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aimeekitty
Hi, everyone! This past month has been so busy, I almost forgot to post the finished Kaguya-hime pieces! I wanted to take the time to post them all in order and describe the process a bit for each one,... so it took me a little while. But some people had asked me about it at the artshow, and I was a bit frazzled at the show... so hopefully I'll do a better job explaining them and the process here.
If you want to see more photos of the event and the gallery space, please click here.
NOTE: I have prints of all of these available, if you'd like one, please comment here or email me. They are $8 a piece, but if you buy all 8 prints, I'll give them to you for $40 ($24 discount). I'll sign all of them, of course. The prints are 8 1/2 by 11". Shipping would be about $4 USA, probably? I should be able to ship them all together if you order multiples.
These pieces are based on The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter Japanese fairy tale. It's the oldest known Japanese narrative, older than the Tale of Genji. It's also considered an early example of proto-science fiction. It's set in the Heian era, which was when Japan really started to have it's own fashion separate from China.
I chose this story because I wanted to research more about the Heian period and I also thought that the visual aspects of the story would be inspiring to draw. I started the story in spring with Kaguya-hime as a child and finished the story in winter. The Heian clothing color combinations (kasane) that Kaguya-hime wears are based on my own personal connections with the colors and the proper color combinations for the time of year.
Unfortunately due to me using markers and metallic pen accents, these pieces look a lot more subtle and cool in person,... but hopefully you can still enjoy these scans. :)
You'll find the new pieces at the bottom of this post, but I wanted to post them all in order here with their full information.
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"One day, while walking in the bamboo forest, an old, childless bamboo cutter came across a mysterious, shining stalk of bamboo.
This piece,... I really wanted the feeling of yummy blues and limey greens and I wanted the bamboo cutter to be very appealing, content and kind looking. I think he enjoys his work.
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After cutting it open, he found inside it a girl the size of his thumb."
A piece that isn't done justice by a scan. This one has a lot of sakura permanent metallic gold all over it.
I wanted to play around with the feeling of gold leafing and old gilded screens. I wanted to keep the image simple so that she stood out... I didn't want any sort of distracting background and I felt this simple look would make it feel a little more magical, too. I also thought it would make a good counterpart to the almost all-black piece of her grown up later. I wanted her face to be very round and slightly alien looking... she is a moon maiden.
~ on DA
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"He rejoiced to find such a beautiful girl and took her home. He and his wife raised her as their own child and named her Kaguya-hime (かぐや姫 "radiant-night princess"). "
Kaguya-hime's heian kasane is "under the snow". This one took forever to do. I really wanted to emphasize the love of the parents, the relationship between them and Kaguya-hime. After doing this piece I decided to focus more on them and less on the substory of the suitors. (in fact I cut out the story of the suitors altogether.)
~ on DA
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Kaguya-hime quickly grew up to be a beautiful normal sized woman.
I wanted to show her in a way that was kindof mysterious... since she's a moon maiden. I love this sort of veiled traveling look from the Heian era. I also felt like it showed a little bit more personality for her than the way she's typically shown (as being very unfeeling and cold.) This is one of the pieces that looks much more fun in person because it uses a lot of metallic on the kimono and the gold in the background... not to mention pale color shading doesn't generally scan all that well.
For the kimono geeks out there,... The Heian color combination she's wearing is a summer one called New Leaves of Downy Maple based on a traveling garment in the Jidai Matsuri. I did a lot of research, so if I got it wrong, I'm not sure if I want to know anymore. haha.
~ on DA
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"That season, whenever Kaguya-hime saw the full moon, her eyes filled with tears. Though her adoptive parents worried greatly and questioned her, she was unable to tell them what was wrong. Her behaviour became increasingly erratic until she revealed that she was not of this world and must return to her people on the Moon.( In some versions of this tale, it is said that she was sent to the Earth as a temporary punishment for some crime, while others say it is because she was sent to earth for safety during a celestial war.")
Her kimono colors are one of the set-colors from the beginning of winter, Downy Maples. I tried to pick one that historically was in the right time of year... but also gave me, a modern viewer, the colder, sadder feeling I wanted.
~ on DA
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"One night, an embassy of "Heavenly Beings" arrived at the door of the woodcutter's house, the many guards were blinded by a strange light. "
I wanted to play with the traditional kimono Buddhist costumes of the celestial beings Tennin, Karyōbinga, etc. I was thinking... if Karyōbinga and Tennin, etc,... actually existed, they wouldn't really look like how old Japanese people dressed their dancers, right...? But then I was thinking that it would be fun to pay homage to those old drawings and myths by showing them the way that ancient Japan depicted them. Or perhaps the tennin showed up how they were depicted to soothe the humans? Who knows.
I did have fun having them change from actual butterflies and birds into humanoid figures, though, as they came down from the moon. I made their faces a little more removed looking. The flowers are lotus.
Fave on DA
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"Kaguya-hime announced that, though she loves her many friends on Earth, she must return with the Moon people to her true home. Her feather robe was placed on her shoulders, and all of her sadness and compassion for the people of the Earth were forgotten. The heavenly entourage took Kaguya-hime back to Tsuki-no-Miyako ("the Capital of the Moon") leaving her earthly foster parents in tears."
on DA
This last one... I just wanted the feeling of these shapes. There's metallic gold in various spots. The kasane (robe colors) are based on a late winter/early spring combination, "Willow"... but I kinda just chose what I wanted based on typical colors.
on DA
The End!
I hope you enjoyed these. I really enjoyed making them and the challenge of deciding how to draw it and what to draw out of the story. The deadline of the artshow was a good impetus.
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Date: 2010-06-02 03:48 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2010-06-02 05:36 pm (UTC)Lily XXX
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Date: 2010-06-02 08:05 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2010-06-03 06:11 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2010-06-04 02:09 am (UTC)Re: I would like to purchase a print!
Date: 2010-06-04 02:11 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-06-04 02:11 am (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2010-06-23 05:17 pm (UTC)randomly though, crazy mail people BENT THE ENVELOPE (thank goodness everything inside was okay. nothing a couple heavy books couldn't solve) AND there was -bird poo- on the envelope. a first for me, wow! >0<
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Date: 2010-06-23 05:34 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-06-23 11:19 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-06-23 11:47 pm (UTC)