The Spirit of the Deer
The Spirit of the Deer went through a series of stages, as creation often does. The artboard kept growing in size as elements became larger and larger in design. And this creation process flowed from one component to another, never using any thumbnails or per-concept art.
This piece invokes a mental image I had with no real background as to why it was seen: a deer with flowers and lights strung between its antlers. Cherry blossoms are always a default of mine, these specifically being the shrub Yuki Cherry Blossom Deutzia, which, ironically, naturally resists deer. The lanterns were added much later in production, as I was unsure of including them or not.
In Japanese, the title on the left says “The Spirit of the Deer,” however it I have this specifically referring to the subject being a female—I realize that female deer don’t have antlers, and so it is what it is. The haiku on the right:
The snow of yesterday
That fell like cherry blossoms
Is water once again*
That fell like cherry blossoms
Is water once again*
This haiku was found post deer/flower creation and well into the design (courtesy of 12 Haiku That Reflect on Zen Buddhism). It was written by Gozan in 1789, at the age of 71. The haiku channels the cycle of life belief (in Zen Buddhism). In Ancient Egypt, the scarab beetle represented the same theory, especially paired with the sundisk, as it pushed its dung ball forward—this being the same symbology of the sun dying in the West every evening and being reborn the next morning. (Re & Khepri.) I find rebirth to be an interesting concept, and considering this haiku came about after I had included the Japanese rising sun motif into my design, it seemed quite apt.
Though I’m not entirely spiritual, I consider all beings to have spirits, especially animals. However, plants also conjure a metaphysical and almost sacred belief within me, as the flowers, fruits and vegetables are seed-ridden and seek to bring forth life, enabling rebirth. On that note, save the bees!
As this ventured closer and closer to a Japanese themed piece, as did the element of adding familiar imagery: traditional motifs, cranes, fans, beads, and a scroll. Though the knot work may not be inherently Japanese, it felt necessary to the design. There were hopes of creating and adding origami with traditional origami patterns as well, I felt this would add too many extraneous details that would divert from the deer as being the central focus. After adding the text, it transitioned into something similar to a Japanese billboard sign or advertisement, I can somewhat picture this being an enormous and backlit display, accented with neon. A strange mashing of nature and cold mechanics, spiritless if you will. A visual representation of yin yang perhaps.
The cranes combined most likely took the most amount of time—with 1,673 paths (7%) between the two of them, as each path was penned by hand, and each separate section (for instance, of the wings) includes clipping masks and many fading gradients. Each of the peony’s petals is filled with separate blends of a specific palette, to range from dark to light, without requiring the use of gradients to do so. The deer is the same. (Though there are plenty of gradients involved in this piece.)
This piece would not have been possible without understanding the ability of transparency masks. Similar to clipping masks, these are much more versatile and overall easier to work with. I did not want to separate the leaves and flowers and have multiple layers of each just to weave them in and out of the antlers (as well as separating the antler pieces). In fact, in the document, both of the leaves and flowers layers are placed above the antlers layer, and thanks to transparency masks, it made this entire look possible.
*The translation of this haiku was through Google Translate and seemed to have been legitimately translated. However, it may be horribly incorrect. If it is, please let me know in the comments and I can how to fix it. Thanks!
Details
The itty-bitties
Artboard size — 10,721 x 10,859 pixels, 148.9"x150.8", 12'x12" — in other words, massive
Layers — 19
File size — 33.1mb
Paths — 12,086 (4,339 open, 7,747 closed)
Points — 191,670
Points — 191,670
Compound paths — 490
Blends — 239
Clipping masks — 339
Opacity masks — 109
Transparent objects — 1,754
Stars in sky — 3,627, individually placed
Date created — September 19, 2020
Approximate time spent — I wish somehow Illustrator could calculate this as I have no clue, but as an utter guestimation, perhaps at least a solid 100 hours, and most likely double that.
