Hanafubuki

Cherry Blossom Shower. =3

Just trying a different style. ;)

...do I feel a series of these drawings coming...?

This japanese lady from the Heian period (794-1185) wears a junihitoe, formal garment of various layers that was the formal attire for court women on that time. The layers were arranged according to season and moths, in specific color combinations. This one is called "Murasaki no Usuyou" (paling purple), a Spring composition.

I originally made the drawing using "Tsutsuji" (azalea) combination, but then realized that was a Summer color composition, therefore, not fit for the picture's theme... -_-;

Well, it still looks pretty, color-wise, so I'll post it anyway. ;p

Merry Christmas to all! ^_^

Mai Princess - Sleeping Beauty

Finally, Aurora is done!

Drawing and shading these giant amounts of fabric was surely fun! <3

The hair, on the other hand... uff, it's ironical that I love drawing hair just as much as I hate shading it... This method was better than the usual for me, thou... still, I'm yet to find a shading method for hair I actually enjoy.

The crown took a long time, but it was quite enjoyable to draw and color!

I based the crow design on a beautiful crown of an english queen from the XIII Century (very medieval ;D). Below a photo of it, currently in the Residenz palace in Munich, Germany. <3

So... wich shall be the next princess?

Knit Lace Haori ^^

I'm usually very old-fashioned when it comes to kitsuke, but... this knit lace haori from Utatane is just too lovely! Lace is one of the few things in modern/western-influenced kimono that actually manage to make me say "Oh, alright... I admit I like this look!" 

...Althou, being a long haori, this is technically pretty vintage-looking, so... 

I guess it still looks old-fashioned enought to fit my "historical" taste? lol... ;p

The knit lace also adds an adorable winter-ish tone, wich 

looks even more perfect around Christmas time... =3

Merry Christmas to all! ^_^

Pink Shiromuku!

Shiromuku, the kimono worn in traditional japanese wedding ceremony is, by definition, an all-white garment... So, I was most surprised to browse Isyou and find this lovely pink-trail shiromuku! <3

Personally, it's the first time I've seen any splash of color in shiromuku (and yes, I'm sure this is not an uchikake*!). The pink is not an overall too flashy detail, since it's only at the bottom of the sleeves/trail, but for my taste, the tone could be a little softer... but, wow, it's pink on a shiromuku.
How could I not love that?

* Uchikake is the kimono worn at japanese wedding reception, and it's traditionally deep colored (most commonly in red) and heavily brocaded.

Pretty Hanbok!

Little time to post anything time-consuming... 

so here's a quick hanbok feature! ^^

I love the landscape on the chima! <3

New Layout! And next Disney Princess!

I was tired of the old layout, so made a new one! ;)

And to make up for the absence in my blog (waa, I even missed Halloween! >_<) 
here's a sneek peak at the next Disney Princess is my Illustration series...

Sleeping Beauty!

I LOVE medieval dresses, and this is surely being fun to draw! =3

Also, I decided to go with pink AND blue for her garnment - with the blue 
tones being overall more proeminent because, 

1 - it seems more historical-friendly (not the focus of the series, but...)

2 - there are other princesses in pink I'll draw (Ariel, Giselle, Rapunzel..)

3 - blue is fitting as a symbol, since it can be related to letargy and sleep

...And the purple background is a reference to sleep, the mix of pink and blue, and a reference from the movie itself, in the famous sleeping princess scene. Well, I'm finishing her slowly because my little spare time, but drawing and painting those giant amounts of fabric is always lovely! <3
...Aurora's angulous face features are being annoying to get right, thou... ¬_¬

...I also have a lot of Yuutaro, Hana (and new friend lol) sketches to post, 

I just need to overcome lazyness and scan/organize them properly. X/

Random quoted poem...

From J.R.R.Tolkien.

I just love The Lord of the Rings - 

specially the movies, but the books are very good as well. ^^

...And The Hobbit will be in the movie theaters soon! 

I'm so excited to watch it! =D

This image does not belong to me, and I found it randomly on the net, 

so I can't link the author of the picture itself... I'm just featuring it, thou!

Mai princess - Mulan

Finally, she's done! 

"The flower that blooms in adversity

is the rarest and most beautiful of all"

 

Mulan was the winner of my poll to choose the next Disney Princess in my series. She's my favourite Disney princess right after Rapunzel, and drawing her was a major challenge - specially because my serie's aesthetics is based on traditional fairytale storybooks, and mixing that with chinese elements was not easy... But overall, I think I'm pleased. 

The color scheme was very hard, since she wears at least 3 important outfits with different colors in the movie - first the green, yellow and blue one, then the pink and red from the matchmaker scene, and finally, the blue outfit from the final part of the movie. I tried to mix the first two to make something that could instantly say "Mulan" and also be fit for a soft, light kind of classical Hanfu.

The garnment itself was very fun to design, on the other hand. For the brief research I made (and please correct me if I'm saiyng nonsense...) I had the impression hanfu is far more open to shape variation than the japanese kimono. So I could use several hanfu pictures for inspiration, mix many ideas and come up with this flowy outfit with huuuge sleeves (who doesn't love huge sleeves? ^^)

On the details I focused on the peach blossoms and the peonia, both very popular flowers in chinese art tradition. Mulan's sword design in the movie is pretty cool, so I decided to keep it as the original. The sword and flowers are meant to symbolize both strong and gentle personality of Mulan. And the cloud background pattern... well, that was an obvious choice. ;D

So, suggestions for the next Princess?

Hanbok Feature

My Disney Princess Mulan is in great progress,
and I hope I manage to finish her this weekend! ^^

In the meanwhile, here are some beautiful hanbok for you to see!

Hanbok is the name for traditional korean clothes, for men and women.

The picture above is an example of traditional-looking feminine hanbok.

One of the main characteristics in women's hanbok is the bell-shaped skirt called chima. The small blouse or jacket worn over the chima is called jeogori.

  

 Another characteristic of the hanbok is the one-sided bow (goreum) that ties the jeogori. Also, different from the japanese kimono, the collar of the jeogori is not composed by two layers, but only one (git), with a removable white collar (dongjeong) put over it.

I found these pictures in several sites,
so I can't manage to link the sources, sorry!

 

Hanbok are very beautiful and interesting garnments. 

I'm still learning about it thou, so I hope these basic information 

I've found this far are correct and have no big mistakes!

Mujigae Hanbok

After my happy first try on pixel art in my DeviantArt avatar, I decided to give pixels a go again! This time, a more ambitious picture - a rainbow of traditional korean clothes, hanbok!

"Mujigae" is "Rainbow" in korean.

I tought about animating their eyes, but since there are seven of them, 

I came to the conclusion it would be tiring to look at. x.x

Please enjoy the little details in their clothes!

Wich one is your favourite?

Pixel art is so relaxing, slowly building the drawing pixel by pixel... 

for me, there's something zen in that. lol

Also, I'm finding myself in love with hanbok lately, 

so be ready for some hanbok features soon! <3

Sakura Geta

Beautiful sakura (cherry blossoms) -themed geta found in Soubien. <3

  

Lovely embroidery! Plus, the white one is so delicate, 

and the black with soft red gradient, so cool!

So wich one do you like the best? ^^

WIP - Mulan...

I wasn't satisfied with Mulan's sketch, so I made a few changes - minor details in her clothes and, most important, her hairdo - I used as inspiration her assimetrical hairdo from the matchmaker scene.

 

I think it looks much better now! <3

 

Here's a small teaser of her face ;)

I'm busy and working slowly, but I'll try to finish her as soon as I manage to...

I can't wait to start the fun part - coloring her clothes! 

...Unfortunatelly, now it's still the super boring inking step... meh! >_<

Chibi Sketch!

So, ever wondered how Hana's hairline looks like under that farmer kerchief?

Wonder no longer. XD

Tiny pic of Hana on her day off - no kerchief and no apron. 

She still wears her usual kosode, thou. ^^

And... new character on the way... stay tuned! ;D

Kurotomesode-Furisode?

Going from "a little rare" with the previous post's black and pink 

homongi, to something that, to my eyes, looks very uncommon!

 

I found this piece on R-Komachi. It is cleary a furisode, formal kimono for young unmarried women. BUT with this solid black color and decorations below the obi line (plus, in traditional gold-based tones)... it looks a lot like a kurotomesode, formal kimono for older and married women (usually, the bride's mother and grandmother at a wedding)!
 

Since the sleeves are long, this is surely a furisode (plus, there are some tiny flowers and petals above the obi line, and decoration on the sleeve, wich wouldn't happen on tomesode*). I found this kimono's resemblance to kurotomesode very peculiar, thou. Even the sleeve main decoration is low, so it follows the hem line visually when the kimono is worn.

Uncommon, but beautiful kimono, and it definitely looks elegant.
Would fit nicely to a young woman who wants a specially
formal, dignified and traditional look!

* There are two types of Tomesode kimono: 

 - kurotomesode: black, the most formal kimono, only worn by married women.

- irotomesode: colored, also formal, but usually a little less than kurotomesode. Can also be worn by unmarried women.

   Both have decorations only bellow the obi line, usually closer to the hem of the kimono.

Black Homongi

Now, that's a little rare. 

Black homongi found on Rental Poem. Homongi usually have pastel light colors, so black is somewhat ununsual - althou, the pink botan (peony) motif still gives this kimono a very delicate feature.

I like it. Making black look soft is not easy, and this homongi definitelly pulled it off very nicely - wonderful choice on the antique-pink details, both style and tone-wise. <3.

Waa!! I want one!

Beautiful 18-century stools by Jean-Baptiste-Claude Sené. <3

Beechwood and pink silk, 1786.

Photo source (and more info) on the Metropolitan Museum website.

Aahhh... I so wish I could have one of these!

Golden Uchikake

Featuring this absolutely stunning golden uchikake found on K-Bridal <3.

Wedding reception kimono are most commonly red, so this golden one instantly caught my eye. I wouldn't really call it quaint, thou... Gold is a typical color in formal kimono, and this soft, light shade with hints of red and white (other two kimono classic colors...) over the white shiromuku gives the whole garnment a delicate, somewhat pastel effect - wich evoques a classic look.

The tsuru (cranes) are also the theme for uchikake, and the kiku (chrisanthemum) makes me think this would be perfect for an Autumn wedding (a most auspicious season for the occasion, if I'm not mistaken).

I loved how this escapes the "obvious" red
uchikake and still looks so elegant and traditional!

Yuutaro and Hana 2

I've been neglecting my poor blog lately... Time to change that!

Some pretty kimono features will come soon... I originally planned to make articles about kimono and kitsuke basics, but since are plenty of those around the internet, I wonder if these features (and maybe mini articles about kimono's more specific details...) would be more interesting.

What do you think?
 

The Disney Princess Series is in slow progress, since I've been super busy... 

but - ta-da! - here are some Yuutaro and Hana sketches!

I really love drawing those two. So sweet! <3

The up middle and low right pannels are sequential. Yuutaro goes wit the lord's retinue to the capital, so he tells Hana to take care while he's away... and gives her this little flower, wich she treasures dearly. Aww... ^^

Waa... I'm starting to feel tempted to make up
 more characters... and a story plot...

Hanbok Girls - Jangmi

Finnaly getting these drawings done...

First from a series of 5 chibi ladies in hanbok
I posted as a sketch a while ago...

She is Jangmi (장미), wich means "Rose".

I apologise for any mistakes in the drawing and (specially) in the writing - I don't speak one word in korean, and I used the caligraphy mostly for aestethic purpose... Sorry, very sorry if it looks terrible!

Her design was heavily inspired by this beautiful hanbok photo:

So I don's deserve much credit for that. ;P

Hanbok is so lovely, I'm looking foward for drawing another one! <3

WIP - Mulan

So, the sketch of the next Disney Princess in my series is done... Mulan!

It's only the second (maybe third) time I draw hanfu... so I apologize if there are horrible mistakes. x_x I could have researched deeper about hanfu, BUT since historical accuracy is NOT the purpose in this series (actually, innacuracies are kind of a "characteristic" in fairytale dresses...) I decided not to try and be correct about a certain time period or style. I mixed visual elements from various hanfu references (so pretty! <3), while trying to stick with the overall base of Mulan's original design...

Mulan is my second favourite Disney princess. It bother me when stories only portray women either as the ridiculous useless "damsel in distress" or some exagerated (and then, also ridiculous) super-brute-kickass (annoying Lara Croft comes to my mind right now...). I guess the main reason why I like Mulan is that she is a both strong and feminine character, intelligent and brave more than just plain "stronger than the guys". 

I tried to show this "delicate and strong" concept in the drawing, balancing the sword and the falling flowers. I'm still not sure if I like her hair, thou...In part I want to give her a more intricate hairdo (just like the ladies in period chinese movies). On the other hand, I'm afraid that will take her characterization as Disney's Mulan, and she will just look like some pretty yet generic princess...

Her original facial features are very unique and pretty,
so it's being fun to redraw them in my style! ^_^

Yuutaro to Hana-san ^^

A small sketchdump of my ordinary ancient japanese couple <3...

Yuutaro and Hana-san. ^^

Oh, on a mini wafuku note: on the second upper drawing you can see how Yuutaro's sleeves are sharp-square-shaped, while Hana's are also square, but with rounder, softer borders... that's an actual differential characteristic between man's and woman's kimono. ;D

Chibi Sketches...

While I'm working on the next Disney Princess
in my series, here are some chibi sketches! ^^

So, remember the chibi plain castle guard Yuutaro? 

Now he's got a girlfriend! =3 

No, she's not a princess. Nor a brave kunoichi. Nope, not a powerfull miko, and not a geisha, either. The bad guy of the story is not even in love with her.

She's just a farmer girl who makes lunch for him quite often. 

Her name is Hana-san. ^^

More of her coming soon! ;D

Also, another very sketchy sketch: the famous ancient japanese writers (and indirect rivals), Murasaki Shikibu and Sei Shonagon. Chibified! It is said that lady Shonagon had a sharp personality, and lady Shikibu was more quiet and dreamy... don't know if it's true, but I went for it on the design. ^^'

Just don't look at their kimonos for too long, or 

your eyes will burn from the ugly messy lines... x_x

And the winner is... Mulan!

So, Mulan is the great winner of the poll for 

the next Disney Princess in my series! 

Thanks to all who voted! ^^

I was quite surprised - I always tought Ariel and Belle were the most
popular Disney princesses... and one of them would win. XD
Personally, Mulan is my second favourite (after Rapunzel ^^)
so the result of the poll was also very nice news!

I'll work on her, althou I'm super busy these days so it will 

take more time than the previous two... x_x

As Cinderella, Mulan will be another great challenge, only now from a different perspective - I need to give the series' "antique storybook" look to an ancient chinese outfit.

Delicate lines + faded colors + european dress = fairytale storybook. Ok!

Delicate lines + faded colors + hanfu = ancient chinese painting. (Wich is very very beautiful... but it's not the same as this series style! x_x)

Well, I'll try my best to make the style look right! ^^'

Also, I have a few simple chibi sketches to post so 

wait for some of these in the next few days. ^_^

Hmmm... marshmallow!

Super cute kimono I came across on Rakuten... <3

It makes me want to eat those colorful twist-shaped marshmallows! XD

Mai Princess - Cinderella

Finally, the second in my Princess series...

"...but at the Stroke of Twelve o'clock the spell will be broken, 

and all will return to be as it was..."

For Cinderella... From start I decided I wanted to follow the Disney movie "original" color scheme - redhead-ish Cinderella (not Aurora-like blonde) and silver (not blue) dress. I love how her dress looks ethereal in the movie, as if it was really magical, not simply a fancy normal dress...

So, the concept that came to me was: this dress... it must look like liquid diamonds! And silver! And glass!

Surely an ambitious task, and I'm not sure if I managed to do it... 

But after many hours and lots of trouble, I personally like the final result. ^_^

Besides the fabric - that I wanted to look "magical" - Cinderella's dress design was also very hard. It was so clean and simple that changing it and adding detail and still keep it Disney-reconizable was... uff, hard! In the end, I went for transparece and... overdoing the foofy overdress. That part was surely fun! <3

I like the lace mask... since Cinderella really only makes sense to me if the ball was a Masquerade. Also, I added a small clock on her choker, since I wanted to incorporate the element of the clock in the drawing...

I was initially planning to make all the princesses wear crowns... but Cinderella's tiara is also a classic element from her look. So I kept it, only full of diamonds and silver, so it still counts as a "crown". The curls are vaguely based on the pumpkin carriage "vines", althou I know it's hard to tell. ;P

And the glass slipper, of course! ^_^

Wich princess should be the next in the series...?

Sparrows Kimono

Absolutely lovely sparrow-themed tsukesage from Hitotoki:

I'm usually not the biggest fan of brown tones, but this kimono

is simply too sweet and elegant not to love! <3

I think this would look great with a golden, soft brocade obi...

WIP - Cinderella

A sneak-peek on the next princess in my series... 

second Disney princess, Cinderella!

I gave her a mask since Cinderella only makes sense to me if the ball is a Masquerade. I mean... come on. The prince dances with her all night and then he doesn't remember her... face? Nope. He has to look for the only girl who wears her foot size in town... weird.

Anyway, her Disney version is so lovely... just, since there are so few details, making her dress look different and more detailed, yet reconizable, will be very, very challenging... I hope I manage to to it!

 Well, drawing the transparent details will be fun! ^^

I hope you like her!

 Vote in the poll to chose the next princess in the series! =3

Mai Princess - Snow White

First in my new Princess series...

"Once upon a time... in a far, far away kingdom, 

a beautiful princess with ruby red lips, raven black hair

and skin as white as Snow."

I had so much fun - and work - painting her... the velvet, satin and
brocade where lovely to color but oh, these ruffles... so hard! x_x

 I'll go for a semi-realistic painting with this series... to challenge myself
and to add richness in the final result. I want an Antique Story Book feel to it...

...And a detail shot, so you can see the fabrics and take a better look
on her tiara - apple-themed, and with 7 gold & sapphire ornments,
representing the Seven Dwarfs. ^^

Oh, also, I know her hair is not really Black here - but dark brown

looked more natural and delicate on her - plus, more antique-looking.
  

Except for the apples, textures and patterns used do not belong to me.

Wich princess you want to see next? ^_^