Marriage Comic

'About us: Puguh & Sisca'

 I couldn't believe I've lost this comic's master file! All of my hard work, references photos, interview transcripts, doodles, first sketches for more than 5 months went missing. But fortunately I could still download the high resolution renders from our correspondence letters, so I can show it off to people, haha!

A friend of mine was married at October, 2014. He asked me somewhere in April, 2014, to make pages of comic about his and her life before their marriage. I agreed and apparently, I had splendid adventures, trailing the couple's whereabouts some years before with my bike for references. I also had myself visited some places in Yogyakarta that I had never been before.

I broke the script - of which they were willingly and gladly provided - down into 6 parts, each consists of 3 coloured pages. I sent them each part's a draft then proceeded to colorings before continued to the next part. That way, I could easily focused on each story, what I was going to do with it.

I decided to put different colour tone for each part, to enhance the mood of each story, and I think one of the best part is the third (page 7-9) one. The idea of the part is the couple's struggle to earn their relationship, although distance had them separated. One of the only ways to communicate was the short-message-service (SMS or texts). It was just digits and letters, but apparently shorten the couple's distance. One of their meetings was a place called 'Ullen Sentalu', a private museum that took place at near-top of Kaliurang Hill.

I once biked there. It was chilly, 15 km steep and long road to go, but it paid off. I got the mood and photos for reference. Interestingly, it was raining lightly, quite similar with the time the couple had a trip.

The Lady and The Lepidopterae

My siblings captured two caterpillars and feed them with lemon leaves. They apparently turned into chrysalises and then morphed themselves into two beautiful butterflies. The process took around 3 weeks, from small caterpillars until they were ready to take their new adventures with their splendid-coloured wings.

I really wanted to see how they hatched, but alas, I could never have the privilege for both.

It's odd though, the night before the last chrysalis was hatched, my friend's only child was died. The infant was in their family for around a week. I keep wondering about the feeling of a father or a mother whose infant had only come in to the family in a very short time. In fact, I dare not to.

But I know in some ways, butterflies often serves as some kind of... metaphor for spiritual journeys.

Coincidence? Well...