newjackcole

Lion Gohma -- Fruiting Ruins

Added 2022-07-12 16:00:06 +0000 UTC

The Gohma have multiple aspects of what they represent. The Lions embody subconsciousness which I most often depict in it's more feral form like some combination between Zeus and Pan, but they also embody more chaste and austere aspects like figures from what I would call "Teacher Religions" and I think are called "Revealed Faiths" e.g. Christianity, Buddhism, Zorastrianism, etc.

This Lion here is closer to the end of the spectrum I just described. The other symbols in the picture are fairly nascent, I have an inkling of the direction they might develop, but I'm not sure what meaning I would attach to them yet, or what they would actually do.

I recently got obsessed with engravings and was analyzing them and trying to figure out how they get this sort of "sculptural" quality, and realized it comes from having linework that curves over the figure, and where that linework actually goes is over the halftones. So having darker objects or objects in shadow is what allows opportunity to render surface, while lighter areas are best left sparse or without lines.

This was inked on 11x17in bristol paper, and I had no idea whether it would turn out well so I didn't document any of the stages.