X: OTSUYU

Tenth (!!) in my "Women of Japanese Horror" series. Holy crap, have I actually done 10 paintings already? Considering that I have the attention span of a gnat when it comes to doing comic pagesm, that's pretty incredible. No, really, it is.

This one's of Otsuyu, the tragic "heroine" of the Rakugo (one-man storytelling) story "Botan Dourou", or "The Peony Lantern". I really adore that story due to Otsuyu's motive for coming back: she returned out of love, not out of hatred or vengeance. You can read the whole story at this URL: www.kabuki21.com/botan_doro.ph…

This painting, despite not being as comlicated as the others, still took me a long time due to personal things happening lately. I wish the white gel pen worked out a bit better, and I don't think I did a good job making the lantern look illuminated enough. If the painting's contrast looks odd, it's because I got a new computer with an LCD monitor, so I can't see the colors the same as with my old comp.

I used up half a tube of white watercolor to make the flowers/leaves. Egads!

Watercolor, pencil, gel pen and Photosho (contrasting, etc.)

Otsuyu © Herself, Sanyutei Encho I (the dude who made her story into a play)
Art © Me