ic1.deviantart.com/fs14/i/2007/096/4/6/equa_style__Okami_Yama_Autumn_by_extvia.jpg
Description
Okami Hill Autumn
This is an early work from my now discontinued Oasis series. The white wolf in the picture is called Hikari (Hikari Okami). The background is a hill pass to a Shinto shrine during autumn. Hikari is the shrine’s maiden.
You can clearly tell from the name and settings that I was heavily influenced by Japanese culture, namely a video game called Okami developed by Capcom at the time. Over the years, I would lean increasingly towards Chinese culture to align with my national identity.
In my early works, I usually drew heads too big. But for some reason, Hikari never suffered from this problem. She looks tall and balanced in this picture, as I intended her to be. Although my art skill was primitive at the time, the picture still looks okay as a whole. Maybe I was able to focus on the creative process, unlike later in 2012 – 2022 during my low period.
The Oasis series started around 2000. It featured cute anthropomorphic animal characters, detailed backgrounds where civilization mixed with nature, and a relaxed atmosphere.
My art skills were severely lacking at the time. Most artworks in Oasis series failed to reflect what was in my mind, and they looked terrible today. Only a few good ones were kept in the gallery.
Oasis also lacked world building, and there was no story. Its focus on cute characters and relaxed life felt like a project of escapism.
At the beginning of 2024, Oasis was replaced by Spirit Animals in Disguise, a project with much clearer intent.
I never drew Hikari again after 2008, because I thought it was inappropriate to use the name of other nation’s genesis god in my characters. I also didn’t want to pay such a heavy homage to Okami the video game. But Hikari’s design elements were later split and developed into many new characters including: Hikari the Spirit Dog, Tianlu the Spirit Lion, Qiuye the Spirit Dhole, Yanhua the Spirit Wolf, etc.
Original
大神山的秋天
这是个人早期作品系列“绿洲镇”的其中一张图。描绘了日本某处深山的秋季景色。图中的白狼叫“大神光”，是建在这座山中的“大神神社”的巫女。
大神光的设定应该是受到了卡普空游戏“大神”的影响，一开始可以看作是游戏主角白狼白野威的拟人版。不过在画这张图的时候小光的人物形象已经和原作拉开了一段距离了，采用的是“祖先是历史著名神道教巫女”的设定。从人物的造型、名字、场景就可以看出当时我还没有发展出对民族文化的自觉，依然处在一种懵懂的对当时强势外来文化的憧憬中。
我的早期作品中人物的头身比例总是画得太小，但不知道为什么这张图中小光的比例却非常平衡，甚至好像所有小光的图的比例都很平衡，我也不知道为什么。这张图虽然细节很随便，技术也很初级，但整体的画面感却很经得起时间考验。或许当时我的创作心态非常好，不像后来那样胡思乱想一些创作以外的事情吧。
“绿洲镇”是 2000 年前后就开始存在的概念，它的主要卖点有两个：纯兽人类的角色、自然与文明交融的背景。与当时的许多以兽人为创作对象的系列作品一样，它构思一些远离都市喧嚣的舞台，描绘可爱的兽人和美景，也就是所谓的“治愈系”。
因为当时我的美术功底不行，绿洲镇系列的大部分都没有表现出我心目中想象的景色。留下来的少数几张效果比较好的带有很大的运气成分在里面。而且对于“纯兽人”的执着，说不定只是因为我当时没有人体基础，画兽人可能比较容易糊弄过去？
绿洲镇始终缺乏一个清晰的世界观设定，反复登场的角色也没有明确的个性，也没有一个想要通过此作品表达何种思想的故事。我一直以来只是笼统地将所有不是机器人的画归类到它下面。或许它只是代表我早期创作中的某种“逃避主义”的想法吧。
2024 年初，绿洲镇终于被概念更加明确的“千变灵兽”系列所取代。
大神光这个角色因为“名字太大”，加上致敬嫌疑太重，2008 年之后就没有再画了。但是她的要素经过拆分、发展为了多个其他角色。灵犬白神比嘉利、灵狮史天禄、灵豺木秋叶、灵狼火炎华等角色都是从小光这条线上发展出来的。
Uploader's note:
To avoid possibly disrupting the post ID of very old work, especially:
post #12345 , which was also Tyson Tan's work, I'm uploading this high quality version as a child post.
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