Final Year Project
Semester 6
March – July 2018
Final Year Project
It was in the middle of my three-month-long break when I discovered a graphic novel titled This One Summer, by cousins Jillian and Mariko Tamaki. I was casually browsing in a library in Singapore when I found that book, then I picked it up and read it. I finished it in one sitting, not realizing the rapidly setting sun. That graphic novel gave me intense emotions. It was a simple depiction of a young girl's day-to-day during summer break in her family's summer home, but the real issue behind the apparent normalcy was chilling. Miscarriage, depression, pregnancy, growing up—all packaged together under the guise of peace and tranquility.
Why is marriage considered the duty of a woman?
One of the most inherent difference between man and woman is the latter's ability to reproduce. Today, reproduction out of marriage is still frowned upon, so marriage is necessary before reproduction. Reproduction means giving birth to the next generation. In a nuclear family, it can mean giving birth to an heir. An heir is passed down with the father's name (most common, though some ethnic groups are matriarchal), thus figuratively continuing the blood of said family. No heir/child means the end of the family tree.
Why is it better for women to marry earlier?
It's not about marrying earlier, it's about giving birth earlier. If a woman marries early, she has plenty of time to try for a child, and it's most likely going to be successful. Time passes, though, and sooner or later a woman will reach menopause, after which she won't be able to carry a child anymore.
Why is an unmarried woman considered incomplete?
There might be different ways to answer this question, but according to the answer of two parents:
Photography project by Yingguang Guo - The Bliss of Conformity
Description: "The bliss of conformity" uses a combination of fine art and documentary photography, the book aims to address a few important social problems in contemporary china: women on the shelf, arranged marriages and the idea of pseudo-intimacy between husbands and wives.
I started off wanting to do the graphic novel by hand, so the initial sketches were made by hand too, with a brushpen. Later on after testing a spread, though, it was extremely impractical for me to do it traditionally, so I decided to switch to digital instead.
In these pictures you can see me try to explore the style, which ended up differently because I changed medium, proportions of characters compared to each other, and also character design. The last picture shows a couple of environments that will appear in the story of the graphic novel.
2. STORYThe story is an incredibly important part of the graphic novel, so I was quite nervous when the time came for me to finalize it. I spent a lot of time hesitating on the story, but during around week 4 or 5 I decided that I didn't have enough time to dilly-dally. This is the first story outline I worked on, in text:
I wrote a full-length, rough novel based on this outline in order to gauge the scenes, dialogue, and setting. Later on I used post-it notes to refine and finalize the sequence of events.
3. THUMBNAILS
Thumbnails were needed to estimate the length of pages and to act like some sort of storyboard for the scenes in the graphic novel. The first set of thumbnails resulted in a 120-page monster, and my lecturers were worried I couldn't finish it, so I made a deal to condense it down to 80 pages.
Little did I know I would finish 126 pages at the end of the semester.
Below are the pictures of the thumbnail sketches. They weren't to scale at all, so later on I figured that some panels can be smaller, so things can be shortened.
4. EXECUTIONMy process to draw the final artwork can be divided into sketch, lineart, and final rendering (coloring and shading, if any is involved).
I followed a Gantt chart to make sure that I won't go over the deadline. The process is as follows:
Further sketches of selected covers:
March – July 2018
Final Year Project
A Final Year Project is basically an independent brief-free project which will be one of the last projects students will go through before graduating. It is recommended that the student plan a project that 1) is in line with his/her interest and skills, 2) is reasonably big enough to be called a FYP, and 3) has commercial value. Students can pick their project based on a social issue, a real-life client, or just well-supported pure interest.
Background
Another thing in the middle of my three-month-long break was going back to my hometown, a small city called Jambi in Indonesia. With a population of 3.4 million and a total area of 50,058 km², you can't exactly call it "small", but I say so because of its strong conventionality and traditional views of things. We don't have McDonalds here in Jambi. Just KFC. The first Starbucks outlet opened March 2017.
Speaking of home, my older sister also comes home every so often, mostly for Chinese New Year. She is my only sibling. We stay in a humble four-story shophouse with my mother and father. She is also eleven years my senior.
A 32-year-old single woman comes home to meet her family for Chinese New Year. You can already see where this is going.
Many relatives and family friends were eager, let's just say, to be involved in the knowledge of my sister's love life or lack thereof. I have watched them pester her with questions like: "when are you gonna get a boyfriend?", "your parents are waiting for you to get married", etc., but it is noteworthy that they seemed like they don't mean any harm. They were just being nosy. Some other people might not seem as forgiving in their comments: "hurry up, you're already way past your prime", "you're too picky", "if you want to have a boyfriend you need to dress up more".
So all that is annoying and I think it is wrong to say stuff like that. But I've never been under that metaphorical spotlight. Not until my three-month-long break.
Long story short, I broke up from a long-term relationship two months before the break. When I went back to my hometown, basically everybody knew about it, and my aunt tried to play matchmaker by finding a guy that is looking for a girlfriend. I wasn't even (and still isn't) looking. (I didn't get matched in the end.)
Another long story short, I started feeling like my sister. Slowly but surely, and certainly if I remain single for a long time, I will be treated like her. During the break they (family friends, relatives) were already asking me what my type of guy was or if I was actively looking for a new partner. I can imagine the things they are going to say to me if I am still single in ten years.
Because (I think) my skills include writing and illustration, I decided to make a graphic novel for my FYP. You can also consider this self-gratification, since making a comic/graphic novel is my childhood dream.
Research
In many communities/societies worldwide, marriage is considered the duty of a woman, one that is assigned to her at birth. The earlier she gets married, the better. If a woman doesn't marry, she is considered incomplete.Why is marriage considered the duty of a woman?
One of the most inherent difference between man and woman is the latter's ability to reproduce. Today, reproduction out of marriage is still frowned upon, so marriage is necessary before reproduction. Reproduction means giving birth to the next generation. In a nuclear family, it can mean giving birth to an heir. An heir is passed down with the father's name (most common, though some ethnic groups are matriarchal), thus figuratively continuing the blood of said family. No heir/child means the end of the family tree.
Why is it better for women to marry earlier?
It's not about marrying earlier, it's about giving birth earlier. If a woman marries early, she has plenty of time to try for a child, and it's most likely going to be successful. Time passes, though, and sooner or later a woman will reach menopause, after which she won't be able to carry a child anymore.
Why is an unmarried woman considered incomplete?
There might be different ways to answer this question, but according to the answer of two parents:
- If you don't get married it means you'll die alone. Perhaps parents who stand more on the traditional side of things do not consider adoption, companionship that is not marriage, or even pets as meaningful relationships. Their concern is that said child of theirs (daughter/son) will have no one to take care of them, or more accurately no one that is responsible to take care of them. They might have friends that can help, but who can help them during old age when their friends might not even still be alive? Or if they find great joy in having a pet as family, how can the pet help them when they've become sickly? If they adopted a child, how can they be sure that an adopted child can care for them (I'm not going to run my mouth too much even though I can on this point particularly)? Such are the doubts in a traditional parent's mind.
- It means that the job of the parents are not complete. Instead of incompleteness of the unmarried woman, it's the incompleteness of the parents' responsibility. According to this other parent, their job is to raise their children, particularly daughters, to the point where their children can be the responsibility of their respective spouses. Until their children get married, they are still under the parents' care. If their child doesn't marry, the parents think that their child are forever under their care, so when they pass away, they lack closure because they think nobody is taking care of their child.
The idea of self-sufficiency is not something the first parent buys. Old age and disease will chip away on one's independence.
Existing Work
Description: "The bliss of conformity" uses a combination of fine art and documentary photography, the book aims to address a few important social problems in contemporary china: women on the shelf, arranged marriages and the idea of pseudo-intimacy between husbands and wives.
References
- “Maus: A survivor’s tale” by Art Spiegelman (similar in a way that the author is involved as a character in the GN)
- “Persepolis” and “Persepolis 2” by Marjane Satrapi (also talks about suppression of women and sexism in the Middle East, but mostly relating to religion)
- “American Gods” by Neil Gaiman, illustrated by Walt Simonson, P. Craig Russell, Scott Hampton (nice panel-to-panel transition)
- “This One Summer” by Jillian and Mariko Tamaki (main reference for ambiance and panelling)
Process
1. SKETCHESI started off wanting to do the graphic novel by hand, so the initial sketches were made by hand too, with a brushpen. Later on after testing a spread, though, it was extremely impractical for me to do it traditionally, so I decided to switch to digital instead.
In these pictures you can see me try to explore the style, which ended up differently because I changed medium, proportions of characters compared to each other, and also character design. The last picture shows a couple of environments that will appear in the story of the graphic novel.
2. STORYThe story is an incredibly important part of the graphic novel, so I was quite nervous when the time came for me to finalize it. I spent a lot of time hesitating on the story, but during around week 4 or 5 I decided that I didn't have enough time to dilly-dally. This is the first story outline I worked on, in text:
3. THUMBNAILS
Thumbnails were needed to estimate the length of pages and to act like some sort of storyboard for the scenes in the graphic novel. The first set of thumbnails resulted in a 120-page monster, and my lecturers were worried I couldn't finish it, so I made a deal to condense it down to 80 pages.
Little did I know I would finish 126 pages at the end of the semester.
Below are the pictures of the thumbnail sketches. They weren't to scale at all, so later on I figured that some panels can be smaller, so things can be shortened.
4. EXECUTIONMy process to draw the final artwork can be divided into sketch, lineart, and final rendering (coloring and shading, if any is involved).
I followed a Gantt chart to make sure that I won't go over the deadline. The process is as follows:
The cover art came last, but I made sure to sketch out some small thumbnails to show people. I have several favorites among the kind of random bunch.
Another thing that I needed to create was the typography for the title. Here are some initial ones, they're the same but with different alignment.
Further sketches of selected covers:
Cover sketches with transparent paper on top to indicate title position and notes on the illustration
These two were originally my picks from the previous thumbnail sketches (Week 11), but after much contemplation, the top illustration is chosen to be the cover. Some supporting reasons:
- It shows more mystery compared to the other sketches → important, because the title is also intended to pique curiosity
- There’s a little bit of foreshadowing related to the event in the graphic novel, which is Chinese New Year. On the cover it is subtly indicated by the decorative tree and red packets on
- Other cover sketches are either literally pulled from the story (being in a car, carrying a luggage) while others are too detached/has no relation to story or events in the comic
After the cover art is finalized, the text was put in. The previous text was discarded because it looked to strong and commanding, not really the emotional tone in this graphic novel. Red looks like murder. Mystery/horror, etc. Even when text is in blue it still kind of looks like horror, perhaps because of the italic of the writing. Very dramatic. But it does look consistent with the handwriting presented inside the book.
It just occurred to me that the flower on the table is too close to the space for the title, so I needed to fix that.
 |
| The chosen one. |
Results
There is one gimmick in this graphic novel that I put in, because 1) I somehow needed to show the sister character because she is not present in a big chunk of the book, and 2) I needed to also show that the character "I" is being put in the same position as her sister. This was what I came up with, printing on tracing paper with a different color:
Reflection
So the exhibition is over, the work got positive reviews, some people even expressed interest in buying it. I was complimented by peers and professionals alike, and I feel self-satisfied for completing a graphic novel. Ten-year-old me would be proud.
But is that it?
There are definitely improvements that can be done, not only on the graphic novel, but also on its presentation. Things like: the book should have had a jacket, there was a typo on page x, I should have made a bookmark, the type could be smaller, etc. Things that reveal themselves in hindsight, especially obscured during the stressful period of making the graphic novel itself.
However, there is this unsettling feeling, I realized, that surfaced whenever someone picks up the book and reads it. I suddenly feel nervous, insecure even. I admit that the graphic novel looks good in a glance, but the inside of it? The story? On the day of the exhibition, a couple of young girls took one book, stepped aside, and read it from start to finish. I was horrified beyond belief, scared, anxious. I was constantly, mentally spewing "what-if"s, like what if they can't tell which character is who? What if the story is actually crap? What if they don't understand the references, the foreshadowing, the ending?
Maybe it's the impostor syndrome. Too much 'fake-it-till-you-make-it'. Once you've 'made it', you're scared of being fake. That you're actually not that good, that like the graphic novel you made, you are only great at a glance and hollow upon further inspection. Like pretty trash. It doesn't make sense for me to feel this way because I can still remember the countless all-nighters, the sleep-for-two-hours-until-I-have-class-to-go-to days. I remember being literally locked up in my prison cell of a room (it doesn't have any windows), my butt glued on the chair, and I sat for so long that I kind of forgot how it felt to walk.
I worked hard for this project, and yet upon its completion, I feel like it's not good enough.
Thank heavens for my slightly more rational side, though. It convinces me that it's probably the impostor syndrome messing with my head, that this project is a success, not only because of the reception, but also because of the self-fulfillment it brought to me. That I can draw at least a little better than before. That I did a good job.
...Right?
Subang Jaya
16 July 2018
16 July 2018