With every other card that I drew, I looked at a few different hanafuda decks for reference, consulted photographs or tattoos, and tried to create it with something resembling a unique style. Most of them are very stylized, but also very representative of the subject. The sheer abstractness of this design was so wonderful that I decided to drop all that and go for straight emulation for once.
I had a story yesterday about frogs and willows, but I got nothing about willows and swallows. I guess they just look good togther, since they're paired together sometimes in other Japanese art forms, and always in Hanafuda.
So what does a calligrapher have to do with willow trees and frogs? The story, as I gather, is that Ono-no Tofu once observed a frog jumping again and again to reach a willow sprig. Inspired by its continuous efforts to climb the tree, Ono-no Tofu realized the importance of daily practice in calligraphy.
Before I read about all that, I just thought it was a dancing frog. The frog makes me smile.
This here's a ribbon card with my own interpretation of willow in the background. Whereas the ribbon card tends to be one of the fanciest in many suits, it's actually the least interesting one of the willows. Three more exciting cards to come!
The Hou-ou/Phoenix/Chicken is not an animal card; it's the third "bright." Since it's a bright, then, I decided that it might as well be colorful! This card includes almost every color that I have used in the deck up to this point.
Paulownia suit: finished. There are only four to go, and the next suit is shaping up to be the best one yet--along with an animal card featuring a design that my close friends may have seen "in the flesh," so to speak.
Of course it doesn't really matter what goes in that space, but I wanted to put something in there for consistency with standard hanafuda decks. My own name is too long when it's Japanafied, and I can't find my hanko stamp that I used to sign my sumi-e paintings. I thought about using the Japanese word for paulownia (kiri) but that's not fancy enough. In the end, I decided to maintain the mystery and used the kanji you see here for those "in the know" to decipher.
In Japanese decks, this is December, but for Korean cards, paulownia is the November suit. Why is this? Who knows? That's just the way it is. I'm posting two more cards again today because the truth is that I'm drawing way more than one card per day at my current pace, so I might as well catch up and show you more cards at the same time. Jenna says that she doesn't read my posts anyway because they're boring. If you feel the same way, at least now you have twice as much art to enjoy each day!
That's the last of the three blank "dry" ribbons. There's one more plain red ribbon besides the three I've already posted, but it's distinguised from them in the scoring of some hanafuda games. On some cards, the ribbon looks pasted-on and floats intrusively over the background image. In this one, I like how it appears to be fluttering down from the wisteria branch.
This bird is supposed to look like an oriental cuckoo. Behind it is, perhaps, a crescent moon? I wasn't too sure about that one, but there's a kind of sliver shape on all the cuckoo cards I saw, so there's one on mine too. Plus it has the red clouds--a giveaway hint that this is an 'animal' card.
Before this, I had no idea what wisteria was, other than the name of a famous Lane. It looks like maybe it only grows in the South U.S., which is my excuse for not knowing about it. In this suit again, we have two junks, a ribbon, and an animal. These are the two junks. Stay tuned for the next two cards tomorrow, in another special double-feature post!
That wraps up the peonies. Fun fact: we have made it halfway through the full hanafuda deck. With half the suits completed, I still have to draw six more months/flowers/suits, which is 24 cards. I hope you'll keep checking back as I work my way towards completing the deck.
As I'm examining flowers and trees for this drawing project, I find that I'm also more aware of them in nature. During my daily walks to work, I'm attuned to the detail of individual leaves or the curve of a flower's petals. Drawing is a good habit for appreciating life!
The bold outlines and bright, solid colors of old-school tattoo designs are a natural match for hanafuda. A quick perusal of Google and BME was all it took to find dozens of inspirations for the peony suit. Too bad roses aren't a flower in hanafuda--I could just look down at my own chest for that reference.
I'm getting a lot of variety on my color as it move from Photoshop-->Flickr-->Blogger-->my monitor. I'm not sure where in the process this disparity is introduced, but these look good. The lavender was pinker originally, but you won't hear me complaining. Three more variations on this theme, coming up in the next three days.
HAPPY LABOR DAY!
School is starting for some of you, and it's still early autumn/late spring, but it won't be too long before we have snow covering our trees again. Enjoy that warm weather while it lasts. But enough about winter! Tomorrow we'll go back in time to the suit for June and think about warmth and summer again.
Modern-day Japan is a curious mix between the traditional and the contemporary, and I guess my hanafuda deck will be, too!
In Korea, there are cards similar to hanafuda called "hwa-tu." There are a few differences on the Korean hwa-tu cards; notably the Chinese character "gwang" is printed on the five "bright" cards (gwang is the Korean reading; it would be hikari in Japanese I think). As you may have guessed, the symbol means "light" or "bright." The crane is one of the five brights, and the moon is another example.
I originally drew a version of the moon card with a gwang, but I felt that it marred the elegance and simplicity of the design, so I took it out. But, there might be a good case for leaving it in the deck. Gwang symbols were originally printed on Korean decks to help newcomers more easily identify the cards. I may find the cards more handsome without them, but they would make the scoring combinations a little easier to remember.
Much better, don't you think?
And that's it for irises. As I become more comfortable with the format, I am starting to branch out from the standard images on hanafuda cards and experiment with my own style. This is especially evident with the cards I working on for the next suit, which I will unveil tomorrow!
In the same way that white space in a sparse sumi-e painting can evoke the presence of water or clouds, I like to imagine that the animal in this suit is suggested, rather than presented graphically. Perhaps the animal is a fish, or a tiny bug? Notice, however, the red clouds on top of the card. This element is also present on most of the other animals' cards.
Plus, unlike wild clover and pampas grass, this is a flower I recognize from around here, so I had personal observation to bring to the design. I made more of a break with standard hanafuda cards here and used photo reference only for my iris blooms. They turned out with a bit of a stained-glass look to 'em.
This is one of the two junk cards in the iris suit. The other two cards are a banner and an animal, but not what you might expect.
The 'poem ribbons' have the potential for better scoring combinations in some hanafuda games, but these blank ribbons are also valuable when matched with others like them. So! That's the last of the clover, and that means we're through with a quarter of the 12 suits in the deck.
I made my boar cuter by giving it a big piglet-eye and squashing it down to stumpy card-width size. Although the boar in the print is attacking Adonis, the boar in my hanafuda deck is satisfied with the destruction of flowers. He looks keen on trompling through my carefully-constructed clover patterns until they're all askew.
An economy of branches, each trim pattern represents a stylized interpretation of Japanese wild clover. It doesn't suggest clover to me, since when I think of "clover" I'm more likely to envision the four-leafed variety. But hopefully it would to a Japanese person. Japanese people? Does this remind you at all of the wild clover of your home island?
Maybe I just learned to appreciate the look of it. I did make some changes, though: the clover buds are smaller in proportion to the leaves, in comparison to the other decks I've seen. This would make a great pattern for the drinking glasses in your grandma's cupboard. I hope you like it okay, because we have three more days of clover after this one.
The geese are one of nine "animal" cards in a hanafuda deck, a category which includes the nightingale from the plum suit. They are called "tongmul" in Korean. I guess in Japanese you would call these cards the "doubutsu." Whatever you call them, there are seven to go, and with two of twelve months done we begin a new suit tomorrow.
Modern suits seem to have eulalia that all look more or less like this. But avast! it was not always so. It's funny because I may refer to these as 'traditional' hanafuda cards, but here's a real antique: two cards in the same suit from the 19th century. On those cards, you can see individual shoots of grass in the foreground. Contrast that to the drastically stylized image in a modern deck, and you can see what a difference 200 years makes.
I'm especially proud of how this one turned out because I drew the moon freehand. Circles and long, consistent curves are tough to draw, and that's pretty much all this suit is. I think my experience inking speech bubbles for Bob the Golfer came in handy here.
You're getting a 3-day advance on this daily feature, since I'm leaving town with my wife to celebrate our 2nd anniversary. Those of you with extraordinary willpower should read the next two entries one day at a time to preserve the pace. New posting will resume on Monday.
Surely it deserves better! I found some source images with better color balance, and saw the lines that suggested a grassy hill. It's still not as flashy as the bright plum blossoms, but I daresay it's much nicer than a mound of poop.
The way it shows up on my monitor, this is one neon nightingale. It looked dimmer in Photoshop, so I might have to play with the colors a bit and dull it down to match the rest of the cards... or I suppose I could brighten the other ones. I'm laying out the designs in a business card template so that I can print them out when I'm done and actually have my own deck of hanafuda cards. In Japan, you can supposedly buy a Nintendo-brand deck at any 7-11. Maybe my sources in Japan can confirm this rumor. I hear that the best high-quality cards have a drawing of Napoleon on the backs for some reason. What's that all about?
Each suit is dedicated to a particular flower, but also represents a month of the year (thus 12 suits of 4 cards each). February is the plum suit because, you may know, the plum trees bloom in or around the month of February. Except in Minnesota where I live, February is the darkest and coldest month of the year. February is also the month of my birthday, and therefore a fortuitous one for me to start out with.
Speaking of Kansai, you can get to a beautiful plum orchard if you go to the Hirakata-shi Mr. Donut and keep walking away from the city until you find a wide wooden stairway that goes up the side of a hill and into the forest. I would go there to sit and think sometimes before my first class of the morning.
The first card I drew is from the February, or plum suit, with a ribbon "poem". The text isn't really a poem at all, though. Supposedly it's meant to read "akayoroshii" which means something like "red is good!" However, on all the cards I've seen, the character that should be "ka" for this reading looks like nothing so much as "no." The "yo-ru" are stylised and flow together. Maybe one of my Japanese readers has additional insight on this mystery?
Blogger's image uploading is broken for me, so I'm using Flickr for images now. I hope that works for everyone. Blogger willing, I'll post another card, and more fun facts about Hanafuda cards, tomorrow.
Will return shortly... new project due to be announced...
EDIT: Blogger is inverting the colors of my images. Does anyone know why this is?
(or, "if you've got the Munny, I've got the time")
Get your Dunny on at Robot Love from 6-8pm on Thursday! Contests, prizes, and giveaways? Maybe! Blind-box collectable toys are fun because they are a surprise in every package, but that mystery factor can backfire like an ugly sweater on Christmas morning. What if you get a Dunny that you don't like, or there's one particular design that you simply need to have? Trading parties are the answer! Kid Robot suggests trading original drawings, exclusive toys, or your own artwork. I wonder if anyone would be interested in exchanging a Flying Fortress Dunny for a limited-edition, signed, handpainted Daruma?
There hasn't been much news about Will Wright's upcoming game Spore since their big presentation at E3, but here are a couple of tidbits that I've found interesting recently. You can skip this if you're not interested in Spore or Will Wright or things that are fun, but I know this will be enjoyed by at least one of my readers.
Via Spore Zoo, Images and (short) videos from the NYLF Seminar. Nothing that's really new, but I always like to see more of the game in action.
Will Wright interview in Discover Magazine (registration required). You can use bugmenot to get in, and the entire article is online. It's not even so much about Spore, but it's Will Wright, and the man's a genius.
That's all! It may be another year or more before the game is actually released, so it's too early to get really excited. Spore is something to look forward to if you like looking forward to things. In the meantime, there's a lot to do and life goes on, so grab it by the ears and puke in its face.
I was sick for half the day yesterday and Jenna took me to the clinic to make sure I wasn't going to die. I made sure to take a Care Bears sticker and a lollipop, so that my needlepricks would heal faster. I'm OK, but it was a crappy night. I don't have much to say, so here are a few treats I collected for you from the intarwebs! Posted on Monday because we've had stupid Comcast troubles as well and access has been spotty at best.
Via A Flower Called Nowhere, the bicycle gang movie trailer Be Your Own Pet
Ningyo made a cute music video to Love Psychedelico: Grapefruits! Special YouTube-quality video and sound makes it extra fun.
Apparently, last night, somebody walked into our garage and stole my red "Freedom" electrical scooter. Fortunately, the thief didn't take or damage anything that is really valuable to me: all my bicycles are accounted for, and the cars weren't broken into. They did somehow unplug our garage door from the ceiling, so maybe they were intending to return in the morning? I'm not sure, so I plugged it back in and closed the door, and we'll be installing motion detectors for the garage area.
Whoever took my scooter didn't take the charger, and they didn't take the keys either, so it's basically worthless. A serious thief with a vehicle might have taken more stuff from the garage, and would have at least tried to break into our cars (both of which were unlocked). Since only the scooter was taken, we're betting it was some punk-ass kids who will either try to pawn it or quickly get bored and dump it somewhere.
The scooter wasn't incredibly valuable, but worth enough that I called the St. Paul police to report a theft. An officer called about an hour later and I gave her the details, but we all know that nothing will come of that. Like the hapless protagonist in "The Bicycle Thief," I mounted my own hopeless search for my stolen ride. At least I had a bicycle to do it on, but after an hour of looping through the neighborhood streets and alleys, I still achieved the same results. Except I didn't get harrangued by a mob, and I almost tried to steal my scooter back from a neighbor's garage when I spotted it from a distance, until I got closer and realized I was actually looking at a sleek red gas grill.
There's a history of skin cancer in my family, so I went to the dermatologist to have my skin examined and ended up losing a few little chunks of myself. I've gotten tattoos and piercings and stuff, but I've never had anything cauterized before. How does the pain compare? As long as I get the novocaine, you can cauterize my face all day! After the needle prick, I didn't feel a thing.
The good news is that most of the little dots on my body are nothing to be worried about, according to the doctor, I just have lots of 'em. That's a relief. There's so simple to get removed, though, I might go ahead and get them all taken off anyway.
Sunday was the last day for the Twin Cities Zine Fest 2006, so I got myself over to the Stevens Square Center for the Arts and hung out with my friend/SPC vendor Lacey for a half hour or so. I bought one of her books and a comic by Will Dinski (Habitual Entertainment issue one). Plus I picked up a ton of free zines and stickers. Total cost: $7. Lacey was giving out fortune cookies, but the humidity had turned them into malleable, inedible lumps. Stencil artists happened to have a show running at the same time, and my favorite painting was on display for $400. I tell you, if I had the money to spend, tattoo or stencil art for my wall, it would be a tough choice, man.
I remembered the camera for a change but the batteries were dead, so I missed yet another chance to photograph some good grafitti behind the soon-to-be-ex-St.-Sabrina's. They're moving a block and clearing out some merchandise. I bought a sweet t-shirt for a measley $15, but the Ed Hardy and Sailor Jerry stuff was still at full price. That's two tees in one month--a new personal record!
With every new t-shirt I buy at the appropriate size (small), I can throw away another XL rag that I was wearing back in high school. It's about time. I don't buy many clothes, and I enjoy my minimalist man wardrobe, but this change-up was long overdue. Maybe I will even go crazy and buy a real pair of shorts so I can stop wearing my swimming trunks all the time.
While I was waiting for Lola to poop, I noticed her staring at something at the grass under the bushes. She seemed very concerned, so I tried to figure out what she was looking at. I carefully crawled over and found two baby cardinals chirping on the ground. I moved away to watch and the father bird swooped down to feed regurgitated worms to one of the outcasts. Then I ran inside to grab the camera and took some photos of the babies.
A couple of weeks back, we were watching the birds flying in and out of our yard and figured out that there was a cardinal nest in the bushes. I don't know if these babies fell out of the nest... or if they were pushed. At first I thought it might be time for them to learn to fly, and their parents had encouraged them out of the nest. After I got a closer look, it seems like they're too young for such endeavors. They can barely open their eyes!
Luckily we have a fenced yard, so they will be protected from some predators, but we have had cats sneak in on occasion. Let me know if you have any advice on how to promote the survival of these pitiful creatures. Right now the best course of action I can think of is: DON'T MOW THE LAWN!
I don't know what has to be wrong with a person for her to intentionally steer into a pedestrian in a crosswalk. The theme of the evening was "happy to be alive!" I am mostly over it now. If I ever do get hit by a car, I think I might be upset about it for a very long time. Watch out for crazies, they are everywhere, and they hate you.
On Sunday morning we walked with our friends to Grand Ave. I showed them where I work and pointed out some spots where there'd been posters for the SPC (now all removed!). Quince was open but we were burnt out on crafts for the weekend probably, although they did buy some stuff at Bead Monkey, which employs three of the vendors from this year's fair.
After they went home, I went to visit my friend Jhenn who is going to teach English in Japan. I haven't seen her in three years and she came to see the SPC and say goodbye. Hopefully I will see her again before another three years go by, but we tried to cram as much into one night as possible just in case. First stop, Arise! in Uptown where we got directions to an Ethiopian restaurant. Then we walked around Lyndale for about an hour and visited Muddy Waters, Robot Love, and tried Uptown Tattoo but they were closed. If I had lots of disposable income, I would start a toy collection and shop at Robot Love every day!
This mural was across the street from Robot Love. I'm glad Jhenn was along because I forgot my camera as always! Looks like this graffiti got put up as part of B-Girl Be. We need to see more like this around the city, in my opinion. She also took a shot of me not looking tough next to the piece on the right:
Next we drove to the West Bank in search of our restaurant. The dude at Arise! said it was good and we were excited, but it was still pretty early, so we went to Hard Times for a vegan pancake and hash browns. We walked around the West Bank area for a while because I've never really hung out there. I didn't go to the U of M and I've never lived in Minneapolis, but I love to visit and explore.
When we found the Ethiopian restaurant for dinner, it was just an empty building. Looks like we missed out. I drove us over to Fasika in St. Paul (a quick freeway trip on a Sunday evening) and we shared the veggie sampler and I tried a Harar beer. There was a definite honey taste to it, which I liked. We ate as much of the food as we could and drove back to the hotel, where we soaked in the hot tub for a few minutes. It felt so good on my tired legs after the long weekend. When I got home I drank a can of Black Label beer and fell asleep on the couch. Now I'm ready to do it all again next year.
