Komainu Pt3

Well, this is it people, the last day of the 47 Ronin contest. What 47 Ronin contest? Why, the one I'm participating in at Talenthouse.com for the new movie starring Keanu Reeves. The challenge was to design a mythical beast inspired by the movie which would then be subject to votes. (Deadline for votes is Monday December 23rd. Vote for my piece here: http://www.talenthouse.com/creativeinvites/preview/a3fa924eb874b92f4a55a0ba241309f7/6690
You can vote more than once on both facebook AND twitter of which I'm now a card carrying member-@ShawnAlleyneArt)

 Part 1 of this series was me showing a little of how I created the character:  http://shawnah-lean.blogspot.com/2013/12/komainu-origin.html
Part 2 was me exposing some of the artists in the contest for cheating(start up copy and paste): http://shawnah-lean.blogspot.com/
But now part 3 will bring us back to the making of.

Komainu are usually a pair of lion-like statue creatures that guard the entrance of many Japanese shrines and are meant to ward off evil spirits. 

I figured I would make him stand upright and anthropomorphic to give him more of a "presence" than being on all fours. I saw him as a wise celestial spirit that was peaceful but also bad-ass and could fight if need be. At first I was going to give him a khakkhara, which is a ringed Buddhist staff, to show that wise peaceful side, but I decided against it. In this version of him he has been corrupted by a demonic force and is all action.

 After some sketching I had his design and pose. I knew I wanted to incorporate the ball that is part of a lot of the statues somewhere in the design.

 I just thought it was really cool that these cat like creatures had this ball to play with, so I decided to go the Final Fantasy route where the characters have a lot of extra design elements that may not necessarily have any function. I threw a giant ball on his back, then gave him some ceremonial wraps to hold it in place. 

With the pencils done, it was time to bring in a little assist in the form of colorist extraordinaire Renee Clarke.
See Renee's work here: http://shizuka-shi.deviantart.com/)
Renee is not only an amazing colorist and artist in her own right, she's also an awesome person and a pleasure to work with. I look forward to more collabos with her.

And voila, after a lot of time and effort, the finished piece.

I hope you enjoyed this little peep behind the scenes, and I want to thank everyone who voted and shared the link.
See you next time.

S

Komainu Pt2

This was supposed to be part two of a blog delving into the creative process behind one of my latest characters "Komainu". (You can read the first part here: http://shawnah-lean.blogspot.com/2013/12/komainu-origin.html)
To bring new readers up to speed, I'm participating in an online contest at Talenthouse.com for the new 47 Ronin movie starring Keanu Reeves. The challenge was to design a mythical beast inspired by the movie which would then be subject to votes. (Deadline for votes is Monday December 23rd. Vote for my piece here: http://www.talenthouse.com/creativeinvites/preview/a3fa924eb874b92f4a55a0ba241309f7/6690
You can vote more than once on both facebook AND twitter of which I'm now a member..sigh..@ShawnAlleyneArt)
Here's the official entry. 

Designed and drawn by yours truly/colored by Renee Clarke. The Lion-Dog spirit exists to protect the righteous and guard against evil, but it remains to be seen if this Celestial being has been corrupted.

Instead, this is going to a public service announcement. It was recently brought to my attention that some of the contests in the competition have blatantly stolen artwork, tweaked it and are calling it their own. This was discovered by someone who knew of the original and came upon the contest. Now, I won't put the names the artists out there, nor any direct links, I'll just show you the artworks and you can judge for yourselves. Below is one of the "official" entries in the contest..

and here is the original artwork that was ripped off...

Ridiculous. And this entry is in the top 5 of the contest!!!! As you can see this piece was stolen, cropped, then meshed together with a different head. That was probably stolen from somewhere else as well.

Here's another entry:

And here are stolen pieces used to create this piece..

Double ridiculous!!!!! This one just pisses me off for the fact that a minotaur has no place in Japanese mythology.
It pains me that these entries are in the top of the contest just because they were able to convince more people to vote for them. That's why I hate these types of competitions. It doesn't come down to skill or passion, just this new age facebook and twitter popularity bullshit!
But maybe it's me.At the end of the day I'm probably going to be called a hater. I'm probably going to be called a sore loser.Maybe I'm reading too much into it. You be the judge.

Once again you can vote for me here: http://www.talenthouse.com/creativeinvites/preview/a3fa924eb874b92f4a55a0ba241309f7/6690

And see all the contestants and rank here: http://www.talenthouse.com/design-for-47-ronin

Thanks for reading

Peace
Shiz

Komainu- The Origin

What's up peeps. If you've been following my facebook page you should be aware by now that I'm participating in an online contest going on at Talenthouse. com for the new 47 Ronin movie starring Keanu Reeves. The challenge was to design a mythical beast inspired by the movie, and you can vote for my piece here: http://www.talenthouse.com/creativeinvites/preview/a3fa924eb874b92f4a55a0ba241309f7/6690
You can vote more than once on both facebook AND twitter(of which I'm now a member..sigh..@ShawnAlleyneArt)


What I wanted to do here was go into the details of my design called Komainu.

The Lion-Dog spirit exists to protect the righteous and guard against evil, but it remains to be seen if this Celestial being has been corrupted.

As with everything I design I start off brainstorming and gathering reference. Good ole Google came in handy as I looked up "Japanese mythological beasts" to see what was out there. When I came across Komainu image popped up I knew I had my idea. The name comes from the ancient Japanese statues of the same name, often called lion-dogs in English. The Komainu are usually a pair of lion-like statue creatures either guarding the entrance of many Japanese shrines or kept inside the inner shrine itself. They can sometimes also be found at Buddhist Temples or nobility residences and even private homes.

Meant to ward off evil spirits, modern komainu statues are almost identical, but one has the mouth open, the other closed. This is a very common characteristic in religious statue pairs at both temples and shrines. This pattern is Buddhist in origin however and has a symbolic meaning. The open mouth is pronouncing the first letter of the Sanskrit alphabet, which is pronounced "a", while the closed one is uttering the last letter, which
is pronounced "um", to represent the beginning and the end of all things. Together they form the sound "Aum" a syllable sacred in several religions.There are however exceptions to the rule in which both komainu have their mouth either open or closed.

 There's a variation of the statue that resembles a fox.

I love the idea of the Komainu so much I plan on incorporating the theme into a modern version into the Aizan universe.  Next time I'll take a look at the details of the design a little closer.

Catch you then.

S