The coloring and addition of the texture are done. The title is "Underwater Rainbow".

I am fortunate to receive a bundle of washi paper from my friend. The washi is 50 years old, and made by one of the master paper makers in Yoshino, Nara. There is a Japanese webpage of the maker: http://kuzunosato.jp/self/fukunishi.html

I transferred my new drawing onto the washi. Drawing on it with sumi brush was smooth and very nice.

Next step is to add textures and colors to the drawing on computer.

The haiku here is a bit idealistic, but who knows, it might actually happen in the future. We just keep on praying.

A friend of mine, who visited Kyoto recently, sent me this photo of Sanzen-In  Temple, of Ohara area. The temple is situated deep in the mountain, away from the city center of Kyoto. The photo captured well the beauty of the temple garden, and the atmosphere around it. The small stone buddha statue adds an interesting focal point to the photo.
I added the haiku to it.

A friend of mine sent to me two photos of the spiral. I combined them together and adjusted colors with the Photoshop. I came up with the haiku after I finished making the image.

The painting is done. What I wrote in yesterday's blog in mind, I added textures and colors to the drawing. Prior to doing the painting, I made several new textures with the watercolor. They are used in the area of the volcano and the turbulent waves.

The volcanic eruption.
I have been always fascinated by the scenes in which lava flows into the ocean. Hot lava meets cool sea water, and enormous steam explosions follow. There must be great amount of energy being generated there, and they bring about chemical changes in both lava and sea water, which I think, is the very beginning of creation of life forms. With this idea in mind, I made this sumi ink drawing for the next painting.

I finished the Pele theme painting. Though Pele, the Hawaiian goddess, is the main subject here, I wanted to show in this painting the creation of the islands themselves, which took long long time to be what they are now. The creation of the islands continues to go on, even till today.

How grateful ! -
islands let us
live on them

Kilauea volcano has become active again, and is causing some damage to the locale. I am sorry to hear about this news. The Hawaiian islands, however, were created by volcanic activities. Volcanos created the islands, in other words. Hawaiian legend attributes it to Pele, the Hawaiian goddess.

My drawing's theme is Pele and its creation. Pele provides volcanic energy, fire, wind, and lightning. I included all these elements in the drawing. I have started coloring it, and perhaps I will post the finished painting tomorrow.

It is May, in the middle of Golden Week here in Jp. Sakura flowers are long gone, but now azalea flowers are everywhere. I happened to see some of them on the ground, and they reminded me of my drawing of volcano.
I picked up some and brought them back to my room. I then arranged them like in the photograph. Blue water is the watercolor. I used pistils of the flowers for the arms, which I did with Photoshop.

A good photograph stands alone, necessitating no more addition. The original photo of this photo haiga was like that; well focused spiral in front and wonderfully blurred background.

But when the photo is combined with haiku, something becomes necessary. In this case, I added another spiral to the original to get the image of tangled string.

Pele, the Fire Goddess, is the goddess of fire, lightning, wind, and volcanos. Also the creator of the Hawaiian islands.

A friend of mine sent me a few photographs of interesting leaves. The leaves were mostly greenish when I got them. I assembled them, and changed colors with the Photoshop. Also I filled some areas with similar leaves. In the process, theme of Pele emerged because the image resembled some kind of house or shrine, with the symmetry and all. I, of course, composed the image a bit off the symmetry to allow some movement in the image.

I was born in the year of ox, and that is why a friend of mine gave me a tiny ox figure some time ago.

Today, I had an errand to run, to the next city. I took my camera with me, thinking I might find something interesting to shoot on the way and back. In the bag was this figure. I did not find anything that interested my eyes. I did find a patch of grass, though, at my destination, and that was how this pic came about.

On the computer, I selected the area other than the ox figure, blurred it and enhanced the colors.