The Lotus Monster Book

More documents

Recommendations

Info

A Note from the Artist Illustrating The Lotus Monster has given me incredible joy. It has also been an enormous challenge. Japan is a country with 1,000 years of history, tradition, customs and culture. Toinfuse my artwork with even a hint of the flavor of Japan meant I needed to learn much, much more than what I had gleaned over the years from watching samurai movies and eating sticky rice with chopsticks. It has been and continues to be an amazing adventure of awe, beauty, inspiration and discovery. My sister’s book is a wonderful tale of a little girl’s fanciful imagination filled with mythical and magical creatures.I wanted to create illustrations for The Lotus Monster that both entertain and enlighten the reader, bringing Quinlan’s imagination to life while staying true to the ideals of Japan. As I researched for the illustrations, I shared my new found discoveries with my sister. Here are a few fun little facts we both learned that I’d like to share with you. Japanese dragons don’t have wings but can fly. They don’t breathe fire but are generally benevolent water deities, and unlike Chinese dragons that are five-toed, Japanese dragons only have three toes on each foot. In Japanese lore, foxes or kitsune are magical shape-shifting creatures. Most often, a kitsune will change into a beautiful woman. They can live 1000 years, becoming wiser and more powerful with every passing century. Along with wisdom and power, they also grow a new tail 100 years, having as many as nine tails. A unique little fellow to Japan is the tanuki, also known as a Raccoon Dog. A tanuki is neither a raccoon nor a dog,
ut an animal species singular to Japan. In the tales of Japan, like the kitsune, tanuki possess magical powers and like to transform into teapots. They can be tricksters or they can be wise. In the Lotus Monster, our Tanuki is very wise, indeed. The last words of The Lotus Monster are “the end”, but my artistic journey is will never end. I am truly grateful for the opportunity to share this part of the journey with you
Page 3 and 4: The Lotus Monster By Judy Burns Ill
Page 5 and 6: This book is dedicated to: Toshiro,
Page 7 and 8: In the morning, she pretended she r
Page 9 and 10: ’“What’s wrong?” Momma (oka
Page 11 and 12: “Real.” Was all Quinlan would s
Page 13 and 14: The Good Little Fish Is Caught
Page 15 and 16: It’s very hard to swim upstream.
Page 17 and 18: That very day, the dragon went to t
Page 19 and 20: The Famous Kintai Bridge Quinlan fo
Page 21 and 22: t The Torii Gate Foxes
Page 23 and 24: Momma Brings Inari Sushi For Lunch
Page 25 and 26: The Kind Farmer And The Nine-Tailed
Page 27 and 28: With that, she rose into the air, a
Page 29 and 30: Quinlan Eyes the Monster Tanuki Che
Page 31 and 32: Toshi looked very proud. Even Quinl
Page 33 and 34: The Priest and the Begging Pot In o
Page 35 and 36: shrine and the pot. One day his pra
Page 37 and 38: The old priest, however, took time
Page 39 and 40: “Why did you feed this child toad
Page 41 and 42: Please Stay With Me, Tanuki-san bow
Page 43 and 44: The Emperor kept his promise, and t
Page 45 and 46: The children screamed… and then l
Page 47: ed bibs. It took another five years

The Lotus Monster Book

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?