September 21, 2013

White Bone Demon Maybe

In the next in my series of reworked Chinese folk, I’ve painted over a paper cut of a female figure holding a staff. I don’t know who she was but somehow imagine her to be the infamous white bone demon. This nemesis of the heroic monkey king struck my fancy as a good object to paint. The original paper cut of the figure characteristically sported a large head on a small body. I could have kept these proportions but instead reduced the head and expanded the body.


Demons/goddesses and other unearthly beings seemed to demand a diaphanous rendering. This was a challenge to a heavy handed artist such as myself who gravitates towards solid viscous pigments. But I tried for a ghostly deportment for the figure using washes and iridescent paints.

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