SI #9

Artist Statement:

My overall idea for this piece was to make a project on the Japanese yokai Abura-sumashi. I was interested in this creature because after doing a lot of research about different yokai, I thought he wouldn’t be very difficult to render seeing as his description wasn’t as complicated as some of the others. The feature I chose to emphasize is the clothing that he wears, and I did this by making them large and flowy looking and in a color that stands out from his skin and the rest of his body. I chose to do a yokai because I really enjoy the culture of Japan and I think mythology is a great way to learn more about it's culture along with the country's history.

The materials I chose to use were just some simple drawing paper and some colored pencils. I chose to use these because the drawing paper was the only thing I had on hand, and I chose the colored pencils in order to make his clothing stand out.

My process of creating this piece was to do a lot of research about the yokai I wanted to use. To do this I went to many websites and even looked at other artist’s examples of renderings. This helped to inspire me to figure out how I envisioned this creature would look like, what they do, and how they act. This gives me good practice with character design. By this time, I had an image of him formed in my head. I sketched my idea out onto paper for a rough line drawing. Then I began to fill this in with color, erasing pencil lines as I went. Afterwards I went back in and burnished and layered colors, which I could’ve spent more time on, but I think it turned out alright overall. Thinking it looked much too bland, I also added in things like some jewelry and a cane with a lantern. If I were to add anything I think it would be more burnishing and some trees in the background.