The Legend of Mai and Ghaillan

I am done with the first 4 frames out of 20! Now, I realize I'm too far behind/spending too much time on each frame, but I promise I'm working on it.

Let me know what you think!

Hi guys,

came across this tumblr through a friend. I love the way the works have been illustrated given a bit of basic animation. Don and I were discussing my drawings today and suggested to add a bit of a greater notion of movement in them and it reminded me of this.

Hope it gives you a bit of inspiration too.

Cheers

The Lying Shepherd

The Lying Shepherd

Collected by Abdulla Najib Al-Kuwari

Edited by Patty Paine

Once upon a time, there was a shepherd who spent his time watching and guarding sheep. Bored of his daily routine, the shepherd decided to do something funny to make his day more exciting.

One day, the shepherd started yelling and calling for the villagers. "Help! Help! A wolf is attacking the sheep!" he called.

When the villagers heard his screams, they gathered up their tools, axes, and sticks, and quickly went to where the shepherd was.

When the villagers arrived, they did not see any wolf, and the sheep were fine. Instead, they found the shepherd laying on the ground laughing at them, saying, "I deceived you! Isn't that funny?"

The villagers were angry and upset, and warned him not to do such a thing again. Then they headed back to the village.

A few days later, the shepherd repeated what he did before and started yelling that a wolf was attacking the sheep. The villagers rushed to rescue the sheep, but again discovered that the shepherd was lying. The villagers scolded the shepherd and left.

Two days later, a starving wolf appeared and started attacking the sheep. The scared shepherd screamed and called for help, but no one came. The shepherd climbed a tree and waited for the wolf to leave. Finally, the wolf left, leaving behind many dead and injured sheep. The shepherd realized that the villagers did not believe him anymore because of his lies. He learned that a liar loses the trust of his people.

Aroy and Asom

Aroy and Asom

Collected by Fatma Al-Hail

Edited by Patty Paine


One spring morning, Asom and Aroy, the goat sisters, went out to town. While they were in town it began to rain. Asom hurried over to Aroy and said, "Let's go back home so we don't get wet!" Aroy was having fun in the rain, and refused to go home. Aroy ran into the middle of a pasture, stood on her back legs and clapped with her front paws. She began to sing joyfully. Asom followed her, and argued "enough playing, it's time to go home!" Aroy didn't care and replied "go back home by yourself, I want to stay here."

Asom desperately tried to convince her sister to return home. She began threatening her. She said, "if you don't return home I will call the wolf to eat you!" Aroy replied sarcastically. "Ewww, do whatever you want. I will stay here and play. Isn't the rain wonderful?"

Asom went to the wolf and asked him to eat Aroy, but he refused. She then went to a dog to help her persuade the wolf, but she couldn't convince him either. Asom spent her day moving from human to animal to inanimate object searching for someone or something that would help her. The rooster was her last hope, and he agreed to help Asom.

To get the wolf to eat Aroy, the rooster chased a grasshopper. The grasshopper jumped on the back of a camel and bit him. The camel dove in the river to get away from the grasshopper. The water overflowed the banks of the river, and a fire on the banks was afraid that the water would kill her so she crawled towards the barber's hut. The barber ran away from the fire still holding the razor he had been using to shave a shepherd's beard. The shepherd ran to his dog and commanded him to attack the wolf. The wolf saw the dog was angry so he panicked and ran off to find Aroy so he could eat her.

When the wolf arrived in the pasture he couldn't find Aroy because she had gone to another part of town. The wolf was very agitated and angry that he couldn't find Aroy, so he went to the goat sister's home. He found Asom at home so he attacked and ate her. In the end, Asom fell victim to the conspiracy she had hatched against her sister Aroy.

The Scent of Food and the Sound of Coins

The Scent of Food and the Sound of Coins

Collected by Abdulla Najib Al Kuwari

Edited by Patty Paine


Once upon a time, a poor, starving man was walking in the souq. All of the sudden, he caught the the wonderful scent of grilled meat. The poor man wanted the grilled meat so badly, but all he could afford was a small bit of bread. He bought the bread, and as he ate it, he smelled the scent of the grilling meat and imagined that he was eating the delicious meat.

The grill cook saw the poor man. He grabbed the man and demanded that the man give him money. The poor man refused to pay the cook because he did not eat anything from his grill. After arguing for a long time, they decided to go and see Jouha, a judge who was known for his wisdom and sense of justice.

Judge Jouha listened to the story from both the cook and the poor man. After listening to the stories, he asked the cook to approach him. The cook approached Jouha as he was asked. Jouha took two coins out his pocket and clinked them beside the cook's ear. Surprised and confused by the judge's strange behavior, the cooked asked, "Why did you clink two coins in my ear?"

"Because this is your payment," Jouha replied.

The cook was still confused, and did not understand what the judge meant.

Jouha explained: "Cook, you tried to sell the scent of food to the poor man, so you have been paid with the sound of coins."

The poor man thanked God for revealing the truth, and the cook returned to his shop disappointed to leave with nothing except the sound of coins.

Swalif

Below is a link to an online project that is preserving Qatari oral culture, including folk tales.

http://www.qatarswalif.org/

Message from Dean Allyson

in response to our feature in The National:

Congratulations UREP team! This is such a great project. It deserves as much coverage as possible. 

Best, Allyson

Our Feature in The National

Qatar student project evolves into major folklore revival

Anealla Safdar (Foreign Correspondent)

Sep 27, 2011 

Two years ago, Fatma Al Remaihi took an important piece of her childhood to university. Standing in the sparkling white corridors of the Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar (VCU-Q), the Qatari graphic design undergraduate excitedly showed a dusty old book to a friend and classmate, Al Hussein Wanas.

Books: The National Reads

Book reviews, festivals and all things literary

Books

Published in 1980, the book was an old, photocopied collection of a few of the stories Al Remaihi remembered and gave no indication of who the authors might be. The language was simple and there were no illustrations.

“I used to read it as a child and it happened to be in our family’s library,” says Al Remaihi, now an alumna. “It’s just a collection of some of the legends. They’re just stories taken from our ancestors.”

Wanas, an Egyptian, was seven years old when he arrived in Doha. Curious when he heard about the tales recounted to his Qatari friends, he wanted to design a new book that would appeal to today’s generation of both expatriates and native Gulf citizens. The Qatari fairy tale project was born.

“These stories change from generation to generation,” explains Wanas. “What we are trying to do now is make a collection that is as socially relevant as possible, so that people now can get it and appreciate it.”

Instead of rehashing the text on Al Remaihi’s bookshelf, Wanas decided to approach one of the university’s faculty, Patty Paine Gibbons, VCU-Q’s assistant English professor, to discuss a more creative treatment.

“I didn’t want to use that book,” says Gibbons. “I was concerned about copyright. This idea was brought to me by a student so we thought this would be a great project to involve others. We came up with an idea that would involve a lot of disciplines.”

The project, which has received some funding from the government but has largely relied on volunteer and student time, is still seeking a publisher. The partnership has grown into a group involving five faculty members from VCU-Q and the neighbouring Qatar University (QU) and dozens of students from both institutions. For months, students from QU have been visiting their grandparents, recording the fairy tales and legends on dictaphones and transcribing them before translating them into English.

Sara Al Mohannadi, the assistant professor of literature and linguistics at QU, incorporated the project into her classes, asking 30 of her students to call on their Qatari elders.

“They liked doing this so much. They got to know their own heritage, their history,” she says. “Until now, I don’t think they were interested. The new generation is more westernised. They have the internet taking them away from just sitting around and listening to stories. They don’t have the patience.”

The VCU-Q students have been responsible for reading and researching those stories, visiting traditional sites and exploring older fashions to experiment with ways of illustrating the places and characters for the new collection, which will be released by the middle of next year. By the time it goes on sale, it is estimated that more than 100 people will have worked on the book in some way.

So far, 12 tales are in the process of being illustrated. Another eight to 10 will be included in the final A4-sized anthology, which has yet to be given a title.

Among the stories, which will be presented in the same book for the first time in Arabic and English, is a Qatari version of Cinderella called Hamda and the Fairy Fish.

The project is similar to the UAE’s favourite Freej television series, the brainchild of Mohammed Saeed Harib, or the Emirati Qais Sedki’s manga-style Arabic book The Gold Ring, in that it uses modern, graphically designed and intensely vivid images to capture the attention of a younger audience and teach them about their heritage while being simultaneously entertaining.

“We know the stories, but until now it has only been through word of mouth. We’ve never really had a visual for it,” said Mariam Al Sarraj, a VCU-Q graduate in interior design who is working as an illustrator on the book. She has, like the rest of the team, spent months of her spare time observing architecture in the souqs and styles of dress worn by the older generation to record and then visualise how the pages should eventually look.

Wafaa Al Saffar, a Qatari VCU-Q alumna of graphic design who is also working on the illustrations, has enjoyed the process. “It’s been insightful for me to dig deep and see,” she says. “I’ve been asking my mother about these stories and seeing whether what’s written is true or not. The purpose behind many of these stories is to scare their children.”

In Om Hamar, or The Donkey Lady, for instance, there is a scene where a mother admonishes her child for leaving the house at noon. It’s a tale that has been told in Qatar, and elsewhere in the Gulf, thousands of times. It warns children to stay inside in case a woman who is half-donkey and half-human comes to attack.

“They’re based on practical reasons,” says Wanas. “They used to make up stories to protect them from the heat.”

Al Mohannadi jokes about the contrast with present-day parenthood: “ Now, I am begging my kids to get up and go out, to get off their MacBooks and stop watching TV.”

The book started as an internal VCU-Q project, but an application to the Qatar National Research Fund resulted in a grant of about Dh330,000 under the title Orality to Image, Traditional Qatari Narratives and Visual Media. Most of that has been spent on travel, presenting the idea at conferences such as the Arts and Society Berlin gathering and an event on literacy in Cape Town, South Africa.

“We have had a very positive reaction. People are very curious, both about Qatar and the folktales,” says Jesse Ulmer, an assistant professor in English literature and composition who is working with Gibbons on editing the English stories. “It’s a culture that is threatened by modernisation.”

The group hopes the work, when published, can provide expatriates with a glimpse into what many perceive as a mysterious culture.

“There is a lot of talk about the segments of Qatari society and how they aren’t getting to know each other,” says Peter Chomowicz, VCU-Q’s dean of research. “The country is growing so fast, more are coming here and then pulling away. Some people have this observation and I hope that a book like this would help create bridges between host and guests. It’s a great idea.”

Jouha Counting the Donkeys

Hi Everyone,

I wanted to post the first draft of the layout of "Jouha Counting the Donkeys".

Thanks to Abdulla's clear layout and style a lot has already been determined. I colour corrected the scans and spent quite some time in photoshop touching up areas on each page where the scanner had left lines running through the images and pink tinged edges. I did rescale certain elements- some of the illustrations outside of the frames.

I strayed away from the original layout guides and margins, as we had established a system that had a wider margin in the center fold. With such a structured illustration, I felt that it looked a little off balance, so I stuck to even margins all the way around, but can always readdress this issue based on feedback.

I haven't touched the cover yet, as after the discussion at the end of today's meeting about having similar covers for each story to enable them to work with a die-cut box, I think there is more work to be done on the general structure of the covers first.

I also, as you can see, didn't venture into Pagination and Titling yet. However, the first part is done and our groups very first story is coming to fruition!!

Felicity

Uploading Images?

Hi.

I am having trouble uploading images of the first attempt at laying out Abdulla's story.

I have tried uploading pdfs. I select the photo button at the top where you compose a post, link to choose file, check terms and conditions and then select upload image. I get a box with a yellow triangle with an exclamation mark in and it says it is uploading then it goes away, and appears to be done, but I see no evidence of the attachments, nor do I see the images when I preview the post.

Any ideas?

Thanks

F

Gofah Images

Thank you to Dr. Al Mohannadi for finding photos of gofahs for the story "Abu Gofah"

Ready for Layout!

Abdulla Al Kuwari is finished with his story, and it is now ready for layout. 

Layout team: I have the scans of his work. They're large, so I'll need to give them to you on a flash drive. Please let me know who will be working on laying out this story. 

It's great that we have a story to work with, it'll teach us a lot about the lay out process.

Here's a sample image:

Hi all.

This week I've only got drawings, felt like it wasn't the stage yet for water colors because the drawings themselves needed work. Hope you enjoy these.

The Bird and the Lion

The Bird and the Lion

Collected by Huda Nehad

Edited by Patty Paine

Illustrated by Khloud

A long, long time ago, Sara was walking through the woods on the way to her Aunt Um-Abdullah’s house. Her stepmother sent her to deliver a letter to her Aunt. On the way, she saw a little bird that had fallen out of its nest. Even though it was getting late, Sara climbed the tree and put the baby bird back in its nest. 

Sara continued on her way until suddenly she saw a huge lion with its paw stuck in a trap. Sara stopped to help the lion.

The lion asked, “Why would you want to help me? You know that I could eat you, don’t you?”

Sara replied, “Yes, lion, I know you could eat me, but I want to do good deeds so that God, and my stepmother will be happy with me.”

Sara freed the lion’s paw from the trap.

The lion was moved by Sara’s words and her good deed. He asked her where she was going. She told him that her stepmother has asked her to deliver a letter to her Aunt Um-Abdullah’s house.

The lion said, “May God be at your side, and if you are ever in any trouble and need help just call for me.”

Sara thanked the lion and continued to her Aunt’s house. When Sara arrived at her Aunt’s house her Aunt took one look at her and told her to clean her house. Sara stayed a whole week cleaning and cooking for her Aunt. The whole time Sara kept a smile on her face.

At the end of the week, the Aunt took the letter from Sara and tore it to shreds without reading it. She told Sara “I have tested you since I first heard that your stepmother sent you to me. The first test was when I disguised myself as a baby bird that had fallen from its nest. Then I disguised myself as a fierce lion. Then when you arrived I made you work for me for a week. Yet despite all these tests you were the sweetest, most well behaved girl I have ever met. Your Aunt’s letter was an order for me to kill you, but I cannot. Instead, I am giving you gold and jewels, a magic carpet to carry you home, and beautiful new clothes.” Sara smiled and with tears of joy running down her face she hugged Um-Abdulla and thanked her for her kindness.

When Sara’s stepmother saw her return in new clothes riding on a magic carpet carrying jewels and gold she became jealous. She decided to send her own daughter Zainab to Um-Abdulla’s house so she too would be rewarded. Zainab set off for her Aunt’s house. She ignored the baby bird, and when the lion asked for her mercy to help free its paw from the trap she said, “I don’t have time for you. I’m going to Um-Abdulla’s house for gold, jewels, a magic carpet and new clothes. I don’t care what happens to you.”

When Zainab arrived at her Aunt’s house her Aunt asked her to clean the house, but Zeinab said “Oh, no! I am only here for the gold, jewels, magic carpet and new clothes. I’ll send Sara back to work for you. Give me the stuff now!”

Um-Abdullah replied, “I tested you and you failed every test! First I disguised myself as a baby bird and you ignored me. Then I disguised myself as a lion whose paw was stuck in a trap but you had no time to help me. Then I asked you to work for me, but you refused. Now you must be punished!”

Um-Abdullah cursed Zainab and turned her into a donkey. Zainab galloped home to her mother, honking the whole way.

The Dry Date

The Dry Date

Collected by Khalidah Abdulla Al-Mamari

Edited by Patty Paine
Illustrated by Khloud

Once upon a time, three brothers went to their farm, and while they were there, one of them picked up a dry date from under a palm tree, and he ate the date. Unfortunately, the date got stuck in his throat. His brothers ran to their neighbor’s house and asked her for some butter to help their brother swallow the date. The woman told the brothers that she needed cream to make the butter. When they found a cow to get the cream from, they discovered that there was a dog guarding the cow. They told the dog that they needed cream to save their brother, and the dog replied that he would let them have the cream if they brought him camel meat. They went to the meat seller and told him they needed meat to save their brother. The meat seller told them that he needed a knife from the blacksmith to cut the meat. The brothers went to the blacksmith and told them that they needed a knife to save their brother. The blacksmith replied that he was too hungry to make a knife but if they brought him eggs to eat he would be able to make a knife. They went to a chicken and asked for eggs to save their brother, and the chicken told them that she needed seeds. The brothers went to a farmer and told them they needed seeds to save their brother. The farmer told them that he needed palm fronds to separate the seeds. The brothers asked a palm tree for its fronds to save their brother. The palm tree gave them its fronds, and they gave the fronds to the farmer who used it to separate the seeds. The farmer gave them the seeds which they gave to the chicken in exchange for her eggs. They took the eggs to the blacksmith who gave them a knife. They gave the knife to the meat seller who gave them some meat. They gave the meet to the dog who allowed them to get cream from the cow. They took the cream to their neighbor who made butter. They took the butter to their brother, but their brother was dead.

Abu Gofah

The story below is short, but I think it has a lot of visual potential. If anyone wants to illustrate this story, or knows someone outside the project who might be interested, please let me know.

____________________________________________________________________

Abu Gofah

Collected by Hanan Essa Al-Muhannadi
Edited by Patty Paine

A long time ago, there was a Qatari man named Abdulla who owned a small boat, and made his living as a fisherman. One day, he went further out to sea than he had ever gone. After a good day of fishing he was preparing to return to land. Suddenly, a fierce storm struck, and a strong wind attacked Abdulla’s small boat. The small boat was tossed by the wind and waves, and seawater rushed into the boat. Abdulla knew he was between life and death, and just when he began to give up hope, God inspired him and he saw his Gofah (? I’m not sure this is the correct term, but it’s a container made of fronds that was used to hold dates) Abdulla grabbed the Gofah, dumped out the dates, and began bailing the water out of his boat. Abdulla kept bailing the water until the storm calmed, and he was able to sail safely back to shore.

His family was over-joyed to see him. They were certain that he had died in the storm. He told everyone how he used the Gofah to survive, and from that day on everyone in the town called him Abu Gofah.

Boat History

I found some information about ships in the Gulf that I thought might help with the Mai and Ghaillan story.

An introduction

The last large traditional boat to be constructed in Qatar – a boom – was built in Doha in the early nineteen-seventies. In this photograph you can see how the majority of her ribs were left more or less as the tree trunks and branches came, and only trimmed at their junctions with the planks of the boat. You can also get a feel for the size of the boat from this view of its construction. Incidentally, I don’t know if I am correct in referring to dhows as feminine in the characterisation of the West. I believe some dhows are male and some female, but I’m not sure which are which. One authority suggests that those craft with a thick and short prow are female, and those with a long and fine prow are male.

Compare the traditional craft and its construction above with this one. Both were being constructed at the same time but, whereas the first was dependent upon traditional methods of design, materials, skills and construction, this boat was a copy of a steel-hulled vessel with all its timbers being mechanically shaped to a pre-set design. This might be considered to be the turning point in the construction of wooden boats in Qatar.

This photograph shows a fleet of traditional craft with their lateen sails raised on the occasion of National Day 2009 in Doha’s West Bay. They are a beautiful sight. The traditional boats of the Gulf are obviously neither Islamic in any way nor are they elements of Gulf architecture. However, they seem to me to have so much in common with traditional Gulf architecture and the way of life prior to development irrevocably changed the life of Qataris. In this sense I see boats being as important as the traditional architecture, and I feel that they should be looked at in parallel with land-based architecture.

For this reason I have made this page in order to add a short description of what I can recall of these beautiful craft. Unfortunately, I have to warn you that I can not guarantee the absolute accuracy of everything I write. Much of it comes from conversations I have had in the past with locals with an interest in boats as well as those engaged in the construction and maintenance of them, but I regret now not making notes. I can recommend at least this article to give a description of some of the craft and their history in and around the Gulf and, for more detail of the construction of boats, particularly referring to the Kuwait ship-building industry, this site which, though it seems to have gone down when I last checked, may return, in which case I will leave the link in. More recently I have found this reference which has caused me to alter some of the notes I had previously made. The above photograph, incidentally, was taken at sunset over Doha’s old dhow jetty.

For those who have an interest in the boats of the Gulf and would like to read more about them, I’d like to recommend a far more authoritiative source which, despite its academic character, contains considerable information about the craft of the region in their context and does much to explain why the naming of craft around the Arabian peninsula is so difficult.

The first two of these three photographs are of groups of boats sitting at dawn in the low water off al-Bida prior to the Corniche road being developed in Doha. The photographs were taken in 1972 when the traditional way of beaching craft was still practised. In the first photograph there are, from the left, two smallabwam, one dismasted, a shuw’i in the background, another boom and ajaliboot on the right. In the foreground is, I think, a small kitrwith a second further away behind it. The low water in Doha’s bay was both a benefit in that it enabled boats to be beached easily, but it was foul smelling as it didn’t wash out well at high tide. The second photograph was taken later in the same year but also early in the morning, again showing the fishing craft waiting for high water be taken out to sea. The third photograph was taken in August 1976 and shows a mixture of traditional craft pulled up onto the side of the fill being used to create the New District of Doha, and before the edge was fully trimmed and the Corniche developed. The three photographs illustrates something of the manner in which the fishermen of Doha and al-Bida used the shallows to beach their craft when returned from the sea.

The author has included a lot more information and photos. For the rest of the essay go here:  

                          http://www.catnaps.org/islamic/boats.html

Qatari Artist

Aisha Al Mufta, the teaching assistant for LAS, introduced me to the work of Qatari artist Abdulla al Muharraqi. The two paintings below are based on Qatari folk tales. Aisha knows Abdulla, and I asked her to ask him if he would be interested in meeting with us. I think it would be an amazing opportunity to share what we're doing, and get feedback.

The photos that Markus took during our press conference

UREP Project Conferece Paper/Presentations

Hi all,

As mentioned by Patty, we presented a short paper at a conference on literacy in Cape Town, South Africa about a week or so ago. We also presented a similar paper in Berlin, Germany, earlier this summer. Both presentations were generally very well received. We showed both audiences small samples of your illustrations/work, and they loved them. The audience was very interested in Qatar in general, and our project in particular. This project is gaining a wide international audience, and Patty and I are doing our best to ensure that your work on this project is exposed to the widest audience possible. Keep up the good work! People are aware of what we're doing, and they are interested.

Jesse

You All ROCK!

You all were fantastic at the press conference, and it was wonderful to see you all!

We're working on setting up our next meeting which we hope will be more of a workshop than a meeting. We want to give you an opportunity to give and get feedback, and to work on illustrating and on the lay out. In the meantime, please, please, keep using the blog. 

Illustrators: please feel free to contact Don Earley for feedback on your work. He can work with you individually, or in small groups. 

Layout team: Please contact Michael if you need help. 

Everyone: all the faculty members on this project are here for you, so please let us know if you need anything from feedback to supplies from the bookstore. 

Keep up the great work!

Great job :)

Hey everyone!
I'm very glad to see those great illustrations from everybody. Illustrators you are doing a wonderful job. Keep up the good work!
I'm sorry I wasn't able to attend yesterday's meeting. Can anyone write a short up-date?
Are all layout-designers teamed up with illustrators? And how are we doing in regards to our timeline?
Thanks :)