18 & 19 - Emblems of Adventure

Well, I have been a bit distracted lately, but I am going to try and get back to posting more regularly! I have been focusing most of my time on the doll, and Ella is nearly complete! I will hopefully post pictures and her full story very soon, she just had some last minute improvements come up that I need to complete. It has been a lot of fun getting back into doll making!

For now though, here are a few more sketches. I am posting two pages today because they are kind of connected. I really like the Japanese style crests that were used to identify families similar to how heraldry was used in Europe, so I decided to create some of my own. Thus the page full of crests. The Large one in the center was my signature for a while since it was made up of my initials. Now that I'm married I need to come up with a new one! 

This second image was my attempt to draw the ultimate adventure outfit. However, I didn't really do any research about what would be useful on an epic adventure, so I'm not sure that it is really practical. Oh well. I had fun drawing it.

16. Hakama Archer

For some reason I have always found archery very "epic", there is something adventurous and romantic, in the old sense of the word, about it.  

Watching this video also made me think about how the Japanese like to take things from life (like archery or making tea) and turn it into a ritual that centers them and brings spirituality into their life. I think it would be an interesting concept to apply to my own life and also possibly make a cool magic system in a story I might find time to write some day...

This sketch's outfit was inspired by the following image from Albert Racinet's The Historical Encyclopedia of Costumes which is a really great book if you are in to historical or world costumes.

Getting dressed as a samurai looks like a lot of work, but I liked the look of his initial layers, so I took those and played around with it a little. I made up this outfit for a doll, someday I try to post a picture!

And in closing, another cool video of Japanese archery. The second half has better shot angles I think.