Winged 8sy

Here's another of the 8sy BITsy Monsters! This one goes out to Lewis Carroll whose birthday was on the 27th. I meant to post it then but life intervened.

One of the many things I have on my plate these days is a website redesign... it's not quite live yet but when it is, I'll probably be migrating all my blogs over there. Just wanted to give y'all a heads-up! Of course I'll post a formal announcement when it happens.

Also, remember that AlphaBots begins next Monday, so if any of you would like to contribute, it's time to get bottin'!

Z is for Zashiki-warashi

In contrast to all the zombies, my final entry for AlphaBeasts! is a not-very-beastly beast: meet Zashiki-warashi, an auspicious yōkai that takes the form of a young child with a red face & bobbed hair. She protects the household & brings good luck, but occasionally performs benign mischief such as sitting on someone's futon or turning over pillows.

Acrylic on Cream of Wheat advertisement scanned from True Experiences magazine, February 1937, ~6.5"x8"

And with that, AlphaBeasts is put to bed... *sniff* ...here are all mine in one place. Many thanks to Andrew Neal for hosting... & for putting me in his final Zombie illustration!

...next week brings fresh hazards to be faced!

Y is for Yama-oroshi

Apologies for the late post & AlphaBeasts! entry-- lots going on with work & family right now, so I may miss a post here & there in the hubbub.

Yama-oroshi was actually one of my favorite Yokai discoveries-- its whole existence is based on a pun, & there's just something so delightfully random about a radish grater monster!

Acrylic on text scanned from Sears Roebuck Catalog of 1897.

X is for Xing Tian

This week's entry for AlphaBeasts! is a Chinese character called Xing Tian, a menacing headless giant with eyes in place of nipples & a mouth where his navel ought to be. He runs around like a giant with its head cut off, wielding a deadly battle ax (also a shield, not included).

Admittedly I took some liberties adding the nose & adjusting the mouth... but that's just the kind of NEW MEN I build! Do YOU want to be one? Give me 7 days... I'll see what I can do. ;-)

Acrylic (with a bit of Photoshopic trickery) on an ad scanned from True Detective magazine, March 1939, ~3.5"x8"

W is for Wanyūdō

This week's entry for AlphaBeasts! is Wanyūdō, a yokai that takes the shape of a flaming wheel bearing an anguished, disembodied face. If you come too close, it's likely to steal your soul & roll it back to Hell. I think the kids in the background are probably wise to keep their distance, but hey, I guess it is "some tire"!

Acrylic on ad scanned from St. Nicholas Magazine, August 1920, ~6.5"x9"

edit: Joey Weiser sent me a fabulous YouTube clip of Gegege noKitaro featuring Wanyūdō!

edit #2: EC Steiner (a.k.a. King Unicorn) sent another Wanyūdō cameo, this time from The Great Yokai War! (The big wheel makes his appearance around 1:33.)

V is for Vanpaia

I took a few liberties with this week's AlphaBeasts! entry.  Japanese legends did not include a vampire in the Dracula model, & the word vanpaia certainly sounds like a modern coinage. More traditional was the Nukekubi, a creature who looks like a normal human, but whose head can detach at the neck & fly around at night attacking folks (somewhat related to the Rokurokubi). I mixed the genres a bit with this one... so sue me!

Acrylic on ad scanned from Sears Roebuck catalog of 1897 "I'm Dr. Barker & I vant to build your bloooooood!!" with some PS, ~4"x5"

U is for Ushi-oni

This week's entry for AlphaBeasts! is Ushi-oni, a sea-dwelling, ox-headed menace.

I don't usually leave this much empty border around a piece, but I just couldn't bring myself to tear off the words "curiously illustrated" on the bottom.

Not really too pleased with the visual effect. That will teach me to indulge my verbal obsessions. Ah well!

Acrylic on text & illustration from St. Nicholas Magazine, August 1920.

T is for Tengu

This week's entry for AlphaBeasts! is Tengu, a red-faced, long-nosed goblin that roams the world making mischief & punishing the vain. You may have seen masks of this character in Japanese restaurants.

Acrylic on advertisement for Post Bran Flakes, scanned from Delineator magazine, December 1930, ~ 6"x9"

What a lovely, supportive headline, eh? And the copy is even more so:
"You may as well be frank with yourself-- let the least shadow of fatigue dim your facial freshness, let the tiniest trace of tiredness write its hairline autograph at the corners of your eyes or mouth-- and-- "She looks positively washed out, poor dear!" they will say-- "She's one of my best friends and I wouldn't have her hear me say it for worlds, but I'm afraid, so afraid, she's beginning to lose her looks."

Of course, bran flakes will reverse that pesky aging process! Ah, advertising. I sometimes wish Tengu would target copy-writers!

S is for Sazae-oni

This week's entry for AlphaBeasts! is probably about as close as I've ever come to painting a pin-up. Not exactly my usual genre! :-O

Sazae-oni is a shape-shifting bakemono who lives inside a turban shell. Sometimes she disguises herself as a beautiful temptress in order to lure sailors to their... dismemberment, shall we say?

I decided to depict the moment afterwards, when she begins to reveal her true, rather crabby nature to her poor victims. After all, vamping it up can be fun, but sometimes a girl's just gotta relax & be herself.





Acrylic on illustration scanned from Wonders of the Heavens, Earth and Ocean, 1887 (with some Photoshop touch-ups in the grand pin-up tradition) ~5.5"x8.5"

R is for Rokurokubi

This week's entry for AlphaBeasts! is Rokurokubi. These yokai look like normal humans by day, but at night, they are real rubber-neckers.

Acrylic on illustration scanned from True Experiences Magazine, February 1937. Honestly I couldn't believe my luck when I found this illo & caption!

Click here if you'd like to see all my AlphaBeasts thus far.

Q is for Qirin

This week's entry for AlphaBeasts! is Qirin, better known to beer drinkers by its Japanese spelling, Kirin. 

This beast has many confusing manifestations, both Chinese & Japanese. It is sometimes known as the Chinese Unicorn, although in most depictions it has two horns. Some versions are very close to Longma (with dragon-like head & scales & a horse-like body), some more deer-like, & some like a giraffe. There is speculation that this creature may have been inspired by travelers' descriptions of the giraffe, & in fact, the modern Japanese for "giraffe" is "kirin."

I chose a combination of deer- & giraffe-like elements, along with the traditional flames.

Acrylic on an illustration (~5"x7" ) scanned from St. Nicholas Magazine, July 1920. I love the caption, & it explains golf to me, since the 20% that is visible to outsiders seems unbearably boring. It makes me wonder what on earth all those straight-laced dudes in polo shirts are imagining out there on the links! (Of course the article was actually all about visualizing the shot, but I like my version better.)

P is for Penghou

This week's entry for AlphaBeasts! is a Chinese creature, though also known in Japan by the name Hōkō. It strikes me as a sort of Cheshire Dog: it is a tree spirit, with a dog's body but a human-ish grin, & according to Wikipedia, it tastes just like dog. :-O

edit: I forgot to include the medium &c.!
Acrylic on illustration scanned from Chatterbox 1882, ~7"x9.5"

O is for Otoroshi

This week's entry for AlphaBeasts is Otoroshi, an exceptionally hairy, tusk-bearing, gate-guarding monster. Normally he hangs out on temple gates, but this time he's gracing a Marvel-ous wire number from Jim Brown's Catalogue, 1939.

N is for Namazu

This week's critter for AlphaBeasts! is Namazu, a giant catfish monster who causes earthquakes & tsunamis whenever he manages to wrestle free from his usual captive state. I thought it was interesting that catfish do tend to abandon their normal bottom-feeding habits when they feel tremors; their unusual activity at such times probably led to this legend.

Acrylic on illustration from Cornell's Primary Geography, 1873. (And yes, I know catfish don't live in the ocean. Namazu is a river-beast. But I figured he might wander seaward when he's in mid-mischief.)

M is for Me-kurabe

This week's entry for AlphaBeasts!

The Me-Kurabe is a strange being/ phenomenon-- a sort of skull-mountain staring contest creature. The skulls of one's victims materialize & roll about, then assemble themselves into a gruesome pile, whereupon they stare fixedly & accusingly until they're stared down, whereupon they disappear.

After I was pretty far into this it occurred to me that it might not qualify as beast, per se... but by then I'd invested too much time to justify starting over! (Although I hasten to add, I didn't draw the skulls. See below.)

Acrylic on scanned (& Photoshopically duplicated) illustration & text from First Lessons in Physiology and Hygiene, 1885, ~3"x4".

The original looked like this:

By the way, if you'd like to see all my AlphaBeasts together, click here.

L is for Longma

This week's entry for AlphaBeasts made it in just under the wire. I couldn't find any Japanese beasts that began with L so I went for a Chinese dragon-horse. It took just a wee bit longer to paint than I'd planned!

I do love painting highlights, & golden scales call for lots of 'em! If you'd like to see a couple of process scans, here's my Longma post on Curious Art Lab.

Acrylic on text scanned from Young People's Natural History, 1901

By the way, 2012 will be the year of the Dragon, although the new year won't officially happen until the 23rd.

Edit: Prints of this painting are now available in my Etsy shop: http://www.etsy.com/listing/90845784/longma-signed-archival-art-print-year-of

K is for Krampus

A belated entry for this week's AlphaBeasts! I couldn't resist taking a brief vacation from the Japanese Hokai to pay tribute to a rather sinister holiday character.

I was inspired by this book that I found at the Flea Market. The torn part of the cover seemed to cry out for a Krampus. Even the moon wanted to be a horn, & the sleigh runner made me think of his beard. Santa's baleful expression seemed to fit right in too.

For those of you who aren't familiar with Krampus, he's St. Nick's "bad cop" partner in Alpine tradition. He punishes naughty children by stuffing them into his sack. Whatever becomes of them after that, it can't be very jolly!

I've spent a little time in Germany & Austria near Christmas, & Krampus is everywhere. Chocolates, cookies, decorations-- pretty much any place you'd find Santa. He even gets his own parade!

If you'd like to see the astounding Krampus parade in Graz, Austria, check out this video.

Acrylic on text from a German-English dictionary, with found book cover.

Edit: I've added an animated version, just for further mischief!

J is for Jinmenju

Hobbling in late in the day for this week's AlphaBeasts! is the curious Jinmenju or head tree. Please forgive my tardiness... trees do move rather slowly, after all. (For instance, our Christmas tree still hasn't managed to make it through the door.)

Instead of the usual fruit, or shiny baubles in the holiday spirit, this particular tree sports living human(ish) heads. Traditionally they are all smiling & laughing, but I've been going through a lot of mood swings lately despite the seasonal ho-ho-hoing, so I decided to let them emote as they would.

I really should have done this one in Photoshop for speed & tweakability, but no, I had to go & do it in acrylic, on a page scanned from Jim Brown's Catalogue, 1939. ~4.5"x7" When I realized I was running late, I rushed through it, & I'm not very pleased with the results... oh well.

I is for Inu-gami

The oddments are back with a roar!!!! That is to say, with a ferocious entry for AlphaBeasts!

This avenging beast is the Inu-gami, a dog spirit.  Frankly this one really terrifies me.

I have a mild fear of dogs to begin with, due to the many attacks engraved on my memory from one traumatic teenage year as a bicycle-riding paper carrier-- but that's not why-- it is the way these creatures are created that really give me the creeps:

According to the Obakemono Project: "One method for creating an inu-gami, it is said, is to tie a hungry dog and place a bowl of food just out of its reach. When its desire is thus focused, its head must be cut off and enshrined, moving its ravenousneeds into the spirit world and creating a terrible weapon for the dog's former master."

Other sources suggested burying a dog up to its neck with food just out of reach, then beheading it. :-O

That's what I call a horror story! I fervently hope people didn't actually do this sort of thing... please let it just be mythological...

Acrylic on cover illustration scanned from St. Nicholas Illustrated Magazine, September 1908. Why these finely-clad youngsters were weighing their puppy, I'm not sure, but I'm pretty sure they weren't expecting this fellow to barge in.

p.s. Yes, my computer is working again! My electrical engineer brother heroically nursed it back to life. I have a lot of catching up to do, but I'm so happy to be back in action! Thanks "Byte Barn"! (That's what he calls his all-too-busy family-&-friends tech service company, ha!)

G is for Gashadokuro

This week's entry for AlphaBeasts!

If you go down to the woods today, you're sure of a big surprise... Gashadokuro, the giant skeleton! This huge & deadly creature likes to bite off human heads. Its appearance is heralded by a ringing in the ears. I think I've had some close encounters after performances by loud bands! ;-)

Acrylic on illustration scanned from Frank Leslie's Chatterbox, 1880-1881, ~6.5"x7.5" You may need to click the image to see the tiny human in the picture-- he was much more prominent to my eyes before the skeleton crept in, though luckily he still has his head.

Edit: Isaac asked to see the original illo before Oddification, so here it is! Click for a closer view, & I think you'll see what I mean about the human figure.

Also, I can finally now reveal that the "Mysterious" series was to illustrate A Word A Day for this week! As a word nerd, I dearly love that site, & I've been a subscriber for ages, so I was over the moon to be a part of it.

Speaking of over the moon, I just have to give a shout-out to another Curiosity: the one that's headed to Mars!!