Kitsune - Fox Spirit

New illustration post, again. I haven't been very good at this whole blog thing. The point is probably to say a tiny bit more about my art and (gasp) thoughts than just "here's a drawing", which is pretty much what my latest posts have been. Will try to elaborate a bit more in the future... And by that I mean not today :P Anyway, here's one of my latest illustrations, out of the Shinto mythology theme I've got going... I've had this image of a Kitsune- or fox spirit- floating in my mind for a while...

More action coming soon...

DIY- Medusa geisha Halloween costume

In compliance to this year's Greek mythology Halloween theme, my costume was the Gorgon Medusa but with a Japanese Kabuki/Geisha style.

I was lucky to find lots of helpful elements to build the rather elaborate costume around. I wanted a very lavish kimono in tones of black, gold and red, to match with Jacob's Minotaur costume. A trip to the thrift store (Value Village) yielded a kimono-top dress and another large dress in the right colours for a total of $20:



I got a bit more fabric from the fabric store for about $40. A glossy black fabric to make the kimono's long sleeves, a rich golden fabric with dragons for the kimono's 'Obi' and some red trim ribbon:



After visiting several craft/dollar stores without success, I found some nice-looking rubber snakes in a toy store (no picture, sorry) and a basic black wig.

I found some neat yellow contact lenses, to finalize the Medusian look that could turn onlookers to stone, at www.fashion-contactlenses.com for a pretty good price. Their shipping was very fast too.

Putting the whole costume together was a somewhat haphazard affair, as I had about a week left and a busy little 3 month-old to entertain. I wish I could have made a more comprehensive tutorial, but it basically consisted of sewing the various parts (sleeves, trim, obi etc...) together. The kimono was assembled in two parts, attached with snap buttons, to allow me to nurse Penelope easily. An interesting observation was that Penelope seemed completely oblivious to my attire, full-face makeup and creepy eyes eyes: She just giggled and demanded her embraces and feedings as eagerly as usual :D

The final look:





Little Penelope also had a costume of sorts to celebrate her very first Halloween. She sure nailed the essence of jolly, carefree Pan:



... She got more enthusiastic once she got out of the car seat, promise ;)

DIY- Minotaur Halloween costume

This year, for Halloween, awesome paper-craftster Jacob (and my hubby) and I decided to go for a Greek mythology monsters theme. However, we were a bit underwhelmed by the usual plain toga idea so we thought of mixing other cultural elements to the costumes.

I picked a Kabuki-inspired Medusa and he went with a Venitian carnival Minotaur.

Here's the Minotaur in all its glory and we're pretty psyched about it! :D



Step-by-step:

First, Jacob made a rough structure for the bull head. I'm always impressed at how he can capture the basic essence of a shape with very little effort. Here' the bovine shape made out of a cereal box:



The horns were molded out of good old papier mâché and some fine wire for support:



Next, Jacob used plaster of Paris to solidify the shape and add more details. Since this is a functional mask and bovine eyes are too far apart to serve as seeing holes for a human, he added a few seeing holes on the front:



The finer details, like eyes and nostrils were made out of a baked clay-like putty (which was lighter than the plaster, as the mask was getting quite heavy), then glued to the plaster head with contact cement:



The final, fully plastered mask model:



It was my turn to paint the bull mask, Venitian style. I began by painting the whole mask with black acrylic paint to create a uniform base:



Then I used a sponge to dab some gold paint mixed with black for a bronze-like effect that would show through the other colours:



Using a warm, antique-white, I outlined the mask's patterns:



It was then only a matter of adding some finer details in gold, black and red paint:



And here's the final Venetian Minotaur mask!



My Medusa costume is coming along well; kimono, snake-wig and all... Pics coming soon!

Work in progress - God of Birds

I seem to have been dabbling heavily in mythological/god-like figures lately. It's mainly because I enjoy the allegorical quality of such characters: It's like putting a human face on wonders of nature and life.

With that in mind, I was pondering one night on the fact that, aside from some animist societies, we represent deities, nature spirits and allegorical figures as humans or, at least, partly human. Even Death, despite being universal and a reality for all creatures, is traditionally portrayed as a human skeletal figure (my own piece featuring Death coming soon ;) ).

Therefore, I was wondering whether our fellow animals would personify objects of worship as their own species, if they were so inclined.

To explore that concept, I began with the God of Birds. I figured that birds would probably come up with a sun-deity. Since birds tend to begin singing at dawn, many birds who flock do an impressive 'dance' at sundown and migratory birds rely heavily on celestial bodies to navigate (the sun being the brightest), I pictured birds celebrating a surreal, vaguely bird-like god in the shining orb.

This is a first sketch, entirely digital (as opposed to a pencil/ink drawing) and the style turned out quite different compared to my usual stuff: The God of Birds-

Benzaiten- New piece and Step-by-Step progress

I've created a piece to enter in a contest on an art forum. I was interested mainly for the possibility of a few entries to be included in an artbook. The theme was 'Ethnique- Women of Legend', so it was about choosing a female mythological or legendary figure from various cultures. Of course, I only found out about the competition 2 days before the deadline, but I do draw well under pressure ;)

As subject, I chose Benzaiten: The Japanese/Shinto equivalent to the Hindu goddess Saraswati, Benzaiten represents music, language, knowledge, poetry and speech.

Old Japanese prints were a big inspiration for style. The water and fishes represent the flowing nature of words and songs and the fact that both Saraswati and Benzaiten are associated with rivers. I've used chiefly tones of muted blues, orange and pink to represent the peaceful and feminine nature of the goddess. She is supported above the water by a moonfish (akamanbo) and accompanied by goldfishes: Both kind of fishes represent good luck, indicating her status of protector goddess and bestower of fortune.

Step 1- Pencil sketch (crappy digital picture, because I was too lazy to scan the large drawing in 2 pieces):


Step 2- Inking:


Step 3- A limited insight on the colouring process:


The finished piece!


A few closeups of details:


I've been wanting to draw a moonfish for a while now: I think they just look so gorgeous (and they're huge! Probably large enough for a dainty goddess to ride on, too!). Fishes in general are lots of fun to draw.


It would be awesome to be included in some anthology, but I'm quite happy with this one as a new portfolio piece, if nothing else. It was very enjoyable to create.