Tea Boxes

For my core illustration class, we had to design a set of tea boxes for Starbucks, based on legends from India, Japan and China. The legends we were given were, frankly, uninspiring, so I searched around for some that I thought would work better together--and so that I could use celestial imagery for the toppers.

The rabbit is based on "The Rabbit in the Moon" legend, which is general to Japan, China and Korea, but we didn't really have to do a write up, so I guess I cheated a bit in that regard. I originally had a goddess to go with it, since that is part of the legend, but my Professor suggested that maybe it would be too much. (I agree!)

That hair would have been really fun to render, though. Woe, alas.







This one got really dumbed-down due to time constraints. It's based on an Indian legend about the mother star, and her children--two who are ungrateful and do not bring her back gifts from their journeys, and one who brings her back food, hidden under her fingernails. Got a little lost in translation, here.
This one was based on the legend of the Monkey King. I think this is my favourite out of the three, mostly because it has the most energy. Good flow.

The drawings for this were all done in pencil and ink. It's a style I think I need to explore more, because I think it reads really nicely when it's all composited together digitally. (Can't escape the digital, I really can't.) It's a really great way of getting the tones down, too, and then colorizing.

It was a worthwhile project, overall.