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Sobii — Commission: My Mother's Robe
Published: 2014-03-05 19:43:48 +0000 UTC; Views: 3540; Favourites: 139; Downloads: 0
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This is a commission for zombielily . It is of her Monster High character, Masumi Onna, daughter of youkai Yuki Onna.rancid-yogurt.weebly.com/monst…
Masumi has a very strong relationship with her mother. It must be very strange to be related to a spirit with "a bad rep."
It was a massive challenge, and took me a very, very, very embarrassingly long time for me to finally say, enough is enough, and declare it finished. .... But I am pretty satisfied with the result.
The following content has been added, 03.07:
There is a Japanese holiday held annually on the second Monday of January. You will see young adults dressed in suits, or hakama, and furisode kimono. It is a holiday that is celebrated by those who have become, or will become, 20 years old in that year. The age of 20 years is the legal age to purchase alcohol, cigarettes, and are entitled to vote—among all the other responsibilities of adulthood.
This holiday is called Seijin no Hi, or Coming of Age Day.
There has been a decline of those of legal age attending the ceremonies for many reasons. Low birth rate, shrinking percentage of young people, those who are feeling that there are not yet “adults” themselves and do not attend ceremonies sponsored by local governments.
Seijin no Hi was the main theme behind this painting.
Masumi, as it is, is a student at Monster High. She is 16 years old. I attempted to accelerate her maturity a little bit with this painting, with a few underlying themes.
Despite the peacefulness that may be conveyed in this painting, there is quite a bit of conflict, and it’s full of questions. It is a crossroads painting. It is one of transformation. It is one of heritage and tradition, versus progressiveness and maintaining one’s identity.
I imagined that Masumi, as depicted here, must make a decision. She must take up her mother’s role, and become Yuki-onna, or perhaps, a spirit of another type. One that, perhaps, saves individuals in snowstorms…instead of leading them astray to perish. I wanted Masumi to have a sense of pride in being her mother's daughter. I wanted her to have an understanding, from way back when, about the potential of who she could become--coming to terms with it, and being at peace with it...
Note the isolation of this painting. There is no one else here to help influence her decision at this time, other than the essence of her mother. In this way, her life is her own. Whatever she decides will be so.
I hope you enjoy it. I hope it is a thoughtful painting. And thank you for looking!
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Comments: 42
It was definitely one of the more difficult things that I've ever done; I'm glad that you appreciate it!
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I sense a reborn demigod here... Her name is Bii.
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I gotta see what your plants look like. Can you shoot me an email?
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Usually I post photos of them on my Tumblr, so, you should be able to see them there. They're under the myplants tag.
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... WOOOooooOO - Her Kimono is Incredible ..it has rendered me speechless
~ Amazing work
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Awww, thank you so much! I appreciate it!
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The amount of research and thought that went into this is truly inspiring and flattering that you took so much time and care into her character.
I really like the the fact that you dove a lot into her relationship with her mother, and worked it into this piece. I also really enjoyed learning so much from you about this holiday, the creative choices you made and the research you did for everything included within this piece.
I love how traditional this piece is, and yet it still has her personal subtle details such as the eyeshadow and her pink nails. Like, it's been included but it's not over powering by any means. The kimono is absolutely jaw dropping, and I loved that you incorporated the seasons with the colours and designs. The flowers and snowflakes are so beautiful, and I'm always finding myself really observing that part when I look at this. I really love the broach around her waist, with the details even on the rope that's dangling from it. I am so impressed by all of the different textiles for all of the different parts of her outfit, and how harmonized it all looks. I love the motion of the top robe, and how whimsical and light it feels. I know how hard it is to paint anything that is fully white, and seriously this is breath taking. I especially like it around her hand that's closest to the viewer, and how it looks folded around her elbows and body, as well as how we can see inside of the sleeve. I really like the idea that it's a family heirloom, and now it's her turn to wear something so special. Given her personality, I'd definitely think she would want to help people over leading them astray.
Another favourite of mine, is clearly the background. I love how the trees slowly fade in the background, and how much weight the snow has on all of the branches and leaves in the foreground, the way it collects in the nooks of where the branches attach to the trunk, and how we even have falling snow, but it's not over powering. Like, there is so much within this piece but it all works SO beautifully, and doesn't over shadow anything. I feel as though I'm able to notice, view and appreciate everything included. I also really like that the way the robe wraps around her, especially the bottom half of her, and how its like she's wrapping herself up in the snow.
I can't get over how lovely her face looks. You captured her likeness, and drew her how I WISH I could. The eyebrows came out great, I love how glass-like her eyes are, the lips have the Monster High shape to them, but still work realistically with your style, and how you've painted her hair. I struggle greatly with black hair, so I really admire those who can do it, and I love it when it looks like this. The part in her hair, how the bangs look, the movement, and blue highlights all look SO amazing.
Thank you SO much again for this. I plan on getting it printed out 
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I think you have basically touched on everything--everything that I was concerned about, everything that I was working toward and hoping to achieve. I'm glad that you perceive it in the way that I was trying to convey. This was extremely difficult, but it was also extremely rewarding. It was an honor to work with Masumi, as she is definitely one of my favorite characters from you.
One thing that you mentioned, though, was the background, and "how much" was in this piece over all... There are often times I find artists that really push and pride themselves on details. And I mean, obsessive details. Flora, Fauna, hair styles--it's like the start from one side of the page, or canvas, and some sort of stream of consciousness takes over, and they follow the tangent to all four corners of the canvas.
Fellow artists and fans really like this kind of stuff, but to me, it's extremely overwhelming. I literally can't handle it long enough to appreciate the time and effort that has gone into something of that type of detail. There's just something different/weird about me; details like that cause me to feel extremely overstimulated, confused, and I simple can't handle it.
It's something that I battle with that all the time, and it's not just in art work--it's at home, at work... What someone would say is beautiful detail is what I consider "clutter", and clutter is poison to me. I want to be able to include and incorporate fun details, "easter eggs", etc... But doing something like this, alone, was something that I had to "walk away from" frequently. I think it goes without saying that I do, indeed, have a limit to my artwork, and it all lies in the fun, cute details--the clutter. I don't think I'll ever be able to do something of that visual magnitude without bursting into tears and slipping into a coma for 13 hours.
With ALL OF THAT being said: I'm glad that you see this is as a SENSIBLY DETAILED PIECE. The details count, and it is just enough, and not too overwhelming, to keep someone from saying, "Oh forget this noise," and carry on.
Again--always a pleasure working with you. I still have quite a bit of work TO DO for you, so we'll see what happens!
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She's amazing! I wish Mattel made such as beautiful dolls as her.
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Thank you! I suppose it's a stylistic thing. I appreciate Mattel's efforts in making a signature, recognizable fashion doll of this type.... It leaves a lot of room for creatives to draw inspiration from.
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I am not a fan of the OC but this is a super beautiful picture!! The colours and detial are amazing, and I like the backstory behind why she is dressed like the way she is. The pattern on her kimono is geourgeous and her face looks so calm and slightly strong, very pretty ^w^^w^^w^
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I'm glad you like the presentation and the theme. I just hope it isn't too severe, overall....but it was enjoyable and challenging for me to play out the scenario.
I love Masumi, honestly. I love seeing how people interpret and explore monsters, and spirits, and other such phenomena of other cultures. When it comes to Japanese culture, I can't help but fall in love with it. It's right up my alley, you might say... The silly thing, for me, is that I am BARELY acquainted with Monster High. When I finished this, I spent some of my downtime exploring the Monster High website a little more in depth, and was like, "Wow, this is really cool! There are so many characters!" I'm not very interested in collecting dolls, per se...but I can see and understand why it does have such a huge following, especially those who are collectors of sorts. Or for those who like spooky things, in general.
I appreciate your feedback. It will be a long, long time before I explore anything like this again. So I'm glad that I made an impression.
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You're welcome!! I don't think it's severe, just very beautiful ^w^
The problem I have is that I fell in love with Monster High not just because of the monsters, but the way they play around with everything, every character has links to their story through their colour scheme, symbols and patters incorporated into their clothes, the puns in the bio and how everything links to their monster, things that aren't as they seem like for example the stone lions that act as Jinafire's heels on one of her outfits, and I find that the detail is to die for. This makes me overcritical of other people's OCs, as I don't find some of them show the type of monster through their symbolism, don't have a constant colour pallette and many seem to skimp on the amazing details and using an object as something else. I myself am a mixture of all sorts of dark and girly things in a blender so Monster High is right up my street, but it saddens me a little to see all the official designs and think 'wow these are incredible' and then see so many fan characters that don't seem to do the company justice. I guess that also makes me strive to push my OCs and make them something that I think I would like if I saw someone else do. I probably sound a bit bitchy and if I do I apologize, I just wish to see more OCs that really look as though they've literally come from Monster High.
It's fine, and I hope you get more comissions to create Monster High fan character artwork, because this really is amazing
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I read through your comment, and I think you outlined your observations expertly, and I completely understand where you are coming from. It definitely puts the entire Monster High design and execution into proper perspective; I don't find anything wrong with that. At ALL.
If it comes off as sounding a bit bitchy...I think the artists of the OCs should really sit back and put your perspective into consideration before getting their feelings hurt, or even getting defensive. I think it serves as a great reminder what Monster High creations stand for.
Again, thank you for this feedback. It's priceless. I hope that, when I do open commissions again, I get to work with more Monster High characters and OCs. I know I will be keeping your words in mind if and when I do them, to keep the vision in tact. Thank you!!
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Thanks alot, it's just something that irritates me and it's hard to fight the urge to tell them I don't like their designs because I don't look at them and think 'that looks like something that really could have come from Monster High) I'd just love to see more Monster High worthy OCs.
You;re welcome. If you do point ones I'll try and save up for one at somepoint ^w^
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I enjoy all the details, how the trees were done, the way the overcoat blends into snow. Very good composition!
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Wow this is absolutely beautiful! Everything just works together so nicely, it's gorgeous.
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Thank you! I'm glad to hear that the composition works.
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This is absolutely gorgeous!
The movement of the entire piece and the kimono is just absolutely stunning!
Love the background and the colors are really wonderful!
Your work gets better and better every time I see it!
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Thank you! I'm trying to grow more with each piece I do, so I'm glad that it seems like I'm making progress.
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My god this is absolutely lovely- is going to melt when she sees this
all those little details- everything from your take on her- her pose - that digital painting
is just wonderful- really this is a really lovely piece- Im definately going to commission you in the future <3
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Thank you for the feedback. I really appreciate it. 
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welcome ^^
trust me you can see all the hard work you put into this
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