Talk:Shirohebi/@comment-27144834-20160322035031

Making of Shirohebi!

Key words:

【Pure White Lamia】【Miko Outfit】【Image of Fire and Water】【Yūgen】

The lamia species particular to Zipangu, it's Shirohebi-san.

Basing her around the color white was of course decided from the very beginning, but the first step of her design was finding the appropriate design for her kimono. Past that, I began considering things like hair ornaments.

In the original story, the White Snake was a divine messenger, a symbol of good fortune, representitive of a water deity, there were all these different sorts of elements. In the setting she is a Miko, serving the water god of the encyclopedia world, "Ryu".

Additionally, the Monster Girl Encyclopedia's Shirohebi was also given traits of Kiyohime.

As the story goes, a priest betrayed Kiyohime's feelings and fled from her, and she pursued him, turning into a large serpent. The priest fled underneath a bell, and Kiyohime coiled around the bell, and melted it and the priest with a great belch of flame.

Their ability to manipulate flames that will cause someone to burn with lust was inspired by this tale.

As someone whose nature is of both water and fire, their disposition gives a quiet and modest impression, like a still lake, but possessed underneath by a raging firestorm of intense passion. Causing fires only to put them out with their own water, they're the "match-pump" monster girl. (a japanese idiom meaning someone who purposefully starts problems, only to solve them for their own profit).

Set on having her dressed as a Miko, the resulting design was comparatively very simple and finished quickly. I wanted to show her shoulders! I opened up her hakama some to show off the boundary between her scales and her upper body. I also wanted her to have an exposed belly button. A kind of skimpy reimagining of Miko clothing, if you will.

Though the central color of her design is white, in the image the whites subtly gradate into beautiful blue shimmers, emanated by her flames. She needed to truly exemplify the essence of "yūgen", and thus her design needed an air of subtle profundity. I believe that the design of water and blue flames resulted in a good match!

The color of her underbelly doesn't quite match the concept of "Pure White", and purple stands out pretty sharply against it. To emphasize the "white-ness", I painted her skin in strong pink tones. Going back to hair ornaments... I simply felt that at this stage, it would ruin the purity of her design, and I abandoned the idea.

By the way, her waist band is tightened firmly, emphasizing her breasts, and making her clothes wrinkle around the bottom of her boobs. Just a nice little point!