Description

A comic strip — my first ever — depicts the story of a teen drawn to ride their noisy motorbike under the light of the full moon, much to the dislike of their neighbours. The story then crashes into a medieval herbology wheelhouse, creating an unexpected tale of a noisy full moon apothecary.

Story Behind It

The story of the motorbike rider was sparked by a real life event. During midterm break I stayed with my partner at the beach during full moon, and in the very early morning we were woken from slumber by a motorcyclist driving noisily round and around the domain outside our window. The experience was pure comedy and I had to get it down. I decided to use this visual narrative as the basis for an assessment piece, which asked us to apply the wheelhouse process to create a whole new original story from one that already existed. I had no idea what illustrated book to collide with my original story, so I chose eight books at random from across the store. Five of them made reference to herbology, so that is the topic I picked. Medieval block prints were a recurring theme and this provided the aesthetic for the illustrations. The interactive surprise elements were a fun addition. This piece achieved an A+.

Medium & Materials

The modern full moon tale images are rough doodles painted in gouache. The Full Moon Apothecary images were hand drawn in ink. The interactive images — revealed when doors are opened — were drawn in pencil and painted in gouache.

Year & Series Details

• Year created: 2025
• Location: The Modern Full Moon Tale was crafted at Carters Beach on the West Coast of the South Island, and The Full Moon Apothecary was made in Paekākāriki on the Kāpiti Coast of the North Island, Aotearoa New Zealand.
• Format: This is a series of illustrated stories in a book. The plan is to add more weird and wonderful stories about humans and the moon to the collection.