21 Tara's and Vajrapani

[Fred vanderZee]

I have been working on two pieces lately: an image of the 21 Tara's and the protector demon Vajrapani.
The 21 Tara's are actually 22: the main one in the middle is not included. All have a little image of their spiritual father Amitabha in their crown, fully detailed but only visible when you zoom in. So that makes for 44 highly detailed images and a whopping 77 MB file. Only vectors, mind you.

Vajrapani is the protector of the naga's you see in the lower area. They eventually will have different colours; I will also add water ripples and a little island for the dharma wheel in the middle. This wheel is a reference to the Buddhist teachings, of which Vajrapani is the protector.
In case you wonder what the rainy clouds are doing up there: the naga's control the weather - both rain and drought.

Both are still works in progress, of course.

[gwpriester]

WOW!!! Feather tool on the flames applied to a second lighter shape?

[Fred vanderZee]

First I used an elliptical fill from bright yellow > orange > dark red over the entire flame structure.
Step 2: for each flame, I drew a separate form with a bright red, with linear transparancy from the top of the flame inwards (mostly down/left).
Last step: I cloned the form from step 2, filled it with bright yellow, feathered it and used a linear transparency as in the bright red.

Played a bit with the transparency settings to make the flames not too equal.

There's a lot of flames

[Fred vanderZee]

Here are two versions (white and blue) of the naga's. Still working on the gold on the garments and the snake details.

[Turoks]

OMG, hats off, i can't stop looking at it, could you share the final image once you finish it? Thanks, keep the good work.

[Fred vanderZee]

Thanks Turok, will keep you in the loop!

[sculptex]

Absolutely stunning!

Your style looks so familiar, then I looked on your Facebook page and noticed Lama Yeshe mentioned, so I guess I may have seen some of your works in the Samye lineage?

[Fred vanderZee]

You might. I really like the clearness of lines and the strong colours of the lineage. Although the Newari style of thangkas can be also very beautiful, it is a little too soft for me.