Isle of WakWak

(Fig.1) (Book of Wonders)

20 May 2019

WakWak Tree

Isle of WakWak or WakWak tree is one of the Arabian myths that was mentioned in Wonders of Creation book by Zakarīyā Ibn Muḥammad al-Qazwīn. 

The WakWak tree produces fruits which have the shape of a woman's head. These heads make the sound "Wak" when the sun rises,hence the name of the tree.According to onomatopoeia in Arabic, the sound "Wak" is the sound of a rooster. Some stories said that these fruits can talk and they tell prophesies as well.

(Figure.1) shows an illustration from the Book of Wonders were the tree is producing a fully grown women instead of just their heads. 

There are so many fascinated stories about mythical trees in different mythologies . Such as Kalpa tree from Indian mythology , Nariphon from Thailand myths and Jinmenju tree from Japanese mythology. (Myers, 2014)

Jinmenju tree somehow resembles the WakWak tree in that they both produce fruits with human body parts. The difference is that the Jinmenju tree bears fruits with human faces and they laugh at any passenger or rider, but if you laugh back at them they will fall.

Story

Reflecting on WakWak tree and other mythical trees, I have created a story which will be included in my comic book. A little girl named Aya looks for keys to rescue her brother who is locked in cell at the Jinn Kingdom. One of Aya's adventures takes place in an isolated land where only women rule. Aya would meet the Queen and asks her if she could help her find the key. The queen agrees to help Aya under one condition.

Salma,2019

The Queen: If you want the key you must earn it. Once you agree to my condition there is no turning back.

Aya: I understand my Queen.

The Queen: I want you to take this fruit to a small lake which fall of  bright green waters and throw it there. You've got only one hour to do so , and remember , DON'T TALK OR RESPONSE to the fruit no matter what it says. Understood?

Aya: ...... yes my Queen.

Aya has a really difficult journey with this fruit as it sometimes would scream loudly, laugh maniacally, whisper to Aya to quit this task, or it would seduce her into eating delicious and sinful fruits in the gardens whenever Aya's gotten hungry. Aya struggles a lot until she finally reaches the lake. (This part of the story will be described and illustrated in details in the online comic).

When she gently put the fruit in the water, a beautiful woman blooms from the fruit and thanks Aya for her patience through her journey, and as a reward she gives her the key based on the Queen's order.

(Figure.3: Plant)

Color Palettes

Choosing color palettes is not an east task when it comes to digital coloring. So I've decided to use a

plant in our house as a coloring reference (fig.3)

The color scheme in WakWak story will be ( Green , Violet and Red/Pink). I added warm color to the illustration to give it a sense of balance in the story. 

The choices of my colors were based on (Triadic color schemes).

(Figure.4) Salma 2019

Update:  28 June 2019

Looking back at the illustration (Fig .4) and the story that I created about the annoying fruit, I decided to expand the illustrations into three more pages with additional details.

(Fig.5) shows a short description of WakWak Land while (Fig.6) shows a more detailed comic style where there is a conversation between Aya and the Queen.

(Figure 6: Conversation) Salma, 2019

(Figure.5: Description) Salma , 2019

(Figure.8 : The Key). Salma,2019

(Figure.7: The Annoying fruit). Salma , 2019

(Fig.7) Shows a series of events where the fruit is being annoying to Aya. I've expressed Aya's annoyance through her facial expressions, while the fruit's personality was shown by adding syntax that indicates screaming loudly and laughing manically .

(Fig.8) describes the continuation of the story where Aya puts the fruit in the lake and a woman blooms from this fruit to give her the key.

The art style in each page is different, as a way to try and explore more with a variety of styles, so I did that and I was pleased with the results. It might need more work in the future , but I'm happy with how the story has developed.

Update: 14 August 2019

 As shown in (Fig.9) I finished coloring and adding more details to the last two pages of the story. After experimenting with different styles , my tutor advised me that it's better if the whole story has a unified art style.

                                                     (Figure 9: The final Pages) Salma , 2019
 

The story of WakWak land is longer than the other stories, therefore the comic panels took three pages instead of one . The  illustrations were drawn with detailed lines, shades and lights. Whereas, the continuation of the story in (Fig.9) was made with simple line art, specific color palettes and plain background. Comics usually have bubbles to explain and express the story either by dialogue or syntax. However, the story has already been described and the comic panels were designed to give a visual narrative.