有馬啓太郎
keitaro arima

春告鬼〜HAPPY WARMMY〜
Harutsuguru oni (Spring Announcing Demon) - HAPPY WARMMY

テ一マが日本の四季ということでしたので、節分•立春の頃をイメージして作成いたしました。
旧暦の大晦日、宮中では追儺といわれる鬼祓いの儀式を行います。これが市井で行われるようになったのが、2月3日節分の日に行われる豆まきの行事で、我々は豆を蒔き鬼を祓い、新たな年=春を迎えます。そして鬼が祓われた後には、梅の蕾がふくらみ花を咲かせる事から、象徴的に鬼少女と梅の木を描きました。
梅の木は、他に先駆けて花を咲かせる事から春告草•春告花とよばれます。タイトルの春告鬼はこのことに由来します。宮中や家の中から祓われた鬼少女は空を舞い春を喚ぶのだと想像して下さいw英字のHAPPYWARMMYは友人との会話で「日本みたいにはっきりと四季のある国ってそんなに無いよな」「じゃあ春って何だろ？」「暖かくなるって事じゃないかな」「じゃあ、服だって脱いじゃうよねw」と変な知恵を絞った結晶です。決して毛布のような服の事ではございません！
こういった屁理屈をこねているせいで、少し悩む羽目になったのが、画面を舞っている黄色いお札です。陰陽道や神道の護符などで、白地に赤文字•黄地に黒文字•黒地に赤文字の札は確認できたのですが，"黄地に赤"は中華系の配色なんですよね。最終的にこのイラス卜単体での見栄えを優先して黄地に赤文字で仕上げましたが、追儺は元々中国の儀式ですから勘弁して下さい。
因みに札の模様はマジモノを描く訳にもいかないので"子供のおねしよに効く札"や"夜泣き•湿疹を止める札"等々、なるべく現実に影響の少ない無害そうなお札を舞わせております。
絵を描く上においては、あまり自分でもやった事のない表現に挑戦U：みました。画面手前に描いてある梅の木は、和紙に筆を使って鈴鹿墨で描いたモノをスキャナーで取り込みフォトショップで加工して作リました。伝統工芸品の墨を使う事で、日本らしさが増せば面白いかなあという単純発想だったのですが、思った以上に墨のグラデーションが面白い効果を出してくれましたので今後も使っていきたいと思っております。

The exhibition’s theme is ‘Japan’s four seasons’ so I created this image depicting the last day of winter/first day of spring.
In the Imperial court, a ceremony was carried out on New Year’s Eve, according to the Chinese calendar, to drive out devils. This spread to the general populace and became the origin of the setsubun ceremony that is now carried out on February 3，in which people drive out demons by scattering roasted beans and thereby welcome in the spring. Shortly after the demons have been cast out, the plum trees start to blossom so I have chosen to symbolize this by drawing a young, girl demon and a plum tree. Plum trees are the first to blossom, leading them to be known of as ‘Harutsugu hana’ (spring announcing flowers). This is the origin of the title of this work, ‘Spring Announdcing Demon’. I would like you all to conjure up an image of a young girl demon who has been cast out from the palace or an ordinary house, to fly through the air, calling for spring. The English title, ‘Happy Warmmy’，derives from a conversation I had with a friend, who commented, ‘They say that there are not many countries that have four distinct seasons, like Japan.’ ‘Then what is spring?’ ‘I suppose it is when it gets a bit warmer’. ‘So, they will take off their clothes then’. That is all, it certainly does not refer to thick blanket-like clothes!
Maybe it was a result of all this quibbling, but I found myself in a quandary—it concerns the yellow talismans that fill the air in the picture. Both Onmyodo and Shinto use paper talismans, but when I checked them out, I found that these are white with red characters, yellow with black characters, or black with red characters, only the Chinese use yellow with red characters. In the end, I decided that the visual impact was the most important thing and so I used yellow with red characters. The custom of driving out demons in this way originated in China anyway, so I hope I will be forgiven.
Incidentally, regarding the design of the talisman, I could not use powerful ones so instead I copied simple ones to stop children wetting their bed, or to stop them crying at night and prevent eczema; harmless things that would not be able to cause any real harm.
When producing this illustration, I tried a technique I have not used much before. The plum tree in the foreground was drawn using traditional Japanese ink and paper which I then scanned into the computer and manipulated in Photoshop. I simply thought that using traditional materials in this way would increase the Japanese feel of the work and make it more interesting, but the gradation I achieved with the ink created a fascinating effect and I will use this technique more in the future

e...really admire you！

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It was the only the commentary that took up 2 columns of the page rofl.

WtfCakes said:
It was the only the commentary that took up 2 columns of the page rofl.

…… goooodjooooob~