HOME | DD

Description
Full veiw please.

This was created for the nature contest run by “four elements”, [link]

It was inspired by the four celestial animals from ancient Chinese astrology.

The black tortoise of the north represents winter.
The azure dragon of the east represents spring.
The venison bird (or phoenix) of the south represents summer.
The white tiger of the west represents autumn.

I took it a step further and gave each an element. The tortoise water, because they swim in it and it’s the obvious choice for winter. The dragon air, because it flies and it fits with the light carefree season that is spring. The phoenix I made fire I made fire for obvious reasons (it is reborn from it and summer is understandably hot) and the tiger was left with earth which fits because autumn is an earthy season, and the tiger is the only one of the four animals that would spend a lot of time on dry land.

I decided to draw each animal in a naturalistic scene but where possible tried to put them in their element and show the season, (it was a bit hard to put the tiger underground or show snow underwater). In the phoenix’s picture the sun represents both fire and summer.

I used the compass to indicate the north, east, south, west relationship but instead of putting these on the points I put the kanji for each element and season on them. Since I already had the seasons, elements and ordinates I decided to continue with the cycles and balance theme decorating the compass with a moon cycle, day and night imagery and a Ying Yang symbol.

I put stars in the background to highlight the fact that these animals are astrological symbols and the kanji to emphasise the Chinese aspect of the art work.

The compass and animals were drawn and painted by hand with acrylic paints, these where then scanned in and put on a background created with Photoshop using the a kanji brush([link] ) and a stars/glitter brush([link] ).

The painted components have been uploaded here
The compass [link]
The black tortoise of the north [link]
The azure dragon of the east [link]
The venison bird (or phoenix) of the south [link]
The white tiger of the west [link]

Description
Full veiw please.

This was created for the nature contest run by “four elements”, [link]

It was inspired by the four celestial animals from ancient Chinese astrology.

The black tortoise of the north represents winter.
The azure dragon of the east represents spring.
The venison bird (or phoenix) of the south represents summer.
The white tiger of the west represents autumn.

I took it a step further and gave each an element. The tortoise water, because they swim in it and it’s the obvious choice for winter. The dragon air, because it flies and it fits with the light carefree season that is spring. The phoenix I made fire I made fire for obvious reasons (it is reborn from it and summer is understandably hot) and the tiger was left with earth which fits because autumn is an earthy season, and the tiger is the only one of the four animals that would spend a lot of time on dry land.

I decided to draw each animal in a naturalistic scene but where possible tried to put them in their element and show the season, (it was a bit hard to put the tiger underground or show snow underwater). In the phoenix’s picture the sun represents both fire and summer.

I used the compass to indicate the north, east, south, west relationship but instead of putting these on the points I put the kanji for each element and season on them. Since I already had the seasons, elements and ordinates I decided to continue with the cycles and balance theme decorating the compass with a moon cycle, day and night imagery and a Ying Yang symbol.

I put stars in the background to highlight the fact that these animals are astrological symbols and the kanji to emphasise the Chinese aspect of the art work.

The compass and animals were drawn and painted by hand with acrylic paints, these where then scanned in and put on a background created with Photoshop using the a kanji brush([link] ) and a stars/glitter brush([link] ).

The painted components have been uploaded here
The compass [link]
The black tortoise of the north [link]
The azure dragon of the east [link]
The venison bird (or phoenix) of the south [link]
The white tiger of the west [link]