The Guardian

The Guardian, done with micron ink on 8.5 x 11 cardstock paper.

     This was my pointillism piece! I was pretty dead set on doing a Foo-Dog, so I actually went to a Chinese restaurant and took photos of the Foo dogs outside of their restaurant (since at the time we were only using our own photographs). I basically upped the contrast on the original photograph to bring out the shadows, then printed it as a reference. Afterwards I lightly dotted onto the cardstock in pencil to get his shape down (this was truly done completely in dots), before I went in with ink. I used different Micron and sharpy sizes. This piece took a LONG time to get in all the details, and nearly drove me mad. But I can't complain, as I really like how the end result came out.
 
     I think this piece has a strong sense of unity, since the statue is on its own. I added the spirit-like wisps to give it a little more variety, though I think the detail and texture add a lot to it on its own (hopefully). As I said, it's all dots, no line! It's a monochrome piece and asymmetrical.

Here's a tidbit on Foo Dogs, which I posted back before on its photograph:

 "The guardian lions  are always presented in pairs, a manifestation of yin and yang, the female representing yin and the male yang. The male lion has its right front paw on an embroidered ball called a "xiù qiú" (绣球), which is sometimes carved with a geometric pattern resembling the figure called "Flower of Life" in the New Age movement. The female is essentially identical, but has a cub under the closer (left) paw to the male, representing the cycle of life. Symbolically, the female fu lion protects those dwelling inside, while the male guards the structure. Sometimes the female has her mouth closed, and the male open. This symbolizes the enunciation of the sacred word "om". However, Japanese adaptions state that the male is inhaling, representing life, while the female exhales, representing death."