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Description
Let me die in spring
under the blossoming trees,
let it be around
that full moon of
Kisaragi month

Poem by Saigyō (12th century Japanese poet)

Detalis:

I have been watching Taira no Kiomori taiga drama and one of the characters there is poet Saigyō. That made me look into his poems - the one cited above is one of his best known poems. Also, in the same series, there is a scene where Saigyō is sitting in the porch of traditional house, it is snowing outside and plum trees and blooming. All of these things together inspired me to have this image that I tried to best to bring to life.

Plum blossoms are not as famous as cherry blossoms in Japan but for me, they were more beautiful. They bloomed earlier - sometimes even January, usually around February. It is still winter - plants are dead. But then you will have these bare trees and those gorgeous pink blooms - for me it was the sight of true beauty (the first time I saw plum blossoms was in my favorite garden - I had no idea that plums are blooming at that time. I just went there every now and then.. at the back of the garden, there is area of trees that I never bothered with - they are just green in the summer, bare in the winter.. but these "no special looking trees" were plum trees and when everything else in the garden was still dead, the area was covered with pink plums - literally, it took my breath away). So I would think plum blossoms are even more precious as they are the only thing in the middle of the winter, reminding that spring is soon to come..

The image took me 2 full days of non-stop work from morning till evening. I had this clear vision and finding the stock was nightmare - in many cases, I gave up and just draw the details or items I needed as finding what I had in mind was just hopeless.

I started with the scene - I set up the sliding doors, the floors. Then I started to build the plum trees - branch at the time and adding the blossoms. I think that was the moment I actually started to believe I might finish this vision that I have in my head. The model was nightmare as I had specific pose in my mind but very few people are offering stock shots of model's backs. Anyway, I built it together from multiple shot, rest that I could not get, I just painted. On the second day, I spent ridiculous amount of time paining calligraphy set and brushes. I wanted to have the poem in the scroll there so it all started with that idea. Then I felt that for symmetry I need some more details to the right side and spent again, way too much time, with kettle and bowl of matcha. And then, it was only the background left that I scared the most. I wanted it to be light but with some details still. In the end, after many failed ideas, it somehow worked. And.. the image is done

Falln-stock | coward_lion | PixHound | olegkruglyak3 | Pituk | 29mokara | MrWirot | Zhang | Zhang | chikarat | hakkousei | kathayut | simone_n | simone_n | riyat | Grant Tiffen | fofo* | svetlanakononov7 | PrintingSociety | David Carillet | tuayai | | Vladimir | + personal

Description
Let me die in spring
under the blossoming trees,
let it be around
that full moon of
Kisaragi month

Poem by Saigyō (12th century Japanese poet)

Detalis:

I have been watching Taira no Kiomori taiga drama and one of the characters there is poet Saigyō. That made me look into his poems - the one cited above is one of his best known poems. Also, in the same series, there is a scene where Saigyō is sitting in the porch of traditional house, it is snowing outside and plum trees and blooming. All of these things together inspired me to have this image that I tried to best to bring to life.

Plum blossoms are not as famous as cherry blossoms in Japan but for me, they were more beautiful. They bloomed earlier - sometimes even January, usually around February. It is still winter - plants are dead. But then you will have these bare trees and those gorgeous pink blooms - for me it was the sight of true beauty (the first time I saw plum blossoms was in my favorite garden - I had no idea that plums are blooming at that time. I just went there every now and then.. at the back of the garden, there is area of trees that I never bothered with - they are just green in the summer, bare in the winter.. but these "no special looking trees" were plum trees and when everything else in the garden was still dead, the area was covered with pink plums - literally, it took my breath away). So I would think plum blossoms are even more precious as they are the only thing in the middle of the winter, reminding that spring is soon to come..

The image took me 2 full days of non-stop work from morning till evening. I had this clear vision and finding the stock was nightmare - in many cases, I gave up and just draw the details or items I needed as finding what I had in mind was just hopeless.

I started with the scene - I set up the sliding doors, the floors. Then I started to build the plum trees - branch at the time and adding the blossoms. I think that was the moment I actually started to believe I might finish this vision that I have in my head. The model was nightmare as I had specific pose in my mind but very few people are offering stock shots of model's backs. Anyway, I built it together from multiple shot, rest that I could not get, I just painted. On the second day, I spent ridiculous amount of time paining calligraphy set and brushes. I wanted to have the poem in the scroll there so it all started with that idea. Then I felt that for symmetry I need some more details to the right side and spent again, way too much time, with kettle and bowl of matcha. And then, it was only the background left that I scared the most. I wanted it to be light but with some details still. In the end, after many failed ideas, it somehow worked. And.. the image is done

Falln-stock | coward_lion | PixHound | olegkruglyak3 | Pituk | 29mokara | MrWirot | Zhang | Zhang | chikarat | hakkousei | kathayut | simone_n | simone_n | riyat | Grant Tiffen | fofo* | svetlanakononov7 | PrintingSociety | David Carillet | tuayai | | Vladimir | + personal