illustration 1: study task 1

illustration 1: study task 1 progress

illustration 1: even more facts !!

i found out even more things about murakami! he's forever interesting.

• loves cats & once had a cat named Kirin (influenced by the chinese mythical creature)
• he doesn't know how much money he has & he doesn't care
• wrote his first book on the kitchen table
• doesn't like animated films
• prefers italian food to asian food
• his jazz bar was called peter-cat
• he's afraid of heights

The qilin (Chinese: 麒麟; pinyin: qílín) is a mythical hooved chimerical creature known in Chinese and other East Asian cultures, said to appear with the imminent arrival or passing of a sage or illustrious ruler. It is a good omen thought to occasion prosperity or serenity. It is often depicted with what looks like fire all over its body.

illustration 1: more about murakami

I've been researching about my chosen author, Haruki Murakami, in my notebook so I've decided to write down all the facts that I have gathered so I have them all in one place.

quick facts

• DOB//12/01/49
• POB//Kyoto, Japan
• owned a jazz bar with his wife for 7 years

influences

• Raymond Chandler
• Kurt Vannegot
• Franz Kafka
• Shakespeare
• Stephen King

genres

• fiction
• surrealism
• magical realism
• sci-fi
• picaresque

japan literature

• his fiction is criticized by Japan's literary establishment for being 'un-Japanese'
• murakami says "I'm a kind of outcast of the Japanese literary world" and "I'm kind of an ugly duckling. Always the duckling, never the swan." - the guardian 2014
• he was never part of a community of writers; he was a loner & was never fond of groups, schools & literary circles

work & writing style

• his work is frequently surrealistic & melancholic or fatalistic, marked by a "kafkaesque rendition of the recurrent themes of alienation & loneliness" he weaves into his narratives
• 1st person narratives
• unique humour
• comments from main characters as to how strange the story presents itself
• novels have themes & titles that invoke classical music
• some analyses see aspects of shamanism in his writing
• norwegian wood has been called the japanese "catcher in the rye"

his characters

• his characters experience what he experiences as he writes, which could be compared to a movie set where the walls & props are fake

random facts

• he's a fan of crime novels
• has a passion for listening to music, especially jazz and classical music
• once aspired to be a musician but decided to become a writer because he couldn't play instruments well
• began to write fiction at the age of 29 

illustration 1: kafka on the shore

after reading kafka on the shore i feel enlightened. that book. oh damn. it's so good. i enjoyed it way much more than i thought i would. i have so many little sticky notes coming out of it that it'll take me forever to write down all of the quotes that i have tabbed. however i have started to draw some of the quotes down with some illustrative reactions to them.
they started off a bit silly but i think that's just the nature of my art coming through. i do know how to deal with serious art too though! (promise)

woah such good @ calligraphy. (needs practice)

these were some silly comics i did about the quote. i don't know why my brain thought of this first when i read the quote. however i do think they're kind of cute. but maybe i should take into consideration that the quote is a serious one and if it was in relation to the book wouldn't make much sense.

I really love character design so thinking of how the characters look when reading a book is really fun for me. Following the description of Sakura this is what i came up with. I think I am successful in changing between different kind of styles with more realistic (for me) to a more chibi japanese inspired kind of style.