Void Yai

This fellow was painted for Paizo Publishing's Dragon Empires Gazetteer. I've posted Yai on this blog before (back in August and September of 2011). They are a type of Oni, a creature from Japanese myth and folklore.

I'm posting some preliminary sketches for this piece, although there was nothing terribly mysterious about the process. I began with a few loose roughs, eventually settling on the rough sketch above. From there, I simplified and refined my initial idea a little, shifting the position of the club and defining the shape of the character. I then added detail and refined the drawing until I had a nice, clean character design on which to base the painting.

I wanted this character to feel large but I didn't want to "hulk" him out and with no background, I couldn't use a surrounding environment to reinforce his size. Consequently, I added a bit of extra slope to his shoulders and made him bottom heavy to give him a strong sense of mass, almost as if gravity has gradually shifted the bulk of his body downward. If I'd made his head smaller, he'd practically be a triangle, which is just what I wanted!

Ice Yai

Here's the last of the yai. This fellow is a little more whimsical than the others, from his blue skin and icy beard to his martial arts stance. I hope everyone has enjoyed this series of oni pictures. I certainly had fun creating them.

Fire Yai

Today's oni/yai is the fire Yai. Unlike the previous two, this one is male but he still has a third eye. I had a good time playing with his armor, proportions and facial expression.

Wind Yai

Here's another of the oni/yai paintings I did for Paizo Publishing's Jade Regent: The Brinewall Legacy, along with the preliminary drawing (done in Photoshop). Like the first one, this oni is female but she's less on the creepy side and a bit more burly and barbaric.

Water Yai

This piece was one of four different yai (a type of Oni) I painted for Paizo Publishing's book Jade Regent: The Brinewall Legacy. Oni are creatures from Japanese mythology, often similar to ogres, trolls or demons in western mythology. Each of the four yai I painted is associated with something elemental (water, fire, wind, etc.). I tried to give each a unique visual flavor while also making them appear loosely related to one another. It's a challenge to adapt the often flat, graphic style of ancient Japanese art to a more contemporary, western style of illustration but it was a lot of fun. The features of Japanese mythological beings have a bold character that's blast to draw.

I'll be posting another Yai tomorrow so please come back for more!