New painting – “Nǚ Guǐ”

This is my first painting since May, as I have been so busy on black and white book projects. Now that those are done, I was finally able to paint again! It also helped that we lost power because of the hurricane. We got it back, but we are still without internet or TV and I don’t know when those will return… So I have had plenty of time to work with no distractions (other than the occasional game of Spider Solitaire…)!

Nǚ Guǐ, watercolor, colored pencil, acryla gouache

I worked on the drawing while I was still in the mentorship with Rebecca Guay. The intent was to create a combination of my map work (a abstract map of China and the area around it is visible somewhere in there) and a portrait. I had such a great time painting this, and I loved working on the swirls and texture. I felt like this was a breakthrough piece so I’m really pumped to work on my next painting (which I have already started composing!).

The piece is titled Nǚ Guǐ. In Chinese folklore, Nǚ Guǐ is a type of female ghost, usually dressed in white or red, who has returned to take revenge. I didn’t have a title for this at first, but I knew she was some kind of vengeful spirit or some kind of demon. After some research into Chinese folklore, I found the Nǚ Guǐ and thought it was perfect! I asked a friend of mine who speaks Mandarin how to pronounce it: it sounds a little like “nyuu gway” but not exactly…

I will be updating soon with the final TOCCA painting (of Marrakesh) and a new map for Scholastic.