Feathered Kaiju....

Rainbow Mothra: Wave Hopping

(16x20", Oil on Stretched Canvas)  Price: $800.00

It's been nearly thirteen years since I last painted Mothra. Mothra is a Japanese 'monster' or kaiju from the original Godzilla canon. Since then, Mothra was given its own three-movie series during the late 90s/early 2000s, collectively called REBIRTH OF MOTHRA I, II, and III. During the multiple metamorphoses Mothra goes through, one of them is the gorgeously coloured 'Rainbow Mothra'. At the beginning of the third movie installment, Mothra is seen zooming across the oceans with dolphins in the water below. That image resonated with me and I painted 'Rainbow Mothra: Racing with the Dolphins' back in 2000. Since it's Godzilla's 60th anniversary/birthday this year, I thought I'd dip my creative toe back in the kaiju universe and paint Mothra once again.

This is the original design sketch. I had a lot of fun doodling Mothra, but it wasn't until I started painting it, did I notice that during the sketch process, I had made its upper wing fuller than the source photo, and the head is tucked in a little more.

Painting process has well and truly begun by the time I got around to taking process photos. The background went in in one sitting with lots of big brushes and noodling of paint. I tackled painting in all of the black bits during the second session and let them dry so that when I began laying in colour, they wouldn't get lost.  I started applying colour to the wings during the third session. And you can notice here how much fuller the wing is than the source photo. I kind of liked how it worked out.

Bottom wing is accomplished and the white bits have started to be brushed in. This Mothra was VERY furry and fluffy, with furry legs as well. Lots of nice smooshing work.

Here is my painting table during the process. 

This is the last easel photo....with the painting finally complete. The dolphins came out a little impressionistic, but they seem to suit their environment very well.

I'm rather pleased with the finished painting. My palette contained the usual suspects: Cobalt Blue, French Ultramarine, Burnt Sienna, Cadmium Lemon, Viridian, Titanium White, Cadmium Orange Hue, and a tiny bit of Aliziran Crimson. Big brushes to begin with, then some smaller rounds: Size 2, 5, and 1.

Thanks for stopping by.

Cheers,

Marianne