Senbazuru In the Making

Would you believe this was supposed to be a V-day artwork? :)

Valentine's Day 2013, admittedly, was the first time I awoke on that holiday not as a single lady. Since I was not exactly experienced when it came to giving presents to a significant other, I just decided to play by my strengths and go creative. What I decided on? Senbazuru. One thousand paper cranes to you and me.

Know your enemy. Prepare ammo.

Instead of buying pre-cut square post-its, I opted to just cut the squares myself. Dimensions: slightly smaller than 3x3 in (fitted 12 squares on standard size). Why sacrifice the convenience of using pre-cut paper? Two reasons:

1. Post-it would cost more than double the price of using non-cut paper
2. The available post-it colors are in neon shades (I saw pink, yellow, green, orange, and blue variants). I wanted to be in control of the colors I'm using, and honestly, I am not too fond of neon colors -- and neither is my significant other.

Trivia: I based the color scheme on the actual colors of the red-crowned crane, and it was only later that I noticed they were t'nalak colors (sans the blue). I love those textiles, really.

Multiply each by 25

There are lots of online instructions on how to fold a traditional paper crane, so I won't elaborate on it here. Of course, I would end up killing my hands and my sanity (among others) if I attempted to fold 1000 cranes in one day, so I distributed their making into a 50-day period with 20 cranes per day. Stringing them together, give-or-take less than one week.

Skewering them together, 40 cranes per string

Man, this step hurt my fingers and eyes more than the crane folding. I have no callouses to guard against needles, so I had to pad my digits with cloth if the needle became too difficult to pull. And I made the mistake of not using a threader, so I crossed my eyes more than once trying to make the crochet thread go through the tiny needle hole. I love arts and crafts, but needlework is something I still have difficulty doing.

Prior to bunching them together

Close up

If only I got to maintain the straightness of the pattern when I knotted the threads together. Alas, I ended up getting zigzags in the final version. I also wasn't able to take a picture of the threaded cranes hanging, so pardon me. At least I finished them before my scheduled deadline, and they have already changed ownership as of a few hours ago.

Did I wish for anything after completing the project? Yes, I did. But no way am I divulging my wish here. ;)

"Calm Skies" - Some Reflections

A section of the artwork -- links to full version at the end of the post

Simply put, my original plans for this artwork was quite different. With Death's Candles out of the way, I was free to do a new piece. It was very easy to return to my often-used female model (my "Kiya"), but I realized that Kouseikei, the current male lead in my artistic universe, had yet to be given a solo artwork of his own. All my other artworks that feature him are either group pieces, or otherwise show him with Kiya. Now was the time to remedy that situation, I thought.

Meh, I still suck at human anatomies :(

Horrible preliminary sketching/planning aside, the process of its finishing was interesting, to say the least. The time period of its making coincided with some drastic events in my life. For one, the Philippines was being buffeted by the typhoons Saola and Haikui just as I was painting the background of the image.

At that moment, you can say that the artwork was in itself a prayer for calm skies again.

I owe Google images and Wikipedia a lot for jump-starting my muse and finding references, definitely. However, the weather wasn't the only significant influence in the artwork. I won't say it in many words, but as I was fleshing out Kouseikei, I made a decision that significantly altered my day-to-day living.

And made me notice some things I have never seen about him before, with regards to his character.

Admittedly, I am not too fond of using persons I know of as bases for my characters. I am not saying that my real-life interactions have no influence in how I design or conceptualize my characters (quite the opposite). I just don't like my characters ending up as simply being Ms. or Mr. So-and-so in a different name and look in my artistic universe. (Think of how awkward it could get.) Likewise, Kouseikei was "born"  more as a plot necessity and not as a virtual model of a real-life person.

At least, consciously. Because, if some people who know me by my real name also read about Kouseikei's story, they might find some glaring similarities with his personality and that of someone I know of. Don't worry, "he" has no wings, and neither was he scarred on the cheek and back by his cousin. :)

View the full artwork here or here.