Amami rabbit warm

I've made a new edition of my Amami rabbit in different colours.

This time I chose warm tone with Sanguine, Warm red and Raw Amber and bit of black.
I tend to use lots of Sanguine. It's such a versatile colour. I can mix it to both warm and cool tone.

 I can see the line drawing of rabbit's fur better in this colour.
The colour could have been a bit darker than this brown tone, but then I think all lines might have got lost.
Also I've printed this version on Hahnemuehle off white.
It is a really warm white paper. It works well with warm tone colour inks.

 

It makes me want to try lots of different colours with this image.

Maybe a fluro yellow rabbit or a put special pigment powder on ink so it glows in dark...

Nue

Nue is a monster in Japanese legend and folklore. 
It appears in numbers of literatures and it is described as having the head of a monkey, the body of a racoon, the legs of a tiger and the tail of a snake.
Originally the word Nue was first referred to a bird called White's Thrush.
People thought those birds were bad omen because they only sang at night.
Nue that we know of today as the animal above was formed in one episode from a book about an epic account of a war (Tale of the Heike) in 1180-1185. It talks about how this monster appeared as a black cloud with strange sound and made the emperor have nightmares and fall ill.

This is my latest print from last week.
I love drawing animals, especially furry ones, more than anything else. (if it wasn't too obvious from all my other works...)
Second thing I love drawing is plants.
This print just satisfied my love of drawing animals and plants.
I got to draw 4 different animals and lots of plants in one plate!

It is a two plate etching with Sanguine / Warm red / Raw Amber and Black / Sanguine / Raw Amber

hello!

Winter

family of hungry rats looking for food in winter woods

more information on this print

Gasha dokuro II

Damon and I made a new print, Gasha Dokuro II last week.

Gasha dokuro is a yokai / monster in Japan. 

It is a giant skeleton made up of bones and grudge of people who died in wars, starvation or who are unburied.
It is said that Gasha dokuro walks around with chattering sound at night and if it sees someone, it will crush and eat him/her.

Ukiyoe artist Kuniyoshi Utagawa (1798-1861) first made an image for a story where he made one giant skeleton to represent great numbers of life size skeletons.
His anatomically correct skeleton based on European medical books made a significant impact at the time, it's become one of his masterpieces.
The story wasn't about Gasha dokuro but his image created a strong direction for artists to create contemporary images of this yokai, including this version.

This print was made for La Calaca International Print Exchange.
Theme is Calacas, Day of the Dead! Our monster will travel to the US this week!

Amami rabbit

I printed a new edition of Amami rabbit last week.
It is a two plate etching - first plate (tone only) has a mix of oriental blue and sanguine and second plate (line and tone) has a mix of black and emerald green.
I'm thinking about making a second edition with a different colour with more reddish dark brown.

I first saw this rabbit in Museum of Nature and Science in Tokyo.
Amami rabbit is an endangered species of rabbit regarded as a living fossil found only in Amami Oshima and Tokunoshima, two small semi-tropical islands in Kagoshima prefecture about halfway between Okinawa and Kyushu in Japan.

It lives in or on the edge of old-growth forests, away from human activity. 
Although it has been declared as a Japanese Special National Monument, which not only prevents it from being hunted but also trapped, its existence is not widely known.

It has significantly small ears and eyes, short hind legs and wooly dark fur, it looks very different from a typical rabbit or hare.

Talking of a chameleon exhibition

I'm currently having a collaborative exhibition "Talking of a chameleon" with Damon Kowarsky until 30 May at Perimeter books.

Chameleons have long been known for their ability to change colour and transform.
In this suite of ten etchings and a zine we try to take that transformation one step further with a series of strange and wonderful animals.

"Talking of a chameleon", he said: "Its master put it down on a tartan rug and it died of overexertion."
Jean Cocteau, quoted by Liane de Pougy (1869-1950)

Thank you so much Dan and Justine at Perimeter books for making this exhibition possible. Perimeter books is such a beautiful special space with variety of local and international books.
Owners Dan and Justine also own Erm Books, small press artist publisher.
These books, again, are collectable gems!!

Exhibition runs from 5 to 30 May 2012

Perimeter books
748 High Street
Thornbury, VIC

Wednesday 12 to 6pm
Thursday 12 to 6pm
Friday 12 to 7pm
Saturday 10am to 5pm

Narwhal

Damon and my latest and last addition to Laputa robot series is Narwhal.

Narwhals are small Arctic whales.
Male has a long forward-pointing spirally twisted tusk developed from one of its teeth.

When I first saw them in a book as a child, I thought they looked quite otherworldly, they were imaginary animal just like unicorns.
I saw a narwhal drawn on a first Japanese copper etching world map in 1792.
I wonder what they thought when they first saw this strange but beautiful animals.