So I guess it’s time I should stop drawing only characters on colored background and start seriously to work on “real” background… well.. not to real though…
In doing a little more research, it looks as though Mulan will be getting a Fenghuang as her loyal companion. I’m totally fine with this change if that’s what happens. It would make complete sense from a cultural/mythological perspective since the Fenghuang represents the feminine aspect, while the Long(dragon) represented the male. Although when it comes to Mulan she pretty much encompassed both male and female aspects perfectly.
A little on the Fenghuang if you care to know. The Fenghuang is commonly conflated with the western Phoenix. Despite their superficial similarities, the Phoenix’s eastern cousin would more likely be the Vermillion Bird, not the Fenghuang (Although some sources use them interchangeably). The Fenghuang is more a heavenly beast, ruler of all birds, and represents the feminine aspect of Yin. Each part and color of their body symbolizes a different celestial body and virtue while the Vermillion Bird is one of the Four guardians of Chinese Cosmology according to Wu Xing it represents the fire-element, the direction south, and the season summer.
You can find statues of these beauties on Taoist and Buddhist temples throughout Asia.
Both are present in everything. Day is Yang, Night is Yin. But during a Yang day, one will have periods of Yin rest.
Yin-Yang is also an important concept in Japanese art. In the calligraphy above, outward brush-strokes are Yang and should be painted freely. Inward brush-strokes are Yin, and should be painted tightly.
Even in as mundane an activity as cooking, one finds Yin-Yang. In Japanese cooking, there are Yang knives which are used blade-outwards, and Yin knives which are used blade-inwards. Yin-Yang also applies to the ingredients. The leaves of a plant are Yin, but the roots of a plant are Yang. As with everything, a good balance is necessary.
In the image above I intended to make the “yang” round like the sun. It also resembles an “enso”, a hand-drawn circle which in Buddhism signifies the circle of life.
Am I afraid of the dark? I’m not afraid of the darkness per se, but what hides within is another story. It symbolizes many things, death, loneliness, hurt, anxiety and overthinking, it’s these feelings that find their ways toward me in the dark of the night.
Yet, although I am afraid of what lies within the darkness, I myself do as well. Physically, emotionally, spiritually—Zen does not necessarily have a color nor light, I tend to close my eyes to focus in and the dark brings just that. I close my blinds and I like the room basically as dark as possible to fall asleep. It holds me in comfort as I find rest, peaceful and deep.
So, am I afraid of myself then? Is that it? The imagination is what has the most power in the dark—creating beautiful dreamscapes and nightmare-ish demons—all spouting from the same wellspring, the same mind, the same spilled ink. I have the power to control what I see and think, yet sometimes it’s overwhelming and flooding with feelings.
The dark, black slate of the mind is a mixture of emotions; the colors of the world and the mind flow together and I find whatever I’m looking for. The subconscious plays a huge role, I believe. Do I want to find comfort? What am I thinking? The worries that I don’t have time for during the light of the day rush out in the dark of the night. They unintentionally become associated with the dark because that’s when I have time to face them, when waiting for slumber to take me; thus the fear of facing myself and my own inner struggles taint the comfort I once found therein.
I must remind myself of the beauty that comes with the darkness. The stars in the sky cannot shine during the time of the sun. The moon needs the deep slumber of the sun to lull us all to bed in comfort. Each firefly and spark of a flame shines brilliantly the darker the setting is, and each bolt of lighting that strikes through the sky leaves me in awe. The contrast between light and dark does not necessarily mean one is better than the other, as they can only exist together.
△“Gnosis is universal. You will see others asleep try and individualize gnosis, woe to those who try and separate themselves from the universality of the effects created by that which is gnosis! Be ye not fooled. Karmic law dictates there is cause and effect. The Involution and evolution is the shiva and the shakti. We are all made of the same structure, spine, nervous system, reproductive organs, and creative energy; this being true would also prove the fact that going into evolution or involution would produce the same effects on all of every man. If our anatomy is identical, which assuredly so, it is identical to all of everyone; the metaphysics and quantum physics would effect all of man in an identical fashion on all levels, whether it be atomically, cellularly, or psychologically.”▼
~ from net (Pics: 1. Yang - sacred masculine principle, 2. Late Hellenistic silver tetradrachm with God and Goddess of the island of Tenedos (off the northwestern coast of Anatolia), 3. Yin - sacred female principle)
