I used to have a voracious appetite for reading. In my teenage years, I remember waking up on weekends and starting reading while in bed. My parents were dismayed of course, but I didn’t mind as it was the lesser evil: what I lack in physical movement, I made up for in reading.

I rarely read fiction these days so it was a welcome break that I finished Haruki Murakami’s Sputnik Sweetheart. Two weeks before finishing the book, let me note that I was also practicing drawing Asian female faces. I usually choose Western faces as subjects, and I thought I needed a break.

So anyway, after I finished the book, I thought one of my drawings fit the character Miu, at least how I envisioned her. I fixed the scanned drawing on Photoshop and decided to junk the hair altogether and leave her face floating on a blank space. You know how at certain moments in your life you focus on a single detail and the rest becomes a blur or even omitted? I guess that was the look that I was gunning for.

You’ll understand why if you’ve read the book.