星
TENNYO
The Tennyo is a feminine creature of great beauty, court lady of the celestial emperor and companion of Buddha and Bodhisattva. She loves the arts, song and poetry, and visits the earth to bring joy and love.
In the tarot, the Star comes after the Tower, suggesting healing and pacification after tumult. It designates the overcoming of adversity and the conquest of a spiritual superiority: we are in our deepest nature, in our essence, and have acquired a new meaning of existence.
Upright: hope, renewal, new intentions, spirituality. The Star brings new hope, and a feeling of celestial protection. It marks the beginning of a period of peace, calm, stability and a better understanding of the world. By freeing ourselves from the past, the Star invites us to create a new version of ourselves, more enlightened.
Reversed: lack of confidence, despair, insecurity. The reversed Star can signal a loss of confidence and hope in the future. It can reveal a period of fatigue, dejection: it is time to try to look at our situation from another angle. It also invites us to seek new inspirations, to find more time for our spiritual peace, to nourish the body and mind.
I actually started my tarot series once before the set I did previously, which only included a few cards but that I'm still quite fond of. This is a tennyo, originally set for The Hierophant, which I later changed for The High Priestess
This is the behind the scenes work-in-progress overview for fight / flight part 4! (part of the YYH North Bound prequel project)
I finally got around to scanning the thumbnails for this part! I remembered to do this mainly because part 5 (which is also the final part of this story in the North Bound series!) will be posted here soon.
Because it's been so long since I worked on part 4, I don't have as much to say compared to previous behind the scenes posts. Basically time heals all wounds (or at least these ones) and thus I forgot all the details of my screaming/crying/complaining, hahaha. That and possibly because this part was "only" 6 pages.
More character design commentary and part 4 page sketches below the cut!
Character design commentary and more sketches
For part 4, I had designed a new character who didn't already exist in Yu Yu Hakusho.
The second drawing above (with the Chinese characters, just my calligraphy practice on the same page) was actually from pretty far back, I was thinking about her (and her dialogue) for a while. You can see I was playing a lot with the design of her face, how old she might look, and how I might distinguish her from other female characters and Spirit World guides, especially with the stylizing of her eyes.
Outfit-wise I don't think she's that unique as far as classical sky maiden-type designs go, but I do enjoy drawing her hair. I gave her a beauty mark at the last second while inking the comic.
Here are all of the page sketches - without the text, followed by more commentary.
Comparing my thumbnails to my sketches, there wasn't much change.
The "Otake, stand down" tennyo descending page got adjusted a bit with a close up of her lips for her dialogue. I still feel a bit ambivalent about the composition, whether I should have positioned her higher, but I like the feeling of descent and the fluttering of her hagoromo.
Second last page, second panel after Otake says "hmph" - I took so long working on this that the doodle in my page sketch was undecipherable to me, and I was at a complete loss as to what on earth I had been intending. Fortunately, my script at this part said "sheathes his sword" which saved me. Though, if I had bothered going back to look at my thumbnails, I would have realized my thumbnail of this action was ten times clearer than my page sketch.
Other comments:
First page, large panel with the sparkle of the tennyo appearing - I had a heck of a time with the forest background on this one. Blob blob blob it seems serviceable enough. Like I've said before, my environments are mostly rough vibes, haha.
"EUGH YUCK GROSS" page - I had a lot of fun with the tennyo's expressions, and I really like how Otake's face turned out in the last panel. Drawing annoyed people with bloody faces is fun!
Last two pages: I was very proud of how Tomoe turned out on these two pages, her looking up poses. I also was pleased with the forest in the last panel. More vibes!
Fun practice pic of Kasumi, I still think of my lovely little dragon lesbian. Still kind of playing with her design at the moment.
[Image ID: A tatsu inspired dragon in front of a photo of the surface of water. She is facing sideways, looking at the viewer with thin, reptile-like pupils, with her right arm extended upwards and her left extended downwards, claws out. Her back is arched, and her body is in a serpent-like shape. The image is tinted a light blue color. End ID.]
Kanda is gross. There, I said it. But his tattoo is beautiful, unique, and I had fun researching it.
(Tattoo Breakdown)
Tennyo (the "heavenly maiden" featured as the centerpiece of Kanda's tat) are used in Buddhist art in a similar way to angels. They herald the gods, spread the laws of Buddhism, encourage good and righteous behavior, and are often depicted playing music and scattering flowers in the wake of the gods. The Tennyo on Kanda's tattoo is stripped of all this religious subtext. Just a beautiful woman to be lusted after.
Instead of heralding a god or goddess, the tennyo is heralded by a cascade of okame masks, tumbling across his arms like disembodied heads. The okame mask is often worn for festivals. She is a lusty, comedic character, with a round, chubby face. The okame is based on a goddess who did a seductive dance as a joke to entertain the Shinto sun goddess. A funny, sexy, party girl seems fitting enough for Kanda—who is treated a bit like the comedic character in a Shakespearean tragedy who dies in Act 3 to signify that shit has gotten serious.
Several of the games' tattoos with a full border include some sort of flower. Kanda's is dotted with red maple leaves, symbolizing lovers and the passage of time. It gives a very "let the good times roll" sort of aire to both his tattoo and general attitude towards life.
