Illustration for a tri-fold A4 card for a red letter day to celebrate the Night Parade of One Hundred Demons (Hyakki Yagyou, 百鬼夜行) - a night event when all of supernatural creatures leave their homes to parade through the streets of Japan.
Working on a tri-fold A4 format, I tried to be mindful of the way the composition spreading evenly across three panels. The main focus was on a few of iconic mythological figures in the parade.
From sketches to final work
Inspired by the game Onmyoji (2016, NetEase), which is based on Japanese folklore and mythology, I chose the Night Parade of One Hundred Demons as the theme for my red letter day.
The challenge was figuring out how to depict a parade of one hundred characters on an A4 canvas. Then I thought, “It doesn’t have to be literally one hundred demons walking. People might get the idea with just the title and a few well-known demons.” So instead, I focused on creating a more dynamic composition.
Transferring the sketch from paper to Illustrator actually took less time than choosing the right colour palette. I already had a clear art style in mind (flat shapes, no outlines, limited colours), but didn’t land on the right palette immediately. I tried a combo I thought would be interesting (pink and blue), saw it clashed horribly with the setting, gave up, and experimented with Adobe’s recolour presets. Fortunately, it turned out great! Then the real headache was fine-tuning which specific colour went where. This led to the change of some elements in the background compared with the first sketch to avoid clutters at the right side.
Work in Progress
Final Work
