Three Tales of Children Born from Plants

Folktale	Country	Mode of Child's Delivery
Timun Mas	Indonesia	Cucumber
Meng Jiang Nu	China	Gourd
Kaguya Hime	Japan	Bamboo Stalk

In one version of Timun Mas (Golden Cucumber), a giant gives a childless farming couple some magic cucumber seeds. In another version, it was a childless widow who accepted the giant's offer of help. The farmer(s) carefully cultivate the plants, which yielded a large cucumber. On cutting the vegetable open, the prospective parent(s) was/were delighted to find a baby girl inside. But the giant's help came with strings attached...

Genie of the Moon

Inspired by the description of the black genie of the moon in Shaman, Saiva and Sufi: A Study of the Evolution of Malay Magic by R. O. Winstedt:

...in some ancient layer of Malay beliefs before the introduction of Saivism, the white spirit of the sun, the black spirit of the moon, and the yellow spirit of sunset may have been important, seeing that they have Indonesian names (mambang), have been incorporated into the Malay's Hindu pantheon, and have survived under Islam as humble genies...

Merfolk from Around the World

Been planning to do this Flash animation for a couple of years, and in fact conceptualized the mermaids series - Jengu, Duyung and Kadal Kanni - with the idea that they can blend into each other (hence the identical poses and similar compositions)

But after I first completed the illustrations, I postponed working on the animated presentation; I kept revisiting the illustrations, tweaking them and making enhancements over a period of time.

Finally decided to put illustrating on a hiatus and devote some time to this Actionscript 3.0 and timeline animation project. I'm pleased that it is finally done. Now I can reboot my brain and go back into illustrator mode. :-)

Cliff houses from Africa, Asia and North America

As you can tell, I am fascinated by similar themes that occur across different cultures :-)

Detail of Wikipedia image by JialangGao

Bandiagara Escarpment
Country: Mali

These cave dwellings and burial chambers were carved by the Tellem people prior to the arrival of the Dogon people in the 14th century. The Dogon ethnic group built villages along the walls of the cliff.

Links:
Bandiagara Escarpment on Wikipedia
Dogon people on Wikipedia

Detail of Wikipedia image by Pfctdayelise

Guyaju
Country: China

Some archaeologists believe that these cave dwellings were built in the 7th-10th centuries by the Xi ethnic group as a refuge from the Liao Dynasty of the Khitan ethnic group.

Links:
Guyaju Ruins on BeinjingJoy.com
Ancient Cliff Dwellings (Guyaju) on thebeijinger.com

Detail of Wikipedia image by Ben FrantzDale

Mesa Verde National Park
Country: United States

Mesa Verde National Park contains a large number of cliff dwellings built by the Ancestral Puebloan people, forebears of the modern Pueblo Indians of New Mexico and Arizona.

Links:
Mesa Verde National Park on Wikipedia
Who Lived Here on newmexiken.com

The Djinni's Tune

Inspired by, but NOT claiming to be an accurate representation of, the story behind The River Tune from the album Segu Blue by Bassekou Kouyate and Ngoni Ba.

According to the album literature, Bassekou Kouyate's ancestor, the griot Jelimusa Wulen Kouyate, met a djinni playing the ngoni on the bank of a branch of the Niger River. The griot asked the djinni for a gift: the instrument and the tune that the djinni was playing.

The supernatural adoptee in West African folklore

Those of you who have been reading the myths behind the last two illustrations probably noticed the similarities (and differences) between the story of the Pineapple Girl and the story of the Calabash Child. Both tales contain a childless couple, a magical child transmuted or transformed from plant material, a villain (or villains) who insults the child's non-human origins while the parents are away, setting off events that disrupt the once happy family. While reading up on these two tales, I came across other West African folktales that have a similar theme.

Calabash Child

Inspired by, but not claiming to be an authentic representation of, the Igbo/Ibo folktale The Calabash Child, retold by Buchi Offodile in "The Orphan Girl and Other Stories, West African Folk Tales".

 
Synopsis:

The diligent wife of a childless Igbo king (Eze) managed a farm. One day, she met a little girl among the calabashes that she cultivated. Before the queen's eyes, the child changed into a calabash and reverted back into human form. Delighted that her prayers for a child had been answered, the queen asked the child to accompany her back home. The child agreed on one condition: no one should ever call her a calabash child.

2011 retrospective

I have been reworking some of last year's illustrations over the past few weeks. Some of the changes were relatively minor tweaks based on critiques for the recent Pineapple Girl and shapeshifting canid series. A shout out to the my fine artist and illustrator friends who took the time to make detailed observations, and provide thoughtful, useful comments. You are an awesome bunch. Thank you.
Most recently I finished updating the mermaids series. making enhancements to the color and shape design.

Latest version of Duyung

Summer 2011 version

Pineapple Girl

Inspired by, but NOT claiming to be an authentic representation of, the "Pineapple Child" folktale from the Ga people of Ghana.

One version of this story is retold in West African Folktales (collected and translated by Jack Berry) as "Adene and the Pineapple Child."

Synopsis:

An old woman counsels a childless couple to pick a talking pineapple and take it home. Three days later, the pineapple transforms into a beautiful baby girl, whom the couple adopts.

The parents raise the child with love and care. All is well until one day the child is left at home while her parents are at the farm. Adene, an older girl who lives with the family, taunts the child about her non-human origins...

Removing unwanted kinks in Adobe Illustrator's gradient mesh

Here is what worked for me on Adobe CS4:

1. Select the gradient mesh
2. Select the Add Anchor Point tool. Now the invisible 'helper' points that cause the kinks will become visible.
3. Add 2 anchor points, one on either side of the 'helper' point that you want to get rid of.
4. Select the 2 points you just added. (When you use a selection tool, the 'helper' point will become invisible again. Don't worry, it's still there.)
5. Hit the Delete button. (When you delete the 2 points on either side of the helper point, the helper point will also be deleted.)
6. Now select the gradient mesh again. You will see that the kink is gone.

Background and acknowledgments:

White Fox Woman

Inspired by, but NOT intended to be an accurate representation of, the Inuit folktale The Fox Woman. (This is the third and final illustration in my series inspired by folklore about wild canid spirits that shapeshift into human form.)

In the original tale, the fox sheds her skin to take human form, and resumes her fox skin to leave when her human husband complains about her.

Another retelling of this Inuit tale is available in World Folklore for Storytellers: Tales of Wonder, Wisdom, Fools, and Heroes.