As some of you know, I've recently been to the jungles of the east. Not the real ones with monkeys in the streets, but the cyber version. And instead of elephants, there were lizards with pavilions on top and whisperings of war. I have, of course, been illustrating for Josiah DeGraaf's book, A Study of Shattered Spells, and we thought it would be fun to do a 'behind the scenes'. So let's dive in.
Destination: Chintor.
Landscape: jungle.
Weather: rainy.
Mood of the people: fidgety.
Work to do: save a nation and a school.
Q: What inspired A Study of Shattered Spells’ theme?
Josiah: After college, I spent several years as a classroom English teacher at an American charter school. It was a wonderful experience working with students on a regular basis and discovering the joys of teaching. But it also introduced me to a new side of traditional schools, and the challenges that came with teaching. How do you actually help students who are really struggling? When bullies exist, how do you best protect vulnerable students? And how do you navigate politics between teachers and principals? These were challenges that my education classes hadn't fully prepared me for. And so as I navigated these as a new adult, it inspired me to write a story exploring a character facing similar problems in a magic school setting.
Hoops, Domes, and Pointy Shoes
Q: One of SoSS’s unique features is that it the story unfolds in a fantasy world inspired by India, with some of the customs and styling reflecting their tastes. Would you mind expanding on why you decided to go for that particular taste?
Josiah: Medieval Europe is sometimes a bit overdone when it comes to fantasy. I utilized this kind of setting for my Medieval superhero stories, but when I sat down to write this book, I wanted to do something different. I pretty quickly got intrigued by the idea of using a jungle setting. And in order to make sure the climate and topography felt realistic, India became a fairly useful focal point for my research, which then blended into some of the visual style of the world. :) I should be clear that the culture of my world isn't inspired by India, and so readers specifically looking for "Indian-inspired fantasy" probably won't find what they're looking for in this book. But if you're looking for jungle fantasy with hints of India that bleed through some of the styling of the world, that's what I sought to capture in crafting this story.
I laugh now when I think back to reading the first chapter of the manuscript. My reaction was ‘Oh, wow. Jungle. Curry. India. Pointy shoes. I enjoy that; its different.’ All my illustrating before had revolved around European woods and cities or African plains and the prospect of studying a new, richly different culture with its styles was wonderful and I would like to share some of the discoveries and notes after my virtual escapades. Forget the Victorian sensibilities. India knows how to revel in the complexity of shapes that God has made possible. I mean, look at the sculptures on Taranga temple above and the interior patterns below:
There is so much richness and intricacy in the design and patterns that, to the post-modern eye, seems overwhelming. One can’t help suspecting that the designer had geometric floral scribbles all over the inside of their skull and strutting about with a pallet peeling with a mountain of colours. Interestingly, the buildings’ exteriors are often left unpainted, with the vivid patterns left for the inside. The foods are basically as unique as the creatures and the clothing and the artwork, looking as various as the spices they are sure to be laced with, and the streets with clutter, cables, and lengths of bamboo have a glorious messiness that is wonderful in its own right.
Elephantine Lizards
And so, after spending time on the wonderful imagery and artwork, it becomes time to hit the drawing board and create artwork that would add to the world and the unfolding story. Usually that means creating a mood board and composition concepts before taking it further to a first draft. What makes SoSS's illustrations unique is that the goal is to have both painted illustrations of scenes from the story and notebook scribbles of the world.
'The wings of the ostrich flap joyfully, though they cannot compare with the wings and feathers of the stork. She lays her eggs on the ground and lets them warm in the sand, unmindful that a foot may crush them, that some wild animal may trample them. She treats her young harshly, as if they were not hers; she cares not that her labor was in vain, for God did not endow her with wisdom or give her a share of good sense. Yet when she spreads her feathers to run, she laughs at horse and rider.' - Job
I have a fondness for drawing (and attempting to create new) animals, which, in part, comes from illustrated books like Dr Seuss's creature stories and The Wingfeather Saga. God has really crafted a host of weird creatures, but still leaves us the space to ask what if? With SoSS, creatures and plants play a minor roll, but seeing sketches from creatures that are common place in the world makes it feel so much more tangible and authentic.
The amazing thing about the imagination is that while it doesn’t know how a creature looks, it knows exactly how it doesn’t look and half of illustrating is storing up a mental bank of features that you can call on in almost check-list fashion. Does it have claws? Yes. Furr? No. High cheek bones? Yes. Thin skin? On the cheeks and belly.
There are some pretty unique animals in the story. I had a great time trying to visualise them. What creature did you most enjoy creating, and does it have an inspiration?
Josiah: I love creating animals. I think it can sometimes be an underutilized feature of fantasy worlds that you can come up with fun animals that do different things. Probably my favorite creature I designed was a zeletor, which is kind of like an elephant, kind of like a dewback (from Star Wars), and kind of like a wingless herbivore dragon. I love big reptiles, particularly those that emulate dragons in some way, and so I created several of them for this world. But just the idea of a large, ponderous scaled lizard that people in-world could use as a beast of burden is something that just made me rather happy inside. :) We unfortunately don't get to see much of them since most of the story is set within a school. But I did try to keep a few references to these creatures in the book.
Sound, Visualised
To me, the most wonderful element of the story is how musical instruments are used to make magic. Would you mind walking us through how you came up with that and what your thinking was? There seems to be a correlation with the instrument group’s sound and their function.
Josiah: The idea of a music-based magic system originated when I was in high school, back when I used to play the piano. I really enjoyed learning how to play an instrument, and feeling the power that music has on our emotions made me think about how cool it would be to use that as a basis for a magic system. Perhaps one where different instruments could manipulate different elements. I didn't write anything with that concept at the time, but it's been rolling around the back of my head for a while as an idea I'd love to write. After I'd come up with the concept of a magic school story told from the teacher's perspective, I knew I'd need a cool magic system to fit the setting. And that's what led me to dust off this old idea from high school, create a new set of elements that isn't the standard fire/water/earth/air set we've seen before, and come up with a bunch of rules for how musical instruments could actually work magic. I also tried to think about which elements would most align with particular musical instrument families, in order to create pairings that at least felt like they made sense in my head. :) After a bit of trial and error (along with making some tweaks to which particular instrument families existed in my world), I was able to stumble on a set of five pairings that felt like they fit nicely together.
- Violinists and other bowed string players control energy.
- Lutists and other plucked string players do telekinesis.
- Trumpeters and other brass players mold physical objects.
- Flutists and other woodwind players control liquids.
- Drummers summon flames and light.
Probably one of the greatest challenges was visualising the magic so that the illustration matched its function and the sound. As an artistic soul, I love the fact that Josiah has matched up the smoothness of woodwinds with liquids and the staccatoness of percussion with fire, and the electricness of strings with energy. Each sound God has created unique, every element with its own traits, and my job was to find shapes that would match the uniqueness of each. I remember sitting back in my chair with the creak of the spring and wondering how we were going to craft a unique icon for each group of sounds and the magic they produce. It did happen though, and with some careful thought we came up with the collection of icons in the substance illustration. Maybe what is most satisfying to me is how each element in the circle shares similarity with the next: solids is geometric but interlocked, space is interlocked but flowy, liquids is flowy but separate, energy is separate but geometric, and so on. And this is very reflective of reality; there are both similarities in different elements and sounds, as well as differences that set them apart.
The hope is to illustrate each magic with its instrument in a series of notebook sketches that will be spread throughout the book.
Kickstarter
Maybe the most exciting of all is that all these illustrations and this world with music-magic has just been launched on Kickstarter. If it is something you would like to see created in all its papery glory, please support the project. It is already one of Kickstarter's favourite picks.
