Struggling a bit as of late to carve out the time to actually make art at the moment, either not having the schedule or not having the tools - but when all else fails, there is no excuse to just grab a pencil and sketchbook and just start jamming in there. It helps nowadays to 'declog' my mind with the current increase of brain trash - things and concerns that I need to learn to not worry myself with as they only inevitably lead to demotivation and a dent into creativity...which only demotivates more, and with less and less productivity, you kinda slip into a spiral. So priorities right now are getting out of that rut, and into a calmer, fulfilled and productive mindset.
One of my personal projects on the side to help keep my sanity is a illustrative guidebook to creatures and beings from myth and folklore; after being somewhat inspired by Jorge Luis Borges' 'Book of Imaginary Beings'. It's a great means to put in some research and reading into a creature and putting my own spin on how it looked, which really floats my boat.
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Starting at the very beginning is the 'A Bao A Qu' - a creature often left out of the traditional creature books which made the depiction of it all the more fun. The A Bao A Qu was an immortal entity from Malay mythology, which was said to reside within the Tower of Victory in Chittorgarh, India. This alien like creature slumbered at the base of the Tower's spiraled staircase, only awoken when a man begins to climb the stairs in the pursuit of reaching the top, where he will achieve the state of Nirvana. The A Bao A Qu closely and somewhat curiously follows the man, in a shapeless and translucent state, giving off a blue glow - becoming more defined, solid and colourful as the pair progress further and further up the Tower. As the climber becomes closer to achieving Nirvana, so does the A Bao A Qu become closer to reaching its perfect form; contorting and bending from it's multiple forms.
However, the climber almost always fails to reach the top of the Tower, and when the A Bao A Qu realizes this, it shrinks back, losing colour and form that it had developed, before falling down the staircase to the entrance again, where it again takes its shapeless and sleeping shape.
It is said that the A Bao A Qu's cry of failure is so soft it is as the rustling of silk, and when touched, it feels like the fuzz on the skin of a peach.
