4 - Yurei
vision/concept, influences, work in progress pictures
Written Sept 13th, 2023, covering art from May 4th 2021 - Jun 4th, 2021
Yurei are a broad category of yōkai that I would generally define as being a haunting spirit or ghost. A lot of yurei are female, and the term yurei literally means 'dim soul' or 'faint spirit.' I like to think of yurei as closer to the western concept of "ghost" than other yōkai, which could be supernatural or a creature. Yurei may be trapped on earth for some reason, having been wronged, or their soul just unable to rest. More on the difference/relationship between yurei and yōkai here!
CONCEPT:
This yurei I wanted to be generally female, and the focus being her full of despair. I asked Jami if we should put this distraught figure in any particular setting, and she suggested we just have papers fluttering around, representing both medical paperwork (specifically) and the chaos of small cutting tasks (generally).
I posed the yurei to be in anguish, tearing at her chest. The model was Kristi, my sister. I told her to pose as if she was wailing or grieving or had been wronged.
I asked kristi this week if she wanted to add anything to the public record about her modeling experience and she said: You can use the pull quotes:
“Cori told me I didn’t look anguished enough”
“More terror less sad”
“There’s no hell worse than propping your phone up on a bookshelf to take selfies of yourself fake screaming”
Thank you kristi for posing for me!!!
INFLUENCES:
The Ghost of Oyuki by Maruyama Ōkyo 1750
Yurei entry from Toriyama Sekein’s Hyakki Yagyo
Also when people would fold the robes of the dead in the opposite way than the living, so I made kristi's robe with Right over Left.
PROCESS PHOTOS
initial research doodles. yurei on the top.
my final sketch. with general pose and features.
Midway painting shot. I felt like the background felt too cluttered. I wanted to paint her "tail" or transparent base so that you could see the black pattern behind her, but it ended up feeling too cluttered with the pieces of paper. If i could do it again, I wouldn't put those black patterns at the base of kristi's tail, they ended up just confusing her shape.
final painting, cut out with an xacto knife. The rings were kristi's that she was wearing a lot at the time of the reference photos. She had made the rings herself in a metalsmithing class, and I liked the symmetry of the middle fingers, so emphasized them in the final painting. I feel like they allude to like... being bound to something.
Key Memories?
I had been reading a lot of Yо̄kai: Ghosts, Demons, and Monsters of Japan, edited by Felicia Katz-Harris when making these initial 4 yōkai, and thinking a lot about...
1) yōkai as a lens to think about cultures dealing with the unexplainable, or the unknown
2) Thinking about yokai and oni in relation to Japanese Nationalism mythology
