Sitting at work in Mumbai.
Who'd have thought it'd take me another year to post.

And the book is almost complete.

FIRST DAY

This draft titled 'first day' was saved on Thursday, September 30, 2010. 3 years ago.
Publishing just because.
Well it feels like the first day.

18 extra hours.

Publishing from drafts. Saved in 2010.

Birds meet. Page 1

Here is the final spread from the first folklore in the book.
'How The Crow Turned Black' 

The crow in this is the light brown, yellow breasted + beaked bird.

sidenote: I saw yellow beaked crows in Ladakh, North India. 
Also replaced ugly odd bird with grey pigeon (right). 
Can refer to the post from 2010 here: Process work for spread 1

Four Spread Samples

How the Crow turned Black

Birds Meet

 

Brothers take revenge.
A Naga Kitchen

How Tattooing was invented.

Rangtsungba and Salunaro

Instuba- the Tiger man

First set of illustrations.

Kahoryao lent me his tablet and with the help of that...coloring on photoshop was an easier task. These are my first experiments. Many changes still to be made. The scan were not very good so the outlines cannot be seen.

Instuba telling his sons to wait outside enemy gate

Instubah as the tiger with an enemy he killed.

Instuba and his two sons rejoicing - while enemies chase them.

When the enemies reach the river they only see a tiger and two boys.

(Coloring half done.)

Folklore 3 - Intsübah Aier, the tiger man

My grandfather (Obu) comes from a village called Mopungchuket.

After Mopungchuket was formed many people with supernatural powers were born and this made the village well known. Such powers included to transform into the shape of an animal, more often that of a tiger. Among such people was Intsüba Aier who became a great warrior and hero.

During his time the Mopungchuket village and the Yangpi village (Fareast of Nagaland) were enemies. There was so much hatred that at any opportunity they would attack each other and bring back their enemies’ heads with pride.

One day Intsüba took his two sons, Kenpen and Sürongba, to Yangpi village for headhunting. When they reached the entrance of the village he told his sons to hide near the gate. (Every village has a boundary and a huge gate at the entrance). Intsüba said to them “Hide here and do not make any noise while I go into the village to kill. On my return I will come back in the form of a tiger and carrying a human body. Do not be afraid when you see the tiger but jump on its back and I will turn back into my normal self.”

Early at dawn the father went into the village in the form of a tiger. He saw two young women coming back from their dormitory. (In those days, the young men and women would stay in dormitories). At once he pounced and killed one of the women and brought her back to where his sons were waiting. When the boys saw the tiger they did as they were told and jumped on the tiger. It immediately turned into their father.

They chopped the woman’s head and rejoiced shouting victory war cries and headed back to their village.

Meanwhile the other woman ran and alerted the village people. A group of them began to follow the tiger’s footprints but on reaching the gate they heard the war cries and realized that it was actually their enemy and not a tiger who had killed the woman.

They began to chase their enemies until then came to a wide river. Near the bank, they saw two boys sitting on a tiger and crossing the river.

Seeing this the villagers were relieved and told one another, “even though our enemy killed one of us, he has also fallen prey to the tiger” and thus they returned home.

These two villages kept fighting each other for many reasons, one being the land dispute. With the intervention of the British rule and the influence of American missionaries in Nagaland, peace and understanding pervaded among the warring tribes and headhunting came to an end.

Biscuits and milk.

This morning I made myself some jam filled biscuits with my so loved good life milk.
It was yum. Simple things like these make me want to sit at my desk and continue working.

ALSO TGIOF! (Thank God Its ONLY Friday!)

The third test in 'the rich girl and poor girl'

Another perspective of the boys mother throwing things on the floor to test the girls.

The boy choosing the girl he wants to marry in the sunglang.
The characters have slightly been worked on but not finished or good enough. the sunglung is also TOO brown - doesnt look like bamboo.

The second test in 'the rich girl and poor girl'

This is a spread from the story.

The boy and two girls collecting water in bamboo poles from the village tank.

Another spread from the story.

The boy and two girls climbing the hill towards the village.

The first test: Rich girl and poor girl

This is a scene from the first test - where the boy watches the rich girl hog up her food.

Perspective is slightly off.

Bamboo poles for water! hep!

Did you know people carried water in Bamboo poles?

Bamboo was used for various things including carrying water. I had no clue.
People could carry about 5 - 7 bamboo poles in a basket.

 Water was collected from village tanks or streams - usually quite a distance away from the village.

These drawings are scenes from the story - rich girl poor girl - where the three carried water home.

different scenes from the story - rich girl and poor girl

The boy watching the rich girl eat.


The mother of the boy testing the girls by throwing things on the ground.

The rich girl runs across while the poor girl picks up the things.



The boy chooses the girl he wants to marry.

Character sketches of the rich girl poor girl.

Ao tribe

There are 16 main tribes in Nagaland and my grandma belongs to the Ao tribe.
Here are two pictures of the traditional attire.

More Illustrations - Sweet revenge

(The brothers digging the found footprints)

(Tiger cubs)

(2 versions of the brothers on a tree preparing to attack)

Exploring Character Design

For the book, I don't want to make the characters too realistic, although that is what I have been advised to do by my jury.
Worked on this style anyway. 

Ao Clothing pattern

(Ao warrior shawl)


(Pattern on the shawl - Tsungkoptepsu)


(Rich man's shawl)

(Womens mekla - skirt)

ABOUT THE BLOG

This blog is/was a documentation of my illustrations and process for my Graduation Project. Started July 2010 - Due Oct 2010

As a final year student at the Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology, Bangalore, we had to complete a Diploma project within three months.
For my project I illustrated a Naga folklore book.
All the folklores have been told in Ao Naga by my grandma, Mrs Metongla Aier. I stayed with my gram for a month, recorded the stories and translated them with my mom.