Friday, December 14, 2012

illustration friday (snow)


It was almost exactly a year ago that I was commissioned to make an etegami to illustrate the name of a newborn child whose parents had named her "Fuuka." This is an alternate reading for the Japanese characters which are usually read kaza-hana or kaza-bana (literally: "wind flowers"), and are a poetic reference to snowflakes that dance in the wind on a sunny day. What a lovely name for a little girl.


Here is another favorite snow-themed etegami of mine. This one is an etegami-collage illustrating a poem by Misuzu Kaneko (1903 – 1930), the author of many delightful poems and songs for children.



And finally, an etegami painted years ago-- my very first attempt to illustrate snow. The scanned image isn't able to catch the very pale blue of snow perched on top of some Mountain Ash berries. Snow has become a frequent model for my etegami since those early days. After all, I live in what is officially rated the snowiest major city on earth, and we are surrounded by the stuff in its many forms for 6 months of every year.

8 comments:

  1. It's amazing how all three of these have the same subject but are so very different! The collage effect is particularly striking.

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  2. The collage is marvelous! I see it as a quilt...

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  3. Lovely 'snow', very light and airy. Well done!

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  4. I particularly like how the Japaese characters and the snowflakes complement each other visually in the first etegami

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  5. Beautiful! I especially like the one on the top. I hope you don't get over your snake obsession :D

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  6. I love the snow one, gorgeous! :) x

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