Size: 57W x 78H
Backing: Aida Cloth, 18-gauge
Finished Size: 3.25" x ~4.5"
Time Frame: days

This picture comes from one of my favorite anime sources, Fushigi Yuugi. An outwardly cheerful Buddhist monk/sorcerer, Chichiri tends to show up in super-deformed mode pretty often in both anime and manga form. His outfit is surprisingly full of color, so I wanted to recreate that to a large degree in this pattern, with lots of contrasting vivid colors and a little gold to make his staff sparkle. The linework for this one was completely freehand, but there are a lot of simple and modified geometric shapes in the original design, like the crescents in his cloak and the interlocking rings of his staff. Getting the hair to have that soft-but-spiky look was kind of a challenge, but a bit of variation in color helped lend a layered look.