When asked me to draw Nyueki and Sinoko smoking together, my imagination wasn’t exactly like this painting above. I was thinking to draw them more like smoking together while standing back to back. Once the sketch was done, I held it and my first thought was: ‘What a boring picture…’
So I drop that sketch and try another quick thumbnails. That time, I remember a movie which I had seen recently: The Flowers of War (starring Christian Bale, every Dark Knight fans should not miss this one!). The movie set in the time of Japan occupation of Nanking, China, around 1942 (I didn’t remember the exact year, but I thought it’s the same time as Japanese occupied my country).
A few women depicted in the movie had identical outfit to Nyueki, and I remember how they act very gracefully. So I had decided to take the same approach, and tried to make classic pose to Nyueki and Sinoko. I imagined them posed in front of the camera (those classic one when the photographer hide under a cloth or something), Sinoko sits on the cloth wrapped chair and Nyueki smoke pleasantly, standing in the back of the chair. Light emanating dimly from candles around them, creating a romantic atmosphere (or I thought it was).
And I love the result, and now I love both Nyueki and Sinoko too…