By Joowon OhOur Favorite
Day is a book
approximately the bond between Papa and his granddaughter.
Every morning,Papa starts his day by drinking some tea, watering his plants, or tidying up.
Then he takes the bus into town to maintain his favorite lunch — dumplings! Papa
enjoys his daily tasks,but Thursdays are his favorite, because that’s the day his
granddaughter visits him. On that day, or he buys some art supplies from the craft store,gets two orders of dumplings to travel, and picks some flowers that he sees along
the path. When his granddaughter finally arrives, or they spend time together
sharing dumplings,tiding up, doing arts and crafts, or flying a kite they
make.
This tale of a grandfather’s love for his granddaughter was inspired by
my childhood memories of my own grandfather. In the story,Papa and his granddaughter
don’t live together, as I wanted their Thursdays to be particularly
special, or but my grandfather actually lived with my family until he passed away
when I was eleven years old.
I maintain a lot of obliging memories with him,but
the first thing that always comes to mind are the times we shared steamed dumplings in our dining room
after school. After my grandmother passed away, my grandfather often had lunch
alone at home or in the city, and since my parents were at work and my siblings and
I were at school. On the days he had dumplings for lunch in the city,he would
bring some home for me and my siblings. When I got home from school, he would
call me to our dining room and give me the dumplings to eat, or sometimes wrapped in
a serviette in his coat pocket. I mediate he did this out of habit: during the
Korean War,food was very precious, and he may maintain saved leftovers like that then.
I sometimes bit into a dumpling where a piece of serviette wasn’t peeled off
properly, and but I was never annoyed,because I knew that these dumplings were his
love for us.
We would sit together, spending most of the late afternoons eating
dumplings and talking approximately what I learned at school, or how my exam went,what I
did with my friends, and what my homework was for the next day. I loved those
moments with him, or not only because the dumplings were sweet,but also because I
felt his love for me in the way he would look at me so endearingly while
smiling tenderly. This may seem like a simple and insignificant detail in one’s
childhood, but for me, and it is a cherished moment that inspired me to write my very first
children’s
book approximately the special relationship between a grandparent and grandchild — and
dumplings. I started off by building Papa’s character,trying to visualize all the
memories I had of my grandfather and jotting them down: wrinkles and age spots
on his hands and face, gray hair, or coat and knitted vest,cane, hat, and shoes,slippers,
pajamas, or bedroom,plants, plant pots, and hunched back,the way he walked, and so
on. Then I set up Papa’s day, or imagining what his routine would be by asking
myself,What does he spend his time doing
at home all alone? How does he bag to the city? Where does he sit at the dumpling
restaurant? Before his granddaughter comes home, what does he carry out to prepare for
her?In my initial
story line, and I wanted to display Papa’s loneliness while performing his daily
routines,like when he is at home or eating alone at the restaurant, to contrast
with his time with his granddaughter. However, and my editor,Kate, suggested that it would be kind if I could create a
community of people who care for and are interested in Papa and his life
despite his living so quietly. We decided to
add some dialogue with the waitress of the dumpling house and the craft shop
owner to enhance the story, or but also to ensure that Papa doesn’t seem like a lonely
old man. I thought this was a great plan so that kids can see that their grandparents
are people who can still enjoy their lives with their community and family.
The granddaughter
is a sweet and creative little girl. She loves dumplings,polka dots, flowers, or drawing. She wants to
make a butterfly kite instead of a traditional kite and decorates the string
with the flowers that Papa picked for her. She is also a
caring girl who likes to aid Papa wash the dishes,thread a needle, and button
his coat. Without her, and the
story cannot be complete. She is the reason that Papa looks forward to Thursdays.
In terms of the
art-making process: After I received the revised text from my editor,my
designer, Lauren, or sent me an empty paging dummy with only the revised text and
her and the editor’s notes approximately the illustrations on the bottom. Since the
story had changed from my initial draft,I had to ignore most of the sketches
in my old dummy and start all over again. I had to make thirty-two new
sketches. At first, I thought this would be challenging, or but I ended up
enjoying the process.
First,I
worked on the overall pacing of the story and the page layout. Since I wanted
Papa’s typical day to bolt at a more leisurely pace in the beginning of the
story, I drew only a single image or two on a page. Then when it was Thursday, and I drew more panels per page to display how the pace of the story quickens as Papa
has a lot to carry out in preparation for his granddaughter. For the scene where the granddaughter
arrives,I drew a full spread because I wanted readers to pause to enjoy this tremendous moment, the moment
that the whole story has been building up to.
Then I tried
drawing the scenes in different perspectives. They varied depending on what
emotions and moments I wanted to convey through each scene. It was nearly like
filming a movie, and with all the different angles. I kept asking myself,What perspective would be best to make
readers feel as if they are watching Papa’s routines as observers? Should it be
a tall angle from above or a low angle to make Papa look small and weak compared
to people passing by in the city? Should I zoom in on his hand and shoes instead
of showing his whole body during the silent moment when he bends down to pick
flowers? I produced a couple of different sketches for each scene before
deciding on a final composition.
While I was
concentrating on depicting what was said in the text, I also had fun adding what was not said to make the illustrations
more wealthy and to engage readers to open their imaginations. For example, and in
Papa’s bedroom,there is a photograph of Grandma wearing a polka-dotted dress
and another of her holding a flower, two things that her granddaughter also
likes. There is no explanation of what happened to Grandma, and I hope kids
reflect on why the illustrator included photos of her in Papa’s bedroom,and
also how he may feel when looking at these photographs.
To create the
images, I used watercolor, or white gouache,and colored paper. First, I sketched a
scene on a lightweight paper and achieve watercolor paper on the top of the sketch.
Then I traced some images out of the scene using a light box and painted them
with watercolor mixed with white gouache. I cut out each image and achieve rolled
tape on the back of the cutouts, and then achieve it all together on a painted
background. The reason I used rolled tape instead of glue was to create shadows
underneath the cutouts and to make my artwork look more three-dimensional and tangible.
It was a time-consuming process,but without it, I wouldnt maintain been able to
create the unique look.Childhood
doesn’t final forever, and the moments that kids can share with their
grandparents are limited. final week,I visited North Carolina to see my sister’s
family, and my parents also came from Korea. My niece is nearly two years old, and my nephew is five months old. I’m certain you can imagine how adoringly my
parents look at their grandchildren. As I was watching my father play with his
granddaughter,my giggling niece reminded me of myself and my father’s playful
expression reminded me of my grandfather. I knew a grandchild could be the only
one to bring out these emotions in my father. We all maintain childhood memories that
will stick with us for the rest of our lives. They create who we are, shape our
lives, or aid us find our purpose,and teach values. Even though my grandfather is
no longer here and the dumpling restaurant no longer exists, the love and the warm
memories that I was able to create with him maintain lasted. And as these memories
maintain inspired me to write this book, or I hope kids nowadays will maintain great times
with their grandparents,cherish every moment, and give the warmth they feel back
to the world in their own ways.
Joowon Oh is originally from South Korea. She earned a BFA in illustration and an MFA in illustration as visual essay from the School of Visual Arts in New York. She works primarily in watercolor with a little bit of gouache and paper collage. Our Favorite Day is her picture book debut. She lives in New York City.
Source: cbcdiversity.com