So continues my unpolished sketching of illustration layouts for Lucy's Dance, a children's picture book dealing with the Yup'ik dance festival Curukaq. Layout sketches 5-8 show relatively modern settings, but still required some odd research.
TECHNIQUE NOTES:
Two of these illustrations are gift-gathering montages, which I will keep a bit abstract. I tried a few collage elements in the first gift montage just to see the effect. The color comes from an ink wash that I scanned and converted to different hues.
KITCHEN:
On this page, Lucy points out Apa's loss of appetite and sad demeanor, convincing her mother to re-initiate the festival of Curukaq in order to cheer him up. In order to do so, she uses the citizen's band radio, which sits at ready on the counter, like the Bat Signal. I drew two of my original character studies with this page in mind, so I decided to drop them in for layout purposes. When I was sketching Lucy's mom, I wasn't sure at first what to do with her hands. Then I recalled learning how the garnish of choice for fry bread of Stebbins, Alaska is peanut butter, and that gave me an idea.
MEETING:
After the call, the village holds a meeting to plan the dance festival. The planning of traditional Curukaq was quite elaborate, involving the assignment of many ceremonial roles, including the nasquk (head of the festival--sometimes a child). The nasquk was a figurehead, issuing commands while the elders really made all the decisions in the background. According to elder Charlie Steve, elders generally wanted "people to admire them, and they wanted to eat good food" (29). It's difficult to argue with that kind of honesty.
I have placed the elders at the center of the meeting, in folding chairs, to show their role in all decisions surrounding Curukaq.
The setting here is based on a photo of the community hall in the village of Stebbins, Alaska. The most distinctive feature of this small meeting room is the lengthy bingo board that hangs on one wall. Apparently, Bingo games are a custom in themselves in Stebbins. I love the graphic appearance of the justified numbers, and have begun toying with a sketchy way to render them here. If I decide that the board is identifiable to a general audience, and not too distracting, I'll keep it.
GIFT GATHERING 1 and 2:
Once it has been confirmed that a festival will take place, villagers begin gathering gifts that are "ordered" before the festival. As Christmas-y and lighthearted as these illustrations seem, they actually reflect one of the most earnest parts of Curukaq. Obtaining gifts traditionally took months, and seriously affected community status (80). Traditionally, gifts were hunted, fished, skinned, and built by hand. Now many gifts are store bought, but Stebbins still identifies as a subsistence village, so the mix here still seems appropriate.
Lucy's sister knits a hat for her friend. I know just enough about knitting to know that a large loop is often used to begin hats. Somehow, I felt better about the knitting page after I drew Lucy's sister a pair of large, decade-ambiguous headphones. She'll probably need cords for those unless she's much higher tech than I am, but at the moment, she's already tangled up enough in her yarn.
Lucy's brother chops firewood to earn money to purchase boots. I decided that I needed a model to illustrate proper posture for firewood chopping, lest someone get the wrong idea from my drawing and throw out their back splitting spruce. Conveniently, my friend Joe Goodner had just been thoroughly trained in the art of wood chopping, and offered to demonstrate the proper technique and wide-leg stance. I understand that the axe swing is initiated with one hand near the blade and one at the base of the handle. The front hand guides at the beginning of the swing, then slides backwards up the handle to meet the other hand as the blade nears its target. I'm sure this is much more difficult than it sounds.
The same goes for dogsled building. Lucy's Dad builds a dogsled by hand, while Lucy's mom orders a set of pots from "the fat catalog." It seems to me that Lucy's mom has the easier job here. Dogsled building a laborious process involving precise measurements, steam, and bending wood. I noticed that handmade dogsleds in rural villages often have straight-edged fronts rather than the curved front-piece, so I've currently rendered mine that way. Arguments and updates on this point are welcome.
All this festive gifting felt somehow appropriate as I sketched these layouts. I hope everyone enjoys their Turkey Day--or at least a day off. I'm off to do the same.
Note: All page numbers cite the book Stebbins Dance Festival.
TECHNIQUE NOTES:
Two of these illustrations are gift-gathering montages, which I will keep a bit abstract. I tried a few collage elements in the first gift montage just to see the effect. The color comes from an ink wash that I scanned and converted to different hues.
KITCHEN:
On this page, Lucy points out Apa's loss of appetite and sad demeanor, convincing her mother to re-initiate the festival of Curukaq in order to cheer him up. In order to do so, she uses the citizen's band radio, which sits at ready on the counter, like the Bat Signal. I drew two of my original character studies with this page in mind, so I decided to drop them in for layout purposes. When I was sketching Lucy's mom, I wasn't sure at first what to do with her hands. Then I recalled learning how the garnish of choice for fry bread of Stebbins, Alaska is peanut butter, and that gave me an idea.
MEETING:After the call, the village holds a meeting to plan the dance festival. The planning of traditional Curukaq was quite elaborate, involving the assignment of many ceremonial roles, including the nasquk (head of the festival--sometimes a child). The nasquk was a figurehead, issuing commands while the elders really made all the decisions in the background. According to elder Charlie Steve, elders generally wanted "people to admire them, and they wanted to eat good food" (29). It's difficult to argue with that kind of honesty.
I have placed the elders at the center of the meeting, in folding chairs, to show their role in all decisions surrounding Curukaq.
The setting here is based on a photo of the community hall in the village of Stebbins, Alaska. The most distinctive feature of this small meeting room is the lengthy bingo board that hangs on one wall. Apparently, Bingo games are a custom in themselves in Stebbins. I love the graphic appearance of the justified numbers, and have begun toying with a sketchy way to render them here. If I decide that the board is identifiable to a general audience, and not too distracting, I'll keep it.
GIFT GATHERING 1 and 2:
Once it has been confirmed that a festival will take place, villagers begin gathering gifts that are "ordered" before the festival. As Christmas-y and lighthearted as these illustrations seem, they actually reflect one of the most earnest parts of Curukaq. Obtaining gifts traditionally took months, and seriously affected community status (80). Traditionally, gifts were hunted, fished, skinned, and built by hand. Now many gifts are store bought, but Stebbins still identifies as a subsistence village, so the mix here still seems appropriate.
Lucy's sister knits a hat for her friend. I know just enough about knitting to know that a large loop is often used to begin hats. Somehow, I felt better about the knitting page after I drew Lucy's sister a pair of large, decade-ambiguous headphones. She'll probably need cords for those unless she's much higher tech than I am, but at the moment, she's already tangled up enough in her yarn.
Lucy's brother chops firewood to earn money to purchase boots. I decided that I needed a model to illustrate proper posture for firewood chopping, lest someone get the wrong idea from my drawing and throw out their back splitting spruce. Conveniently, my friend Joe Goodner had just been thoroughly trained in the art of wood chopping, and offered to demonstrate the proper technique and wide-leg stance. I understand that the axe swing is initiated with one hand near the blade and one at the base of the handle. The front hand guides at the beginning of the swing, then slides backwards up the handle to meet the other hand as the blade nears its target. I'm sure this is much more difficult than it sounds.
The same goes for dogsled building. Lucy's Dad builds a dogsled by hand, while Lucy's mom orders a set of pots from "the fat catalog." It seems to me that Lucy's mom has the easier job here. Dogsled building a laborious process involving precise measurements, steam, and bending wood. I noticed that handmade dogsleds in rural villages often have straight-edged fronts rather than the curved front-piece, so I've currently rendered mine that way. Arguments and updates on this point are welcome.All this festive gifting felt somehow appropriate as I sketched these layouts. I hope everyone enjoys their Turkey Day--or at least a day off. I'm off to do the same.
Note: All page numbers cite the book Stebbins Dance Festival.
I like the floating ideas in the last sketch. I especially like that the woman has many objects. It makes it look like she hasn't quite decided what she wants to do.
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