I was reading some  of the Chinese folk tales and there’s not a lot that caught my attention maybe it’s the way the story was translated but it was very difficult to read, therefore I started to research some old Chinese cartoons that I would watch as a child and one of them being the “Calabash Brothers” there’s another name for them in Chinese but I don’t remember since I only vaguely recall this show.

The more I research about these shows the more I feel inclined to incorporate some of the style and color from that time. Their movements are very similar to how shadow puppets move and there’s something engaging about that to me for some reason.  The color and character design is also very pretty and is very reminiscent of  Chinese opera.

I also found an article about the significance and symbol of color and what it represents in Chinese Opera in terms of expressing the personality of a character you would see on stage.

China | The Colorful Masks of the Chinese Opera

red symbolizes heroism, intelligence, and loyalty and it’s overall a positive color, while purple is also used to represent many of the positive traits attached to red as well.

Purple can also represent nobleness, justice, and respect.

Black is neutral.

Blue is often used to show the character is a young and spirited person and maybe rash as well.

The article only mentioned a couple of colors but Chinese opera takes the meaning and inspiration from Feng Shui.

I know for sure that I want to incorporate the color red but I also want varies shades of blues and greens as well.

Also found another video of an old animated short.

I think I’m starting to lean towards an interactive online storybook where the viewers can watch a story take place by clicking on certain things and by clicking on a certain item it will play a very short video and I want to animate it the way it is animated in both the videos I have attached on here.

I think these types of movements can easily be achieved in after effects. I also am starting to lean towards designing the characters in illustrator and exporting the characters into photoshop for added textures.

Since I am Chinese I wanted to do something that is related to me and has made an impact on me as a child and one of them is Chinese folklore.

One of them is called the “Moon Rabbit”, or “Jade Rabbit”

https://owlcation.com/social-sciences/moon-rabbit

This is another version of the Jade Rabbit in the link above there is also a short story of the japanese version of the Moon/Jade rabbit but the moon god is the jade emperor  instead.

http://www.shenyunperformingarts.org/learn/article/read/item/9g-WPxuH_YU/white-jade-rabbit-goddess-of-the-moon.html

I will continue to search for more Chinese folklore/ stories but if nothing else clicks I plan on illustrating a rendition of the story “Journey to the West”

Below is a very old cartoon of the monkey king a character from Journey to the West.

I really like the color palette from old Chinese animated films so I plan on incorporating some of those aesthetics into my digital paintings as well.