Further Research

Feb 27, 2016
3 min read

I went onto searching for different variations of Nu Wa as I wanted to create my own version of "Nu Wa". Looking through each image I notice that "Nu Wa" is seen taking different forms. Nu Wa is known to be a Goddess who takes form either as human, half human/ dragon or half human/serpent.

When I first saw Nu Wa which was from the game 'Smite'. She is seen as human but the once she uses her strongest power she flies into the sky and her bottom half changes into a dragon/ serpent.

Above are Smite's interpretations of Nu Wa

Here are the more traditional versions of Nu Wa. As mentioned before Nu Wa usually illustrated as more human rather than being half human and half creature. There is one image which she is taken form more of a serpent with a female head and there is the other image I found which is half human and half dragon. So I wanted to create my version of Nu Wa by keeping o what is known to look like and combine little elements to make her my own.

So previously in the Pechu Kucha I wanted to do a 3D animation for the Chinese myth. However due to my lack of knowledge I decided to not pursue the idea of a 3D animation and go towards another medium I enjoy doing which is illustration and wanted to improve from there. Instead of drawing digitally I wanted to hand render the illustration to give the topic a more traditional look. But then a part of me wanted to do digital illustration. I started researching looking for inspiration.

During the process I started drawing and trying out different drawing styles. I was switching between digital drawing using Photoshop cs6 or would be hand rendering my illustration while experimenting several mediums. And the decision came finally when I came across an artist who’s style inspired me the most compared to the other artist’s I looked at. The artist is called “Victo Ngai” her came across her artwork when I purchases a book ‘Specturm’ volume 22 which had different artists from other backgrounds who won awards for their artwork. I did find some inspiration from other artist in the same book but what caught my eye was artwork from "Victo Ngai".

The images below are the one which caught my attention the most. Beautiful illustration and all the attention in small details and the colour contrast bringing the images to life.

I also looked at other artists for inspiration. Mostly digital artwork with a mix of traditional illustrations. I also started looking to draw 'Nu Wa' out. These photos were the ones I picked out from interest for inspiration and help my imagination and possibly be using some of the photos for reference.

As well as looking at different variations of Nu Wa and modern digital artwork I like. I also had a look at images which I thought would trigger my thoughts while drawing out my version of 'Nu Wa'

The physical which I will be handing in with my final outcome has the experimentation of drawing Nu Wa. I did find it challenging but at the same time it was enjoyable to draw again physically rather doing it digitally.

So the questions were what would my goddess look like? what kind of mediums should I go with?