Ryu Gu Jo

Final Project for Illustration II class. We were assigned to pick a myth and make narrative pieces that depict the original story. The story I chose is called Urashima Tarou, a classical Japanese kid story which tales about a fisherman who rescues a turtle and is rewarded with a visit to the Palace of the Dragon God under the sea. There, he meets a lovely princess and upon the third day of his stay, decides to return to his village. As he leaves, the princess gives him a black box, telling him not to open it. The fisherman finds himself 300 years in the future when he arrives back. Grieving for those who perished in time, he opens the box and turns into an old man. For this project I decided concentrate majority of my time into one piece, the scene where the fisherman arrives to the undersea dragon palace, Ryu Gu Jo. I had loads of fun designing the building, creatures, and flow in the composition. I also noticed that I have been repeatedly using warm palette in my works and therefore with this piece I decided to break out from that tendency. Unfortunately, this piece is incomplete at this stage and will be turned in as current state. I am planning to go back and refine more details and add textures.