A Bakery that brings Memories

Sarah

From Sarah

For my project, I decided to construct a 3D box with paper cutouts of my characters. The box is designed to resemble a Chinese bakery, as this was one of the familiar places that remind me of my culture. Food especially pastry brings me fond memories. Along with the box, it was designed with a cashier in the background and the foreground showing a table with rows of sandwiches, buns, and cookies. The characters are based on original designs from my other stories. One is a boy named Jassie and his sister Misha picking out their lunch, and the other two are a little Qilin and his guardian.

Overall, the scene is meant to give a sense of daily life when people are allowed to visit shops. The shop may be something that viewers may recognize in Chinatown.

Model of a Chinese bakery with character standees. On the left stands a little girl in pink dress pointing at the shelf. Beside her is a taller guy in blue sweater and green pants, holding a tray and a pair of tongs. In the middle is a pastry display shelf filled with sandwiches, Swiss rolls, melon bread, pandan cake, curry puffs, and bread loaves. On the right stands a blue-haired qilin, a Chinese mythical unicorn, in purple outfit. He has three legs on the floor and one pointing at the shelf. Beside him on the far right is a pink-haired character with two antlers, in historic pink-coloured outfit, holding a tray and a pair of tongs.

The bakery was constructed with paper cutouts on a 2 layer background. It showcases original comic characters going about their day.

On the left are character standees and pastry display shelf, separated from the bakery box located on the right. Within the bakery box, there's a table on left side, and a cashier standing behind display cases inside.

Characters and pastry display separated from the bakery box

On the left is the bakery box. There's a table on left side of the box, a cashier standing behind display cases inside the box. On the right are the character standees and pastry display shelf, separated from the bakery box.

Bakery box with cashier and display cases at the back, with characters and pastry shelf on the side

Close-up Details

Left side view of the bakery model, with a dance poster adhered on the side wall.

Side view of the box

Right side view of the bakery model, with a cooking class poster flyer adhered on the side wall.

Side view of the box

Close up view on the characters. A little girl, with short dark brown hair in pink dress carrying a red purse, points at the pastry shelf. Beside her is a taller guy with dark blond hair in blue sweater and green pants, looking and listening to her as he holds a tray with one hand and a pair of tongs in the other.

Jassie and his sister Misha, picking out their lunch

Close up view on the characters. A blue-haired qilin, a Chinese mythical unicorn, in purple outfit has three legs on the floor and one leg pointing at the pastry shelf. Standing beside him is a pink-haired character with two antlers, two hair buns wrapped in white fabric, dressed in historic pink-coloured outfit with purple and yellow belt, looking at the pastry shelf she they hold a tray with one hand and a pair of tongs in the other.

Little Qilin and his guardian

Food References

These are some of the pastries that inspired the ones added to the bakery. One of the major things that brings me back to home and childhood.

Chinese Swiss Roll

Curry Puff

Melon Pan

A slice and a ring of green coloured pandan sponge cake.

Pandan Cake

Sarah

Sarah Chui Lau (she/her) is a Bi Asexual East-Asian Canadian freelance illustrator who specializes in drawing kids lit book illustrations. In her free time, Sarah creates webcomics and posts them online, since her early days on Deviantart. In 2012, she debuted a work in an international magazine called "Fairy Dust" and was hired by picture book authors. She is finishing an art degree at Seneca College. Sarah was born in Singapore and was transferred to different schools during her growing years.

Although she was raised with Western beliefs, she turns to visual arts, studies different Eastern folklore and history. Creating comics with BiPOC characters help her connect with her Asian roots as a 1st gen immigrant student. She enjoys adding metaphors and history in her stories (such as Hybrid Dolls, an ongoing webtoon) and her future graphic novel: The Travelling Princess. More of her work can be found on www.worldofsarah.com. Her latest piece is A Place to Belong, an autobiography comic about fitting in as an Asian immigrant.

The comic artists who inspired her works are Rumiko Takahashi and Moto Hagio. In the future, she hopes to inspire new readers as she goes down the path of being a graphic novel author/illustrator.

Sarah can be reached at @joichichan on Instagram, or @lavendercomics on Twitter.

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