, there were some frames which came to my mind so easily as a complete whole, e.g. the scene of the giant Baby getting lost in the city, the scene of the nursery, the scene of the Mother wondering in the forest, the scene of the Mum and the Giant Baby sharing a bed, and to some extent, the scene of the Father balancing the Giant Baby on the staircase. For the rest, I mostly had the foreground in my mind and did not know what to do with the background. So in some sense, the foreground characters were all conceptualised and realised first, and the backgrounds were somewhat after-thoughts and patch-work to complete the pictures. The pieces I struggled with the most were the scenes of Giant Baby toppling Mr Smith’s flower pots, as well as the very first scene where the baby was born, which I had to redraw many times.

I suppose, when I look at my experience so far, the best frames seem to be the ones that come to me instantaneously as complete wholes, not in partial fragments as either the ‘foreground’ or the ‘background’. And this should be the direction for my future compositions- to strive to conceptualise frames as ‘singular’ entities instead of ‘partial’ or ‘half’ entities. Of course, I also struggled with the colour, for colour is my greatest enemy, if you haven’t yet known…

So much for the technologies and the creative processes, now over to the story.
In my first book, the protagonist was none other than my younger son, who was seven at the time the book was composed. The second book, on the other hand, was inspired by my older son (who’s turning 13 today!) who was playing with his bath towel, using it as a cape. So naturally I thought, the next book should perhaps ‘honour’ another family member- to complete the ‘cycle’, so to speak. So I decided to do something about my wife.

If you know my wife personally, you would agree with me that the Mother in ‘A Dream’ is a true to life portrait of her. She is testament to the amazing transformation motherhood brings to women. I’m often stunned by the incredible amount of strength, courage, focus, and dedication mothers have towards their children. I have witnessed it first hand for myself when, during a holiday gone wrong, my wife had fallen into a pothole in the ground during a pitch black night, while carrying my then one year old son in her arms. She emerged from the pothole with a deep cut on her knee (blood was flowing non-stop down her leg), while my baby boy was totally unscathed. Yet this amazing woman seemed to feel no pain at all! She had lifted my son up in the critical moment to prevent him from getting injured, with herself suffering such a bad injury.

It is this kind of absolute dedication (to the point of obsession for her child’s wellbeing) that I was trying to portray in this book. A parent, especially the mother, will worry about her child until the day she enters her grave. Yet, the best way to parenting, I feel, is to always take things one at a time, one day at a time, and just to enjoy and accept things as they are, as this is always the best way to enjoy the each and every wonderful day our children bring to our lives, for they are the best gifts that one can ever have in this life.

I hope you like this book, thank you for reading!