story sketch: unfolding wings [update: 04-15-2011]

[meeks]

This sketch is based on "unfolding wings," the first in a series of beautiful poems by ysabetwordsmith about the Origami Mage, an Eastern style hero from an asian inspired fantasy world. Please visit Penultimate Productions for more of the Origami Mage and her rival the Kirigami Mage (along with some other fantastic poetry series!)

cleaned-up sketch:


detail:


rough sketch:

This picture is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License, and may be freely used under the terms of that license with a link back to mikaspace.net Please see terms of use for details.

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Comments

Re: Upward tilt

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

>> I can say that, in the great majority of the Chinese faces I see everyday, the upward tilt is hardly noticeable, unless emphasized by makeup (or crow's feet).
I tend to associate a strong upward tilt with the 'new' D&D elves more than with Eastern Asian people ;-) <<

When I really took a close look at the photos I was browsing, I noticed that there is a lot of variation. Some of it seems to be individual (I saw one baby picture that I swear looked elven) while some clusters along national/ethnic lines. So there's flexibility.

>> I love the wonder on her face, and the first part of the sketch too,<<

Yay!

>> although in my mind's eye the people in the poems aren't that strongly Japanese (that's a personal thing, though).<<

Actually, I used photos of Japanese people as inspiration for the Origami Mage and photos of Chinese people for the Kirigami Mage. I tend to tag off between those cultures as sources of inspiration, plus occasionally adding bits from Taiwanese, Korean, Tibetan, or other Asian cultures. Of the two, I have a closer connection to Japanese and you have a closer connection to Chinese so it should come close to balancing out, across the series. Ideally I want a fantasy culture and characters that are both unique and cohesive, Asian-inspired without seeming too close to any one source. But it's like making curry, you have to get the temperature right; too low and the flavors won't merge, too high and it cooks down to slush.