The Wee Wee Man

Synopsis

The Wee Wee Man is a folksong which describes a traveler coming across an impossibly strong 6 inch tall man who they follow to their home, which is a gold hall with crystal floor. Beautiful women dressed in green dance in this hall accompanied by pipers playing, but as the traveler looks upon the fairy folk them and the building all disappears.

The Wee Wee Man

As I was walking all alone,
Between a water and a wa,
And there I spy’d a wee wee man,
And he was the least that ere I saw.

His legs were scarce a shathmont’s length,
And thick and thimber was his thigh;
Between his brows there was a span,
And between his shoulders there was three.

He took up a meikle stane,
And he flang’t as far as I could see;
Though I had been a Wallace wight,
I couldna liften’t to my knee.

‘O wee wee man, but thou be strang!
O tell me where thy dwelling be?’
‘My dwelling’s down at yon bonny bower;
O will you go with me and see?’

On we lap, and awa we rade,
Till we came to yon bonny green;
We lighted down for to bait our horse,
And out there came a lady fine.

Four and twenty at her back,
And they were a’ clad out in green;
Though the King of Scotland had been there,
The warst o them might hae been his queen.
On we lap, and awa we rade,
Till we came to yon bonny ha,
Whare the roof was o the beaten gould,
And the floor was o the cristal a’.

When we came to the stair-foot,
Ladies were dancing, jimp and sma,
But in the twinkling of an eye,
My wee wee man was clean awa.

Annotating the ballad

This 17th cent ballad was clearly an inspiration for Terry Pratchett's Discworld sub-series, The Wee Free Men.
I made the below illustration in 2023 in response to the Wee Free Men.

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A post shared by Kirsten Pretswell (@_kswell)

Paul Kidby Illustration

I was thinking about these wee wee chessmen when designing my wee wee man.

Lewis Chessmen, 12th to 13th century

Smailholm Tower

I wanted to include a border landmark within the illustration of the Wee Wee Man so I would have a Smailholm Tower in the background.

Thumbnails for the wee wee man

Creating Assets

Before I decided create my own hand lettering I looked into type that was mystical and old, below are type that I thought could work.

Making the pages

The Wee Wee Man was one of the first pages I made, I was still exploring how I'd create the pages and the feedback I received for this one was that it was too Jill Calder and less Kirsten. So I stepped back and tried again.

I went back to this thumbnail to create an illustration using this composition.

These medieval children were inspiration for the little girl who'd spot the Wee Wee Man.

I wanted to take inspiration from depictions of the Picts, the ancient people of Scotland. I thought this would make the wee wee man seem more otherworldly as he'd look like he's from centuries before the outfit of the little girl. Thus I put him in tartan trousers like the man above, and illustrated him with blue tattoos, I simplified theses tattoos to better suit the style of the book. I was also cautious of my wee wee man not looking like Pratchett's wee free men as they also take inspiration from the Picts by having blue tattoos skin.