Xi'an, China travel sketches

The ancient world that inspired my new graphic novel.

As the year was winding down, I found myself feeling pretty exhausted. The final stretch of the graphic novel, with over 40 pages to go, turned out to be more challenging than I had anticipated! With school finals, graduation, and all the end-of-year responsibilities piling up, I was definitely feeling overwhelmed and a bit burnt out.

But during the holidays, I decided to take a little detour and visit Xi'an (西安), China while I was home in Hong Kong for Christmas break. Xi'an, known as Chang'an (长安) in ancient times, was the capital for 13 different dynasties! Exploring this historic city really inspired me and influenced the design of my new graphic novel. It was a refreshing change of pace!

Procreate sketches

I signed up for a Xi'an tour group in Hong Kong! While waiting at the airport, I had some fun sketching. Top are some quick airport sketches of people walking around.

On our first day, we visit Hua Shan (华山), which is famously known as "Number One Steepest Mountain Under Heaven." Isn't that cool? What makes this mountain really special, though, is its connection to one of the legendary fictional martial arts sects from the wuxia novels by the best-selling Hong Kong author Jin Yong (金庸). Even if you’re not familiar with Jin Yong, if you love kung fu movies, you’ve probably seen adaptations of his stories! Many of the period kung fu films and TV shows from the '80s and '90s are based on his novels, so there's a good chance you’ve enjoyed his work without even realizing it!

I've been illustrating a ton of mountains for my new book but started running low on ideas for the last spread. Sketching Hua Shan really helps spark some ideas!

When I shared my mountain sketches with a friend, she said, "I've always wondered why traditional Chinese paintings use so much line work for mountains. I thought it was just a style choice! But now it makes sense! The real mountains have those heavy line structures, too!"

It never crossed my mind why I naturally approach painting Chinese mountains differently. It's definitely something to ponder!

This isn’t my drawing, but I really busted my butt to get it printed on an old 1918 letterpress! It took me a couple of tries to get it working.

Those machines are super heavy and kind of a workout to handle! Major props to the folks who worked on printing presses back in the day. I honestly don’t think I could last even five minutes with one of these machines!

One of the best parts of this trip was seeing the terracotta soldiers! I didn’t have enough time to draw them, but I took tons of photos instead. They had some cool ancient seal replicas at the museum store that you could play with. I love ancient patterns from the Warring States period (春秋战国) and the Han dynasties (汉代), and I have used many of those designs in my book. I totally nerd out over anything related to those designs!

The Xi'an city wall that stands today was built during the Ming Dynasty (明代), but what really caught my eye was the view of the old town from the wall. Along one side, there are these beautiful traditional buildings that probably used to belong to high-ranking officials long ago. Now, they’re cozy homes for everyday people. It’s so lovely to see folks relaxing and hanging out on their rooftops! It really adds to the charm of the area.

Airport sketches at Xi’an International Airport!

I took many photos on this trip! It will take me some time to organize them for sharing. Some of these photos were to help me "double-check" the art for my current book project, while some may spark ideas for potential future stories. Many of my graphic novel's design concepts come from diving into history books and novels. Since most of that information is in written form with just a few images, it's incredibly fun to experience history up close and personal!

I’ve been dreaming of visiting Xi'an for ages. I totally overpacked for the trip! While I was on a group tour, I quickly realized how tough it is to squeeze in time to sketch. Whenever I managed to grab a moment to draw, it had to be super quick since we were mostly given time to snap photos. The top photo shows everything I packed, and the bottom one is what I actually used for sketching on location.

I also tried out an accordion sketchbook for the first time, and I loved it! It’s such a fantastic choice for travel. One of the best things about it is the flexibility; you can go for a quick single-page sketch or create a beautiful panoramic spread. This is super handy while exploring because you never know what amazing surprises await you around the next corner!

I can't wait to share more stories with you in the future. But for now, it's time for me to get back to finishing the book!

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