Centipede Dragon
  • About
  • Blog
  • Events
  • Crafts
  • Where to buy
  • Contact
  • Medical art

Character development: first up, BEN

3/31/2015

0 Comments

 
In order to help me draw kids, I used photo references I found online of kids running, chatting, eating, sleeping etc. When I needed a kid waving while skipping but couldn’t find that exact photo, I'd cut and paste a waving hand onto skipping body, which on occasion produced Frankenstein-ish results.

Getting the look of the boy right was the mere beginning of the struggle, for in order for me to get YOU to believe that he is who I say he is, I had to develop a back story for him. This exercise is called a “character sketch.“ I had to invent the story of his life, including details that would never see the published page. In the end this helped ME to believe that much like Pinocchio, he IS a real boy. And that is how I make YOU believe the same.

As for name choice, originally I went for the "low-hanging fruit" method of choice: I wanted one boy hero and one girl hero, AND I happen to have one nephew and one niece, so I thought, DONE! But I ran into resistance from THE REAL BOY, who didn’t want his name used. I do get the last laugh because "Ben" was the parents' original name choice for him.

I started writing about Ben as if describing a boy I knew: Ben is starry-eyed, gets distracted easily, and takes in the world as it unfolds. But he is also more about relying on instinct--more action-oriented. As he took shape in my head, it became easier to write about what he’d say and do, for it was just like recounting a story about a friend's kid.

Backwards as this sounds, when I wrote book 2 for this series, I added more details to Centipede Dragon's character sketch, because characters should be ever evolving, just like the real living creatures that inspire them!

Different characterizations of Ben, evolution of Ben, different faces of Ben
0 Comments

Characters: where did they come from?

3/27/2015

0 Comments

 

Let's return to a pivotal change in the making of my story.

J. had also given me this book called Writing Picture Books, where the author stated the importance of having children cast as “the heroes.” Apparently, children don’t like see-reading about adults solving the problems.

I actually hadn’t wanted to draw ANY humans, because humans are hard, and made-up characters/animals are easy. But even in 2005 I realized that humans would have to come into the equation. I started searching for literal references like “Shepherd” and “farmer,” and so this picture includes my first attempt at human drawing.

But with this new intelligence, it was clear that  “Farmer” would have to be replaced with “Farmer’s kid.” SO, the next questions were: who should these characters be? How do they fit into the story? Does a kid get stuck in a well? Will they be friend or foe? And how on Earth will I learn to draw kids?

Picture
0 Comments

Thanking the Academy, part 1

3/24/2015

0 Comments

 
In 2012, my friend J. edited my manuscript through 13+ drafts. Editing is a BIG job that includes determining whether the plot hangs together with the character’s behavior. So after she read my first draft from 2005, she asked many good questions, “Why does he want to help? What’s his motivation? WHY is he doing this?”

“Because he’s magical and NOT real.”

“Because he is part centipede and part dragon.”

“Because he’s bored.”

“Because I’m bored.”

MOTIVATION became the bane of my existence. But because of her gentle insistence that the character’s MOTIVATION has to be clear, I finally came up with a motive to which I hope many humans, big and small, can relate. Thanks J!

Early drawing of Centipede Dragon, Centipede Dragon's motivation
0 Comments

About Alice, part 2

3/20/2015

0 Comments

 
You can count that from 2005 until now, TEN years have elapsed. During that time I assure you I wasn’t doing NOTHING. I simply don’t remember all the SOMETHINGS I was doing.

Up until 2012, my medical illustration career flourished. I had probably drawn hundreds of hearts, brains, livers, bones, cells, kidneys, vessels, stomachs, lungs, bladders, boy-parts, lady-parts, and poo. Yes, poo.

But my career took a “temporary hiatus” in the beginning of 2012. I took it as a sign from the Buddha of Children’s Books, so from February to April I devoted myself to re-writing and illustrating the entirety of Centipede Dragon. And it was exhilarating! In a way hearts blah blah blah etc etc etc and poo were not. Don’t get me wrong, I love medical illustration, but this children’s book adventure comes from deep down inside: a LIFE.LONG.DREAM.

Picture
0 Comments

About Centipede Dragon, part 2

3/17/2015

6 Comments

 
Picture
At some point in my initial research effort, I found this written description: "Centipede dragon is a benevolent creature who takes the shape of many forms."

"Benevolence" evokes a gentleness in character that I frankly wasn’t intending to create. I was more interested in writing more snarky, tongue-and-cheeky stories like Jon Scieszka does, who is simply one of the BEST children’s book writers EVER. I wanted Loony Tunes “kill-da-wabbit” material; I mean who really cares about teaching kids! It's the adults who have to read this stuff night after night, right?

As bad as that sounds, it’s actually an important aspect to writing children’s books: satisfying the person holding the wallet that expels the money for a sales person to take who then hands you a bag with a book in it. The kid isn’t going to think, “The psychological motivation driving Centipede Dragon’s actions exposes a decidedly human trait in him, that of craving a community to which to belong. I want this one Mommy.”

This is the sketch where I defined HOW Centipede Dragon bestows benevolence with his magic. It also cleverly ties back to that one description I found. At least, in my humble opinion!

6 Comments

On the origins of Centipede Dragon

3/10/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
When we last left off, my sister was warning me that cocaine could derail my children’s book aspirations.
The rewrite was laborious for a teen with little focus, and though you would think the illustrations would be the easy part for me, my lack of ability ended in pursuing medical school as a career instead.
So by the time I got back to children’s books, I had finished college, did NOT go to med school, worked my first job as a lab tech at the NIH, moved to Canada for grad school and found a way to torture myself with cadaver dissection without the payoff of a medical degree, worked my first medical illustrator job, and moved to New York for my second, third and fourth jobs.
On a visit to Toronto in 2005, I saw that fateful symbol at an exhibit on Indigo-dyed batik textiles. There were many symbols depicted, but none caught my eye like this one.
In 2012, I found more images. Now, I’m injecting my own ignorant opinion here with my initial impressions of the imagery (text in white), but take a look in particular at the version in the upper right corner…can you guess which one was my favorite?
0 Comments

A little about Alice

3/3/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
So, how did I get started with all this? Way before I even knew that there was such a thing as being a medical illustrator (which is what I am professionally, not that children's book writing and illustrating is NOT professional!), I wrote my first story at age 14-15, about an Inuit named Indigo and his sidekick penguin friend, Pinnafore. I was really into penguins back then, so Indigo was really Pinnafore’s sidekick. Indigo and Pinnafore were explorers, though they never actually went anywhere because Indigo was a kid and Pinnafore was, well, a penguin.

Indigo started out as "Escobar Eskimo," which sent my sister, Janet, into a lather. She was always the smarter one of us two. She told me that a big-time Colombian drug dealer named Pablo ESCOBAR had just been arrested, so unless I wanted my adventuring duo to be synonymous with cocaine, I had better change his name! She also scolded me for using the ethnically incorrect term "eskimo."

That radically changed my book, considering that now everything that rhymed with "Escobar" or "Eskimo," had to now rhyme with "Indigo" or "Inuit." Already I was in over my head.

0 Comments

    Alice Y. Chen

    is the author of Centipede Dragon A Benevolent Creature, the first of a series of children's picture books for ages 3-7 (and up).

    Archives

    December 2020
    October 2019
    August 2019
    May 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    November 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.