Photographed from the official website of the Japan JIA Illustration Award 2022 winners' exhibition
https://jpn-illust.com/compe/exhibition.html
Thanks Be to God for This Wonderful Gift!
It had been a long while since I'd entered any competition. By chance, I saw news of this one on the Facebook of Jun Xi, a digital painting master from Hong Kong. So I pulled my works together into a series interpreting Japanese culture through cyberpunk and steampunk. There are three pieces in total: "さあ、どうする?" (Well, What Will You Do?), "Under the Moon" 《月下》, and "Knight of Miracles" 《神蹟騎士》.
"さあ、どうする?" (Well, What Will You Do?)
"さあ、どうする?" began with Chō-han, the dice game popular in traditional Japanese gambling houses, as the starting point for a casino proprietress character design. Using her pipe as a medium, she inhales smoke and breathes out two holographic characters representing Chō (even) and Han (odd), who beat drums to hurry and fluster the gamblers as they bet. The ornaments she wears are designed around a fish motif, because I wanted her to carry a "the willing take the bait" feeling. Life is like a gambling table — sometimes, however unwilling, we're forced into decisions and wagers. From that idea I painted this character illustration, and I hope to add her concept design sheet soon to flesh the character out further.
"Under the Moon" 《月下》
Anyone who has taken our pre-recorded course "Ink-Style Characters" will recognize this piece immediately — it's the demonstration work from the course. I originally wanted to paint a geisha-like character because of Komurasaki from One Piece. I absolutely love the shamisen, and listened to piles of shamisen music while painting. For the palette I used the macaron colors that have been trendy these past few years — keeping an eye on design trends is a little trick that makes your original characters more appealing!
"Ink-Style Characters" course link
https://weichenstudio.com/courses/ink-painting/
"Knight of Miracles" 《神蹟騎士》
"Knight of Miracles" is a piece I painted in 2017, the Year of the Rooster. Why mention the rooster year? Because it was my New Year greeting picture that year. The idea came from a Chinese pun on "miracles and wonders" — I happened to be reading that phrase in the Bible, and thought: why not paint a knight riding a divine rooster? The gear he wears was conceived from the armor passage in the Bible's Epistle to the Ephesians: "Stand firm therefore, having the belt of truth buckled around your waist, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having fitted your feet with the preparation of the Good News of peace, above all, taking up the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God." The banner behind him takes the Bible's five loaves and two fish as its starting point, designed into an emblem like a shogunate family crest. In making this piece I found that folding traditional elements into science fiction — hardly a technique I invented — is tremendously fun.
That's the concept share for the award-winning works. All thanks to God for letting me win an award in this competition — I look forward to doing well in future competitions too.
Screenshot of the Award Page
