Speedie of the Week - #8 Jane from KOS

This image is called 'mirror' on deviantART, because reflections were the subject of practice for this week's speedpaint. For those who have absolutely no idea what my speedpaints are about, they're a lot like the Class of 2010 Weekly Illustrations, except more intensive. The purpose of them is to practice digital painting and experiment and they're submitted to my deviantART every friday.

For past submittions, check the Speedie of the Week gallery there.

This week's subject matter is Jane, from my story Kingdom of Spirits whose writing is currently on hiatus due to concentration on my other manuscript Ashes of Hope (cover art below). In KOS, Jane, a plain Vancouverite with a fairly crazy father she nicknamed Attila, discovers that she's not a human as she always thought, but a ki-rin (chinese unicorn), from a land known as the Kingdom of Spirits. The tale is pretty zany compared to AOH, written in 1st person as a sort of not-really-romantic comedy.

Jane's mission? Break off her involuntary engagement to the Prince of Rain, HIH Phirun. With the help of a pretty peculiar wolf named Wolf (intent on spending all of Phirun's money whenever possible) Jane drags Phirun across the Kingdom of Spirits, looking for the gods, the only power higher than hers and Phirun's parents. On their journey they meet a miriad of creatures from myth, including sasquatches, wyverns, sea monsters, unicorns and horses which can outrace the wind. The creatures and beings which I use in KOS come from all over the globe, from Raven and Amoroq from our own nation of Canada, to griffins and the yeti. As our heroes travel, they're chased by Jane's crazy father and his minions as well as Phiruns rather psychopathic uncle River, who has the power to change the shape of what creatures are.

This story is my break from writing serious stuff; I get to research, be funny and just follow my muse. It's my destresser, my break from worrying about cliches (though I do everything possible to keep it original of course).

If you want to see what Jane looks like as a human, she was designed by Peach Mork. You can see her design here.

So What is a Ki-rin?
Ki-rin, or kirin or quillin (pronounced KEY-RIN), can be very basically referred to as Chinese unicorns, though calling them such would be fairly culturally incorrect. Ki-rin, while created in China, are actually more important in Japan than the country where they originated. Ki-rin are said to be benevolent creatures, lucky to have around if one is pregnant, beautiful pets of the gods. However, if enraged, it's said that ki-rin can breathe fire and for defense, also have the ability to walk on water. In Japan, according to wikipedia, they are the most important of the mythological beings, surpassing the dragon and phoenix.

Appearance wise, ki-rin have been portrayed in many different ways over history, though predominantly they usually take the appearance of a deer-like creature with a single horn and koi scales. My ki-rin are inspired by Windstone Creations.