Yokai Poster – Mujina

Continuing with my series of Japanese Yokai Posters, this is Mujina. The first poster inspired by Japanese culture, pop art and packaging art was for Kitsune, and the second was for Fūri.

Poster with an illustration of a Mujina.

I’ve found inspiration to design this poster, the third on a series, on Japanese Pop Art, Japanese packaging design and Japan’s folklore. Click on the attached file to see the original format 😉

むじな or Mujina, is a Yokai represented by the Japanese Badger. In Japan’s folklore, along with the fox and the raccoon dog, badgers are frequently depicted as Yokai that shapeshifter and deceive humans. As folk tales go, Mujinas frequently appear on unfrequented and remote roads at night and sing “Drink water, drink tea”.

妖怪 or Yōkai are supernatural monsters, spirits and demons in Japanese folklore.

This artwork was created with Photoshop and Illustrator (which I used to draw the sunburst in the background). Below is the final rough, after many iterations, for this design.

For now, this is the last poster on the series, maybe I’ll do more in the near future. Thank you for stopping by 🙂

Yokai Poster – Fūri

Continuing with my series of Japanese Yokai Posters, this is Fūri. The first poster inspired by Japanese culture, pop art and packaging art was for Kitsune.

Poster with an illustration of a Furi.

妖怪 or Yokai are supernatural monsters, spirits and demons in Japanese folklore.

風狸 or Fūri, is a Yokai of China and Japan. Some sources says it’s some kind of monkey, but I also found it depicted as some squirrel looking creature or a raccoon dog, among other things, so, I did something of my own on this one. One thing that was constant on my research is that it has a leopard pattern on its blue fur, it glides around like a bird, and it has red eyes. They move as quickly as the wind, and can cross the distance between two mountains on a single leap. 

This artwork was created with Photoshop and Illustrator (which I used to draw the sunburst in the background). Below is the final rough, after many iterations, for this design.

rough drawing of a Furi with a sunburst background.

The next Yokai creature on this series is going to be the Mujina, so check my updates if you’d like to see it. Thank you for stopping by!

Yokai Poster – Kitsune

So, I decided to design some posters, because it’s something I feel is missing on my portfolio, and the theme I picked to start with is Japanese Yokai Posters. I really like Japanese art in general, and, in this case, I’ve found inspiration on Japanese Pop Art and Japan’s folklore.

Poster with an illustration of a Kitsune.

妖怪 or Yokai are supernatural monsters, spirits and demons in Japanese folklore.

狐, キツネ or Kitsune, is the Japanese word for fox. probably the most well known Yokai outside Japan. According to that country’s traditional legends, the more tails a fox has, and they can have as many as nine tails, the more powerful it is. These nine tailed foxes acquire the ability to hear and see everything happening in the world, at all times, ant they’re also credited with infinite wisdom. The pearls on each of the Kitsune’s tails are called Hoshi no tama, and according to tradition, they represent the Kitsune’s soul.

This artwork was created with Photoshop and Illustrator (which I used to draw the sunburst in the background). Below is the final rough, after many iterations, for this design.

The next Yokai creature on this series is going to be the Furi, and after that, the Mujina, so check my updates if you’d like to see it. Thank you for stopping by!

A girl with her pet owl

An illustration I did (my first finalized for 2019!) of a series of girls hanging out with their magical pets. In this case, a Jelly-Fish-Tailed Owl, and yes, that doesn’t exist, just in case you’re wondering 😉

Illustration of a girl holding a mythical creature on her hand, a magical owl.

For this piece, as for the others on this series, I did the rough drawing on Photoshop, and the final art on paper. I’m kinda doing the opposite of what I used to do, and sometimes still do for other kinds of drawings, which was to start sketching on paper, and do the final image digitally.

Scroll down to see the final digital sketch, which I printed and used to trace on watercolor paper, to finally ink and paint it.

The final illustration was done with ink on paper, and the list of materials is as follows:

  • Strathmore Cold Press Watercolor Paper 140 lb.
  • Dr. Ph. Martin’s Black Star Matte Ink
  • Kuretake brush
  • Winsor & Newton Cotman watercolor in Payne’s Gray and Lamp Black
  • Col Erase light blue pencil
  • Prismacolor black pencil
Rough drawing for a girl with her magical pet owl

Thanks for stopping by!

Dryad, a tree nymph in Greek Mythology

Following up up on my Greek Mythology series, after Cupid and Demeter, this is a Dryad, a nymph of the trees.

A Dryad is not just one specific entity, it’s a kind of nymph, along with so many others. So maybe, I’ll still draw other Dryads in the future, to add to the collection, since Nature is one of my main inspirations anyway 🙂 But in the meantime, there are so many other characters in Greek Mythology that I’ll probably do something else before I get to this kind of nymph again! So many interesting gods and goddesses to pick from, and heroes and other mythical beings to illustrate, it feels like an endless source of material to depict!

Dryad was done in Photoshop, with the first sketch done on paper, and subsequent changes all done digitally.

Digital illustration of a Dryad, nymph of the trees in Greek Mythology

Dryad, the final illustration.

Rough drawing of a Dryad, nymph of the trees in Greek Mythology

Dryad, the final rough.

Cupid

This is Cupid, she is a black girl, she is badass, and her motto is “make love, not war.”

So, this illustration had been in the making for a long time, but I had many changes of heart regarding her design, and it ended up taking me way longer than I expected to finish it. For the sake of comparison, scroll down to see the old version of it, which I wasn’t really happy about.

Cupid was done in Photoshop CC 2017, and the first rough was done on paper, but subsequent changes were all done digitally.

Illustration of Cupid as a black girl

Rough drawing of Cupid as a black girl

Before some major tweaks, this is what Cupid looked like:

Cupid work in progress

And this is the first rough I did:

Cupid as a black girl first rough

Thanks for stopping by and checking my artwork 🙂

Cheers till next time!

 

 

Girl with dandelion

Illustration in ink of a native Brazilian girl with dandelion

Illustration in ink (at first intended to be published during #inktober, oh well!) of a native Brazilian girl holding a dandelion. I need to do more inking, it’s actually quite fun!

Done with  a Kuretake calligraphy brush (I highly recommend it, once you get the hang of it, you can get amazing line variation with it!) and Dr. Ph. Martin’s Black Star India Ink, on Arches Watercolor cold press paper.

Ilustração em nanquim (a princípio a intenção era publicá-la durante o #inktober, fazer o quê!) de uma garota indígena brasileira segurando um dente-de-leão. Eu tenho que fazer mais desenhos em nanquim, o processo é muito interessante!

Feita com pincel de caligrafia Kuretake (recomendo muito; uma vez que você pega prática com ele, dá pra conseguir uma variação de traço incrível!) e nanquim Dr. Ph. Martin’s Black Star, sobre papel Arches Watercolor cold press.

Chilling Bears

Digital painting of some bears chilling on a tree, drinking coffee and playing chess. I’m trying some new approaches, like using saturated colors and brushes that reproduce traditional media.

Pintura digital de uns ursos relaxando em cima de uma árvore, tomando café e jogando xadrez. Estou testando abordagens novas, como usar cores saturadas e pincéis que reproduzem o efeito de mídias tradicionais.

Four bears on a tree, two of them playing chess, one of them drinking coffeeDetail of the bears.

Detalhe dos ursos.

Four bears on a tree, two of them playing chess, one of them drinking coffee

I really like seeing the creative process when I see a finalized painting, so, I’m going to share some of mine. Here are the sketches I did for it, while I was still exploring ideas. At first, I was going for a more subtle approach, with the colors, but I wasn’t really happy with it, it didn’t match the playfulness I wanted to depict on this scene.

Eu gosto muito de ver o processo criativo por trás de imagens finalizadas, então, vou compartilhar um pouco do meu. Aqui estão os rascunhos que eu fiz pra esta ilustração, enquanto eu estava explorando ideias diferentes. No início, eu tinha escolhido uma abordagem mais neutra, em relação às cores, mas eu não estava contente com isso, não combinava com a atmosfera divertida que eu queria mostrar nesta cena.

Sketch of four bears on a tree, two of them playing chess, one of them drinking coffee

Sketch of four bears on a tree, two of them playing chess, one of them drinking coffee

 

Mini illustrations of the National Parks Part 1

Arches and Badlands National Parks vector illustration


I decided to start a new “collection” of small illustrations (“almost” icons) of the National Parks in America. They’re vector drawings, so, they’re very stylized. My intention isn’t to do something realistic, but I don’t want to make something completely “graphic”, either. So, I’m working to find a happy medium.

These are the first two I’ve made, of the Arches and Badlands Natural Parks.

Eu resolvi começar uma nova “coleção” de ilustrações em tamanho pequeno (ícones, talvez?) dos Parques Naturais aqui dos Estados Unidos. São ilustrações vetoriais, então, elas são bem estilizadas. Minha intenção não é fazer algo realista, mas ao mesmo tempo, eu não quero fazer algo totalmente “gráfico”. Então, estou trabalhando pra chegar a um meio termo interessante.

Estas são as duas primeiras que eu fiz, do Arches e do Badlands Natural Parks.