Three Clerks
Last week I tweaked my back. It hurt. A lot. As I recovered, I found that sketching with pen and pencil was less strenuous than writing on keyboard. So that’s what I did.
Sketched characters from an adventure I am currently writing for Colin Le Sueur’s We Deal In Lead. It began as a homage to Wisit Sasanatieng’s tomyamgong western Fa Thalai Chon / Tears Of The Black Tiger.
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SHIN SUL SHAP, SHRINE CLERK
4 Grit 10 STR 10 DEX 10 HRT
Switch (d4)
Face hidden by a broad-brimmed bonnet and veil. Patrols the lines of pilgrims; like a schoolmarm she thwacks anybody chit-chatting. Piety should be silent!
A waif snatches a lead token from her pouch, and bolts. A chase ensues. He begs your help. If Sul Shap finds him, she will sell him to captive takers.
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Sul Shap is a clerk at the Shrine To The Headless Sun: a bare plaza; a marble pavilion; a golden man, with an ever-burning flame where his head should be.
The Headless Sun is patron saint of the Admiralty, whose laws now govern both Ocean and Sea. He was its founder. The kings of old captured and beheaded him. He overthrew them anyway.
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References for Sul Shap were basically Buddhist nun robes (mainly for the volume of fabric), plus an European bonnet.
Initially I’d imagined a conventional broad-brim hat—ie: her veil would be a cylinder around her whole head. But as I sketched I thought the bonnet made a more interesting shape? Also its rear was an opportunity to create a crest / halo of sun-rays. Religious iconography!
Alms bowl, because giving is a virtue. But the Headless Sun values ego-death, not asceticism—so colourful beads and gold amulets and pouches full of lead tokens (money).
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RIS SHAY NAM, RECORDS CLERK
2 Grit 10 STR 10 DEX 10 HRT
Swung typewriter (d4)
In a wheelbarrow, pulled by a servitor, typewriter balanced on her belly, pockets filled with banana fritters. Greasy fingerprints on any document she works on.
Shay Nam thinks herself a moral soul. Will side with abolitionists and revolutionaries, with justice—until her own skin is at risk.
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Shay Nam works at the Hibiscus Court. Princess Khur San, distancing herself from the old order, surrendered this palace to bureaucrats.
Clerks have filled its once-airy halls with shelves. By sympathetic sorcery, all contracts in the province manifest copies here. Rumour has it that this magic works both ways.
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This was my first sketch. In pain and bored I just started drawing.
No references, and it shows? Skirt and stockings and boots because these were the easiest for me to do. In my mind Shay Nam was an archetypal overweight NEET. Here she looks to be a sassy layabout. I like her better, now!
Also: a servitor is an empty body. Created when you ritually touch a shrine-stone to the Headless Sun—your soul is obliterated. What is left behind is mindless, hence the harness and reins.
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KHAN YUL MIN, COURT CLERK
4 Grit 1 DEF 10 STR 10 DEX 10 HRT
Sabre (d8)
A university grad and former marine. But his townhouse sits below Rose Hill, on Merchant’s Row, beneath the old families’ notice.
Yul Min means to change this. He has his eye on the Widow Gon. He will hire ruffians to waylay her palanquin—then swoop in, to rescue her. Elaborate theatre.
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Yul Min, like all these characters, live on the Sea of Sorrows, whose waters are literally the souls of the dead.
Roses always bleach within sight of it; to retain their colour they must be shipped in glass, then kept in arboreta—never once sharing air with the Sea.
Those who can afford red-rose gardens tend them on the south end of the city, where streets begin to climb Mount Go, in compounds walled like fortresses.
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Drew Yul Min last night. Had tabs open for “Thai traditional clothing” & “military uniforms 18th century” & “krabi” & “Vajiralongkorn”.
Given my inspiration, I think the referencing of Mainland Southeast Asian material culture is appropriate. Maybe a little to obvious, though? Ie: the visual forms haven’t been composted well, into new and more imaginative shapes …
Still: very pleased with the proportions and details.
I liked how the hamsa-esque icon of the Headless Sun developed over the course of these sketches. I would not have discovered it, otherwise; it’s one of those details, too small for words.
Drawing is an intrinsic part of the writing process, I guess!
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