With this post, I have finally caught up with my backlog to write a blog post (capturing the thinking and creative process) for each of my works. I’ve aimed to make these blog posts as detailed and accurate as possible, as they were meant to be read by my 80-year old self and all my readers for as long as I can possibly hope.
So what about this book? Here’s the (long) story. When I first made the decision to become a Children’s Book Author slightly over two years ago, I had no idea what to write about, what story I could tell, what pictures I could draw, or even what kind of style I should adopt. My mind was totally blank.
Finally, after much struggle, I managed to conceive an idea of a story celebrating the notion of ‘family’, and something about ‘food’ to go along as well. So along came my first book, which was produced entirely using traditional media such as sketchbooks, pencils and eraser, water-colour paper, and even tracing paper and photocopying machines! It was a gruelling process that took me a very long time to complete-half a year if I remember correctly. Sometime in Sep 2017, I even sent the book (although it was only half finished) to an international picture book competition held in Portugal! Of course I didn’t win anything. In fact, my book or my name wasn’t even mentioned in the final result announcement. How sad it was to think about it.
The story for this very first book was about a boy who had to run errands for his mum as she had just run out of eggs and she needed some to cook dinner. Along the way, other things happened and the boy had to respond to various emerging needs. The story ended with his dad coming home and acknowledging his son’s contribution which was vital to getting the family dinner ready, signifying that each member of the family has a part to play in making the family unit work.
When this book was finally completed in December 2017, I tried to submit it to several publishers. Not a single one replied-one publisher even took the trouble to send me two rejection emails! As it was produced using the traditional medium of water-colour, I found it hard to do a proper submission too as I had no proper equipment to capture the individual frames. The pictures came out distorted and there were lots of reflections from the lighting in my house which I couldn’t eliminate. No wonder no publisher would even consider it!
At that time, I also had the concept (or misconception) that all children’s books must be written in ‘rhymes’. And I’m absolutely clueless 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 coming up with sentences that rhymed. Adding all these challenges up, it seemed so bleak at that time that my writing career would ever take off!
I knew that I had to go ‘digital’ for it to work. So I took out a very old iPad (Gen 2) which had been lying forgotten in the wardrobe. Then I bought a very cheap touch-screen stylus and off I got started. The rest was history. The stylus was horrible and fortunately I broke a few by dropping them on the floor, and each time I destroyed one, I managed to find a better one, until I finally settled on the Apple Pencil-which was simply unparalleled and the most marvellous drawing material ever invented.
After the initial failure of my first unpublished book, 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, my younger son happened to draw 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 final creation was none other than the ‘Luminous Cat’ in my first digitally created book ‘A Very Special Cat’. So that was how it all started.
Sorry for the long background, but this was the kind of backdrop behind the creation of this latest work ‘A Family Dinner’-which bore exactly the same name as my first ever, unpublished work. The title was in fact given by my wife, who happened to be really good with coming up with names. In fact, everyone in my family contributed to this 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 the production of the book.
After releasing four books, I felt that it’s time and I was ready to go full circle and revisit my first unsuccessful attempt. Hence in a way, this fifth book of mine can be considered the end product (or final realization) of my first unpublished 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’ in which 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 a similar scene of an open fridge.
And since all the members of the family have had their outings in at least 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 ‘Dad’ to make his appearance too.
I’ve always wanted to write a story about an ordinary outing ‘gone completely wrong’, but with all that ends well eventually. And I wanted to show, through a very simple and mundane thing like ‘carrots’, the immense and limitless love the Dad has 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 encounters are analogies for the hard work and unpleasant experiences all parents go through at work, in order to put food on the table-reprimands from bosses, demands from difficult customers, and not to forget 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 far away and unfamiliar 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 Mum or Dad, or both, who have to work so hard just to bring home the dough.
Lastly, I’d like to bring your attention to a new device I’ve used in this book, which is the ‘adaptation’ 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, an amazing but unfortunately not so well known 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 work as they were more grounded in reality. Being less far-fetched and out of this world, Bruegel’s works were in fact become more believable and immediate than Bosch’s, as you can actually imagine such scenes happening in your own 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, and having taught this subject in school for many years, I wanted to make use of my work, wherever possible, to educate and induct young readers into this fascinating world. (I’ve even thought of starting a page on my website dedicated to the teaching of Art History, but that will have to wait…) So I suppose you have no difficulty guessing which frame in this book had made reference to Bruegel’s masterpiece? 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 it, and I had to draw every leaf and blade of grass one by one; even the overlapping of leaves and grass was carefully articulated. 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 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 again as I plunge into my next work.
Thank you for reading!