Project by: Tatsuya King (9th Grade)

Project Advisor: Jessica Tan

Student’s Advisor: Jonathan Segal

Description of the Project:

For this project, I wanted to explore my Asian and American identities. To do this, I researched Chinese mythological creatures and explored their origins and meanings.  Mythological creatures are often used to explain or justify aspects of the world that can’t be easily explained. For this project, one of my goals is to learn more about average people in ancient China, what they were afraid of, what they wanted, and how they lived. By exploring fantasy creatures created by these people, I can gain a better understanding of the things they thought about. The second part of this project was to connect these creatures to American culture and ideals. By comparing two of the cultures I come from, I hoped to learn more about how they are different or similar, and how they might have affected me and how I think. In the actual drawings, I wanted to try and mimic the look of traditional Chinese carvings. Chinese carvings are usually very intricate and incorporate unique patterns and designs. In my drawings, I tried to add a few of these distinctly Chinese elements in order to add to the feeling of authenticity. In each drawing, the mythological creature is the main focus, placed right in the middle, while the American counterpart floats around it or is placed on the sides. By the end of this project, I had created two full illustrations, each one 3336p x 4448p.

Final Pieces:

   

Process videos:

Final Reflection on Learning:

Upon completion of this project, I am very happy that I did it. Not only did I learn about the cultures that influence me but I also learned new techniques and styles. After choosing the creatures that I wanted to use, I had to do a lot of thinking about how they connected to American culture and life. This thinking opened up my eyes to new concepts and ideas that I wouldn’t have really thought about before. Even though the two pieces share a common theme and style, each piece brought up new ideas and elements, unique to that specific drawing. Ultimately, this thinking that I put into my drawings is what I believe separates them from my normal art, where my thinking is purely aesthetic.

Piece #1: Bi Fang

In this piece, titled “Bi Fang” (bee fawng), I drew the Chinese mythological bird, the bi fang. In Chinese mythology, the bi fang lives in the mountains and looks like a normal crane, but has much more vibrant colors and only one leg. The people in the area believed that seeing this bird meant a mysterious fire would start. The American counterpart to the bi fang that I chose is a black cat. In the same way that seeing the bi fang means a fire will start, to Americans, a black cat is an omen of bad luck. Along with the two animals, I decorated the area around them with plants from the bi fang’s mountain, flames, and traditional looking clouds.

Piece #2: Xie Zhi

For my second piece, I chose to draw the creature, Xie Zhi (shye zher). In Chinese mythology, the Xie Zhi is a noble and just creature, that can tell when people are lying and punishes people who do wrong. The Xie Zhi would sit in courts and stab corrupt officials as a punishment for their wrong doing. For the American counterpart to the Xie Zhi, I had to think about the ideas behind the Xie Zhi. In real life, it is often very hard to tell when somebody is lying and many people are worried about being lied to. In my opinion, the creation of the Xie Zhi was a response to this worry. Although the Xie Zhi isn’t real, believing it is, can provide comfort because you believe there is something out there that can fight what you cannot. This idea, of investing time, money, or effort into an ultimately meaningless sense of security against the inevitable is very common in American culture. Many people in the US and around the world, fear many things that can’t be prevented or expected. The two fears that I chose are the fear of old age/sickness, and the fear of being attacked or robbed. For both of these fears, there are countless ways to try to counteract them. While some of these can help, the threat never fully goes away. The two ways that I chose are a bottle of medicine and a firearm. The bottle of medicine represents fake treatments that take advantage of people’s fear, while the firearm represents many people’s desire to be able to defend themselves, despite often not being experienced or even prepared to do so. In addition to the symbols and the creature, I also added traditional cloud decorations. 

Update on Progress from Weeks 1-3:

For the first few weeks, my project advisor and I refined my idea and researched mythological creatures that I could use. At this point, I knew that I wanted to connect the mythological creatures to themes or ideas from American culture, but I didn’t know how I wanted to do it. By the end of the second week, I had chosen around 8 possible creatures and had done slightly more research on them. I was then able to narrow this list down to three. By the end of week 3, I had also started experimenting with possible art styles and methods for illustrating my chosen creatures.

Update on Progress from Weeks 4-6:

During this time, I did a lot of experimentation with my art and created drafts for my two chosen creatures. I also thought about and discussed with others, the American counterparts to the mythological creatures I had chosen. After creating my drafts for the creatures, I experimented with layouts and composition. At the end of these weeks, I decided on the style I wanted to use, mimicking Chinese wood carvings, and began planning my final drafts.

Here are some of my preliminary drafts:

Update on Progress from Weeks 7-9:

In the final weeks of this project, I worked on my final pieces. The first piece, bi fang, took around a week of 1 hour per day work to finish while the second piece, xie zhi, took only four or five days. Much of this time was also spent on developing the style I wanted to use. After the first piece, I had a much better idea of how I wanted my next one to look and how I could do it better and faster. That is probably why my second piece took much less time and, in my opinion, appears more polished.