Decided to go back in and rework the painting for this page. Here's the text from the old post:
Gosh, where do I begin?
Four years or so ago, I typed up a children's book manuscript for the story of the Monkey King. The Chinese folktale struck a chord with me while I was overseas in Hunan and I've wanted to start a book ever since. I lost the original manuscript in the horrific computer crash of 2006, and the paper version had gone missing... until a week ago. I re-read the old text, and I'm motivated to get going on it. Here's the first painting, page 1 with rough-draft page treatment and paginated text. If any of you are interested in the full story, go buy the "Journey to the West" series. It's 100 chapters, over 1.200 pages, and it's packed with crazy kung fu action, magical chinese gods, demons, Buddha, and some seriously awesome adventure. it's worth a read. The story I'm illustrating/telling is the introduction and history of the Monkey King (the first few hundred pages of Journey to the West), children's book style.