Today I'm so lucky to share my interview with Regina Linke, creator of the highly-lauded Big Enough. I think it's clear from the cover that this is a clever and thoughtful book, and it should come as no surprise that the process behind creating it was the same. Happy reading!
About the book:
Little Ah-Fu has a big imagination, but he can't imagine being the Oxherd Boy . . . yet.
When the day comes for Ah-Fu to bring the huge family ox home from the woods, he worries that he's not big enough to do the job.
Will fear and self-doubt drive Ah-Fu home empty-handed? Or can he rely on his wits and compassion to become the Oxherd Boy his family expects--and prove to himself that he is, indeed, big enough?
When the day comes for Ah-Fu to bring the huge family ox home from the woods, he worries that he's not big enough to do the job.
Will fear and self-doubt drive Ah-Fu home empty-handed? Or can he rely on his wits and compassion to become the Oxherd Boy his family expects--and prove to himself that he is, indeed, big enough?
Let's talk Regina Linke!
LTPB: Where did the idea for Big Enough come from?
RL: Big Enough is actually the first original story based on characters from my philosophical webcomic The Oxherd Boy. In this webcomic for adults, a young boy, his family ox, and a rabbit living in his garden share their reflections on life through the lens of ancient Chinese philosophy. Big Enough on the other hand, takes these teachings and embeds them in a fable-like story. This particular book answers the question of how a little child becomes an ox-herder in the first place and poses some thought-provoking questions for even our youngest readers to think about or discuss with a grownup.
LTPB: Can you talk a little bit about the visual evolution of the book? As you got to know the characters, how did your illustrations evolve?
RL: Because I illustrate predominantly according to some key principles that define traditional gongbi painting, the characters themselves didn’t evolve very much as I completed the illustrations for Big Enough. The primary area where I had to make adjustments was in reconciling the traditional minimalist style of incorporating white space or negative space into an illustration, with adding more color or shading – because to a Western eye, the illustration would otherwise look incomplete, or someone looking at the art wouldn’t necessarily know that the blank space was water or sky. These subtle changes highlight just how different cultures grow up picking up different cues from a particular visual, and it was interesting work to strike a balance between both.
LTPB: What did you find most difficult in creating this book? What did you find most rewarding?
RL: The most difficult aspect of creating Big Enough was in the detailed line work for Ox’s fur. Drawing out fur is typical of traditional gongbi art, but I never had to do it so consistently for such a large animal, throughout multiple illustrations. It was enough to make me cross-eyed and give me hand cramps for weeks. The most rewarding part was knowing inherently, as the work unfolded, just how much further it was pushing me as an illustrator to expand my technical skills and faithfully execute on an idea that previously only lived in my head. I had never drawn or painted anything like this before, and so to simply have done it and completed it, was a very gratifying milestone.
LTPB: What did you use to create the illustrations in this book? Is this your preferred medium? How does your process change from book to book?
RL: I created all the illustrations in Procreate, using traditional Chinese painting techniques that I learned while taking lessons in Taiwan. These styles known as gongbi and xieyi are two styles that are quite different – gongbi being very precise, meticulous, colorful, and detail-oriented, and xieyi being looser, more idea- or emotionally driven – but were used to create a harmonious effect.
It took me probably the better part of a year to test and refine my brushes and techniques for a digital environment. I find that the digital painting has a flatter, polished appearance that doesn’t capture the imperfections or texture that I find satisfying when working with traditional, analog materials. I’m able to replicate some of this by overlaying a paper or stretched silk texture over the illustration in Photoshop afterwards, but the variation and imperfections of each piece isn’t quite the same.
When working on the inspirational gift book for adults, I had most of my illustrations already sketched out or even completed through the webcomic, and you can see the variation of each one, some created years ago while some more recent pieces looked different in terms of style or techniques mastered. I didn’t want so much variation to appear in Big Enough from page to page, so for this book, I took everything in stages, much like making a graphic novel or a comic book – beginning with sketches, then inking, then color, then making adjustments when taking the whole work into account. Doing so allowed the images to enjoy greater consistency in appearance.
LTPB: What are you working on now? Anything you can show us?
RL: Big Enough is a book introducing the boy, Ah-Fu, and Ox. I’m working on another story that closes the loop on how Rabbit completes their trio. It’s really an adventure story that resides primarily in Ah-Fu’s imagination, where he’s a great warrior. I’m really looking forward to illustrating all the little details that go into battle regalia for Ah-Fu and his army.
LTPB: If you got the chance to write your own picture book autobiography, who (dead or alive!) would you want to illustrate it, and why?
RL: Oh, this is so tough, but I’m going to go with Chan Kwan Lok, who’s a contemporary fine artist from Hong Kong who works predominantly in black and white, using a calligraphic outline brush and huge swaths of traditional Chinese paper. His line work is so precise, never wasted, but has such a whimsical and playful quality to it. It doesn’t feel overworked. I find the figures, subjects, and flat perspective interesting to just look at and study. I think to illustrate a biographical story in that style would result in something really fun – almost like a “Where’s Waldo?” that can really bring the reader in visually.
RL: Big Enough is actually the first original story based on characters from my philosophical webcomic The Oxherd Boy. In this webcomic for adults, a young boy, his family ox, and a rabbit living in his garden share their reflections on life through the lens of ancient Chinese philosophy. Big Enough on the other hand, takes these teachings and embeds them in a fable-like story. This particular book answers the question of how a little child becomes an ox-herder in the first place and poses some thought-provoking questions for even our youngest readers to think about or discuss with a grownup.
RL: Because I illustrate predominantly according to some key principles that define traditional gongbi painting, the characters themselves didn’t evolve very much as I completed the illustrations for Big Enough. The primary area where I had to make adjustments was in reconciling the traditional minimalist style of incorporating white space or negative space into an illustration, with adding more color or shading – because to a Western eye, the illustration would otherwise look incomplete, or someone looking at the art wouldn’t necessarily know that the blank space was water or sky. These subtle changes highlight just how different cultures grow up picking up different cues from a particular visual, and it was interesting work to strike a balance between both.
RL: The most difficult aspect of creating Big Enough was in the detailed line work for Ox’s fur. Drawing out fur is typical of traditional gongbi art, but I never had to do it so consistently for such a large animal, throughout multiple illustrations. It was enough to make me cross-eyed and give me hand cramps for weeks. The most rewarding part was knowing inherently, as the work unfolded, just how much further it was pushing me as an illustrator to expand my technical skills and faithfully execute on an idea that previously only lived in my head. I had never drawn or painted anything like this before, and so to simply have done it and completed it, was a very gratifying milestone.
RL: I created all the illustrations in Procreate, using traditional Chinese painting techniques that I learned while taking lessons in Taiwan. These styles known as gongbi and xieyi are two styles that are quite different – gongbi being very precise, meticulous, colorful, and detail-oriented, and xieyi being looser, more idea- or emotionally driven – but were used to create a harmonious effect.
It took me probably the better part of a year to test and refine my brushes and techniques for a digital environment. I find that the digital painting has a flatter, polished appearance that doesn’t capture the imperfections or texture that I find satisfying when working with traditional, analog materials. I’m able to replicate some of this by overlaying a paper or stretched silk texture over the illustration in Photoshop afterwards, but the variation and imperfections of each piece isn’t quite the same.
RL: Big Enough is a book introducing the boy, Ah-Fu, and Ox. I’m working on another story that closes the loop on how Rabbit completes their trio. It’s really an adventure story that resides primarily in Ah-Fu’s imagination, where he’s a great warrior. I’m really looking forward to illustrating all the little details that go into battle regalia for Ah-Fu and his army.
RL: Oh, this is so tough, but I’m going to go with Chan Kwan Lok, who’s a contemporary fine artist from Hong Kong who works predominantly in black and white, using a calligraphic outline brush and huge swaths of traditional Chinese paper. His line work is so precise, never wasted, but has such a whimsical and playful quality to it. It doesn’t feel overworked. I find the figures, subjects, and flat perspective interesting to just look at and study. I think to illustrate a biographical story in that style would result in something really fun – almost like a “Where’s Waldo?” that can really bring the reader in visually.
A big enough thank you to Regina for talking me through her process! Big Enough published last month from Little, Brown Young Readers!
Special thanks to Regina and Little, Brown for use of these images!
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