Responding to Your Community Through Haiku

Here are some ways to create your haiga...

You can work by yourself, or work with a partner and take turns. One person writes the Haiku and the partner creates the haiga. Then switch, starting with the haiga, and have your partner interpret it with a Haiku.

Think about where you would like to place the text of your Haiku, will you put it in with the images or next to it?

Use a digital camera or camera phone

Represent your haiku with natural objects
Represent your haiku with manmade objects
Take three pictures with a digital or camera phone and present each picture as the lines of your haiku.
Check out Peter DeLory's, Sound Transit photo collection of "Tight Steel", #2 and write a haiku that describes the way you see it.
Email your images to Sound Transit to share in the Haiku Gallery at .

Use pen brush and ink

This is what you need:

Watercolor brushes #2, #4, #6 or traditional Japanese Sumi calligraphy brush
Calligraphy pen and student drawing nib
Non-toxic Sumi Ink
9" X 12" Watercolor paper or a roll of Sumi paper

How to...
Lay newspaper down on a flat surface, lay your Sumi paper or watercolor paper down, decide which to do first, write your Haiku or create your haiga drawing.

Next...
You can work "dry" by applying the ink to the paper, or you can play with wetting the papers surface using a brush and water, then dipping the brush or pen into the ink to create a "wash" effect. Experiment to see which technique works best, remembering to play with the relationship between the image and the text of the Haiku. Be spontaneous and playful!

Then...
When your haiga is finished take a photo or scan the image and send your work by e-mail to the Sound Transit web site at start@soundtransit.org

Make a Mono-print

This is what you need:

9" x 12" plexi-glass plate
Speedball water-based printing inks
1"-3" Brayer roller for ink
1"-3" Brayer roller for printing
Palette knife/paint scraper to spread ink
9" x 12" Japanese paper, printmaking paper, newsprint
Newspaper
Spray bottle with water
Drawing tools chop stick, comb, shell, feather and found objects - be inventive!

How to...
Lay newspaper on a flat surface, then lay the printing plate on top of the paper. Draw a 3"inch line of ink on printing plate, and use the inking brayer to evenly roll the ink out until it has a nice finish and the roller gives off a "tacky" sound and it feels like paint that is not quite dry.

Next...
Draw the first picture for your haiga, using the drawing tools. Add more color and experiment with spraying water on the ink. then lay a sheet of paper over top of the ink. Make a fist with your hand and rub the paper from side to side with even pressure, then pull the sheet away to finish your first print.

Then...
Add more ink and draw on the plate again to create the second image of your haiga. When you are happy with your drawing lay the paper on top, and follow the previous instructions, to pull your second print. Repeat again to create the third image of your haiga.

A helpful hint...
When you finish using rollers or decide to change ink color, wash the roller with warm soapy water and dry well, with paper towel or roll out on clean newspaper.

Use Mixed-Media Collage

Try combining the various techniques described above with text and images cut from old magazines, newspapers and used books. Play with manipulating the placement of your haiku text around the visual haiga that you have created. You can also glue down found objects, feathers, dried plant materials or bits of plastic or metal you might find when walking around your neighborhood. Remember to be playful and experiment; the best creations can come from your mistakes.

Submit your haiga to the Sound Transit website by taking a photo or scanning the image and sending it to .

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