My second entry for the Deities themed book from the guys at Tiki Machine is based on a Hindu goddess named Budhi Pallien. She's one of the earlier, elder gods. It's said that she liked to roam the jungles and forests of Northern India in the form of a tigress. Aaaand... it's said that she still does so today.

Well, that got me to thinking. How would a 10,000 (or so) year old tiger-goddess respond to our world today? What would she think of us? How would she interact with us? If at all.
And, how would we react to her?

I did some rough sketches of how she might look...




...meh... although I did like the simple stripe treatment.

And then decided that she HAD to be bigger than life. She's a freaken goddess. And I wanted to place her in plain site, yet be unseen by those all around her who can't be bothered to see the world around them.



This piece will be a simple one. A rough pencil drawing with water color washes on cold-press illustration board.

Been working with the guys over at The Tiki Machine on their new book.
The theme for this one is on "Deities". Kinda cool.

There will be two of my illustrations in the book. I wanted to do something from the native American peoples (specifically the Navajo) as the subject matter for the first illustration. Black Yei is my current favorite. Basically, he's the guy that's in charge of the stars and constellations, and he's the one who invented fire. The story goes that he used to keep the constellation of the Seven Sisters tied around his left ankle. However, whenever he danced, that star cluster would fly up from his kicking feet and smack him on the left brow. This happened so frequently, that he finally just had the Seven Sisters constellation mounted to his brow permanently.

I like the gentle humour found in many of the stories about the Navajo deities.

Can't show the final piece, but I can show you a rough sketch. This one will be digitally painted. I want to have the flame glowing with warm, yellows and oranges, while the stars glow with blue light. If I can pull it off, I also want the eye holes of his mask and the Seven Sisters star cluster to glow with the same star light. He IS a god after all.