Intro
The research I did in the seminar was about the three most influential Yokai (monsters) in Japan, and I found I was really interested in Tamamo no Mae,or Kitsune, the nine-tailed shape changing fox. She was a pretty powerful monster that used magic. I was also influenced by it when I was a child. In my country’s cultural background, there was also a nine-tailed fox legend. For the most part, their stories are pretty similar, but in fact, I found they are different through details influenced by different cultural backgrounds.
Background Story
According to the Japanese legend, Kitsune disguised herself as a beautiful woman and became the favorite concubine of the emperor of Japan. But she used her magic on the emperor everyday that caused the emperor became very sick. After she was found out, the emperor sent out eighty thousand warriors on a crusade to kill her. But her powerful magic had defeated all of them at the beginning. In the end, she was killed because of the counter attack. But even that, her body turned into a Killing Stone that still spread the curses from her magic.
Inspiration
I happened to find a nine-tailed fox (Kitsune)’s metallic assembly on the internet while I was looking for the ideas. This metal texture appearance instantly inspired me, because it made me feel like it’s a combination of the modern culture and ancient culture. I thought, what would it be like if the nine-tail fox evolved her flesh into metal, and fought against the high technology? Based on that thought, I had drawn a sketch like this.
Process
My process consists of two different productions which I would tried to combine them together by the end.
1. The metallic assembly of Kitsune
Above is my process of assembling the model.
Final Production
Above is the photography.
I put my assembly in front of my night light because I found it was really alike to the sketch I drew before.
2. Drawing
I used the watercolors.
Final Production
Two photos above are just to show the similarities between two productions.
So I decided to put the assembly model on the drawing like this.
Final Project Process
I tried many ways to edit this photo. At first, I used the vibrant tool and painting tools over the shield and the tails of the Kitsune just to make her look like a wondrous creature. Also I made a shadow for the fox assembly. Then I darkened that left side to make a contrast in the picture.
I blurred the lines of the fox assembly to make it not too abrupt. I tried adding deeper colors of red and blue around the little fox assembly as it is trying to use magic that creates magical scene around it, and I added more light colors on the human form Kitsune. On the left side, I added the camouflage colors on the soldier’s clothes. Then I selected the background and added the planet Earth behind it as they are fighting in the space. In the end, I added some shining stars in the background.
Final Project
Addition
Moreover, because I tried many ways to edit the photo, there is another one I especially liked. I think this one looks really good in the tone and style that I just wanted to show here in addition to the project.
Reflection
My project is about the soldier who’s all-armed versus the Kitsune, a powerful monster. I want to highlight out the huge war robot behind the soldier. My inspiration was out of the Transformers. That robot represents a dominant power over the human, even though the humans have created it, and on the opposite, there is a powerful legendary monster. The soldier in the middle doesn’t look like a threat at all as he is holding a gun. I just wanted to create a scene that can provoke people’s thought about the meaning behind it. In fact, the humans are the weakest ones on the battleground like this. Although the soldier’s all armed with equipments, the robot behind him looks more like a threat to Kitsune, and also it may end up destroying humans as they ironically think they are powerful enough to fight against the powerful monster.
I encountered many challenges while I was doing my project, for all my ideas were at first out of a metallic assembly of Kitsune I saw online. When I was assembling the metals, I found it’s really hard to put the pieces together. Because they were small and I had to pay close attention to carefully screw the pieces up. This process took me over two hours. It was also challenging to think of a way to present my project as I also need to think about how it shows the meaning behind it. The coloring part was also challenging. At the beginning my colors were light, and I added many times in order to get the colors I want to have, and this process took a lot of time.
A really interesting part was to use the photoshop to edit the picture. There were various tools and I got to try them out. They created many fantastic presentation of a simple picture that I never imagined before, and that was really new to me. I feel learning how to edit a photo can help me a lot in my future projects.
