Japanese Calligraphy VAWAA in Kyoto
My final project for my Graphic Memoir course at the Center for Cartoon Studies with Mel Gillman was a comic about my 4-day Japanese calligraphy VAWAA last spring in Kyoto with Chikako.
Our assignment was to create a 3-5 page memoir comic — I think that was pretty much it in terms of the assignment, so it was a very open-ended prompt.
We did a brainstorming session during class on day 1 with a list of as many ideas as possible for a short memoir comic and quantity > quality. Then we picked an idea and wrote a story outline, including as many small details alongside the important info. Step 1.3 was to edit down the outline and consider where it could start & end and any irrelevant details.
The next day, we learned about character development, world building, and non-sensory visual information and worked on scripts. Day 3, we practiced drawing people a little, and how to create unique-looking characters for our comics, plus voice & dialogue.
For 2 hours each day, the instructor had 1:1 meetings to discuss our progress on our memoir comic. During those sessions and outside of class time (after 4:30 pm Mon - Thurs), we worked on our memoir comics.
(Jump down to see the full final comic. Otherwise, keep scrolling through the process!)
My Comic-Creating Process
Because I'm not very good at drawing and find paper & pencil more frustrating than productive, I decided to work on my iPad so I could easily trace, redraw, and move things around.
Eventually, I got a decent sketch drawn out for a 6 page comic — page 1 was chaos with a lot crammed on, which was a main piece of feedback during my class review on Friday, to split it up into 2 pages so it could have more breathing room (like my pages 2-6).
Then because my comic was about calligraphy, which I couldn't do all on my iPad, I printed out my pages. Luckily, I had just bought washi tape on Monday or Tuesday afternoon, which happened to be Japanese koi themed (and a nice brush pen), so I used that to tape tracing paper on top.
It worked really well, actually. The tracing paper was more similar to calligraphy paper than any other available option would have been, and it made it all feel more authentic to have the characters drawn on.
(That step was a bit lol for me because I realized as I started doing the calligraphy that I hadn't practiced it *at all* in the year since my VAWAA, so I was trying to get it decent enough but also quickly, so that I could finish all my pages in time but also represent the art form and my teacher & my work well enough. Ha! Silly Katherine. But I managed pretty well, with a good number of practice scraps leftover.)
I presented the tracing paper taped on paper version to the class, and then later that night, scanned them in the school's computer & print lab. Then I printed regular paper size and zine size copies that I sent out to friends the next week.
I presented my comic to the class with the tracing paper taped on big white sheets of paper (using an overhead camera to show on a big screen).
After class ended, I went to the CCS print lab and scanned in the pages. While I did photoshop out the washi tape, I also really liked that it brought in a pop of color and felt topically relevant (Japanese koi — I originally just bought it because I love koi and these colors), so I decided to share the scanned versions with the tape even though that’s not technically part of the comic.
My Japanese Calligraphy Comic
Class Reflection
I originally signed up for the class because the timing & location worked well to go to after my 15 year college reunion in western Mass and because I wanted to take a class at CCS after following them for a while because of alum Lucy Knisley.
I thought graphic memoir would be a decent fit for me in the sense that I mostly am interested in making creative non-fiction and educational work (vs fiction / fantasy). I picked this project idea just because it felt well-contained to the length and I thought might be unique & interesting. And it was!
Now that it’s been a few weeks since the class, I’m even more grateful for the experience & think it was really wonderful for me. ⚡️💕👏🏻 I learned a lot, made a long list of comics & graphic novels to read and authors to look up, met some nice people / artists, got my book added to the CCS Schulz library (!) on campus, made a comic that I’m proud of, and feel a bit more confident in bringing my creative ideas to life — particularly travelogue comics!