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Vyrilien — Byakko
Published: 2007-12-31 13:19:06 +0000 UTC; Views: 116093; Favourites: 4605; Downloads: 14180
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Description
Also known as the White Tiger of the West 西方白虎
Byakko (or Bai Hu in Chinese) is one of the Four Symbols of the Chinese Constellation, along with Genbu (Black Tortoise) Seiryuu (Blue Dragon) and Suzaku (Red Sparrow). Byakko represents the West, the autumn season and the element of Metal (Wind in the Japanese system).
I love the Four Symbols and I've always wanted to paint them, but for some reason it never turned out quite like I wanted to (I have a failed Suzaku gathering dust somewhere in the dark crevices of my harddisc) And it just so happened that I recently mentioned my account to friends of mine and my Mom suggested me to draw a tiger (since I love those so much) Then, my brother forced me to draw a decent Background for once (as you can see I cheated
) and this is what came out. It has my Mom's approval, so this one is good enough to submit 
Took me a damn while to get the head to look good, but I'm pleased with the result. I used the same colour scheme and used the same dodge technique (though not as much) as I've used in 'Ophis Astra'. Since that piece turned out to be the most popular thing in my gallery I figured I gave the sky thing another try.
Oh and just a tidbit more about Byakko which I shamelessly copied from Wikipedia
During the Han Dynasty, people believed the tiger to be the king of all beasts. Legend had it that when a tiger reached 500 years old, its tail would turn white. In this way, the white tiger became a mythological creature. It was said that the white tiger would only appear when the emperor ruled with absolute virtue, or if there was peace throughout the world. Because the color white of the Chinese five elements also represents the west, the white tiger thus became a mythological guardian of the west.
Enough rambling now. I hope you like it!
~Vyrilien
Medium: Painter 2, PS (for the dodge tool), Wacom Tablet
Time taken: I'd say an hour or six
Other parts in the Series (Four Symbols):
Seiryuu: [link]
Genbu: [link]
Suzaku: [link]
And a hidden Fifth...
Huang Long: [link]
PS: those characters in the corner aren't the tiger's name. It's my Chinese name
Related content
Comments: 477
👍: 1 ⏩: 0
I really love your drawings, you have incredible art, your serie of Four Symbols is one of my favorite pieces of art I see in Internet. You even inspired me to make my own version of your masterpieces if you want see,
it is a tribute to your works:
Four Beast Gods
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Oh my word! I found this picture five years ago and absolutely loved it! One day I accidentally deleted it off my photos and I've been searching for it ever since! And now I've finally found it ^^
this is so well drawn btw ^^
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Aw comments like these are such a treat
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This is amazing! Im in a small group of writters and we are making a free module for pathifinder named:
Byakko - The thunder temple of the west. And we would love to use this in the adventure
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Just double-checking: free module... So that's noncommercial right? I'm not okay with it being in any way sold/used to make a profit. Credit me and we're a-okay
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
I've used this pic as my wallpaper for years. Thanks for this timeless masterpiece.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Gave me happy thrill to know that, thank you for your compliment
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i planing to make my own power rangers esq series based off chinese mythology with some differences from the myths basically there are four heroes who are the avatars for the four beasts which also represent the four elements suzaku fire seiryuu wind genbu water and byakko earth i also plan to include figures like the monkey king the jade rabbit the qilin the jin chan and others if you have any suggestions for the names of there giant robot forms let me know
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
That's awesome! As for name suggestions I wouldn't be able to name any cool ones from the top of my head, but I would suggest picking either the Japanese or Chinese romanisation of your deities and not a mix of both. So Seiryuu, Suzaku, Byakko and Genbu would resp. be Qing Long, Zhu Que, Bai Hu and Xuan Wu in Chinese, while Qilin and Sun Wukong would be Kirin and Son Goku in Japanese
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Awesome! /highfive! Though I'm only half Chinese in actuality
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Im half chinese too. and Vietnamese.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
THIS IS AMAZING. I LOVE IT. IT HAS SOO MUCH BLUE.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Thank you very much!
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Ohmygosh, I saw this picture yeeeaaarrsss ago, I never expected to find the artist!
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Aw, shucks, I always love getting comments like that. Gives me the idea that my pictures somehow went out to explore the wide world of the internet on some adventure and met cool people along the way.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
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Now you've gotten me intrigued! : O (I invented stories around art I liked too years and years back. I even typed up several pages. But it's all gone now - the computer it was saved on eventually died. Not that I care. It was pretty crap anyway! XD)
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
It was basically about a girl who was going to save her tribe with the help of a white tiger goddess XD it was pretty much garbage.
(yeah, all my early stories were too XD )
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Gotta write (or draw) crap before coming up with the gold I always think
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Haha, so true!!! XD Yeah, the idea itself wasn't bad, but man I had no writing skill XDD
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Hey! This is a really beautiful piece :3 I thought I should let you know that I saw it being used in the Steam workshop and wanted to make sure you were aware. This is where I found it:
steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles…
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
I love how you draw the Four Symbols of the Chinese Constellation
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Sure! Send me the link if you've posted it. I'd love to see the results
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I LOVE how these are formated in the Persona game series! The main four represent the Tarot or "Arcana" card Temperance, which represents balance and moderation. Ouryuu represents the Hierophant, which represent the relationships to the divine.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Oh that does like a very interesting fusion of culturally diverse concepts! Unfortunately, I never had the pleasure to play the Persona games. I have heard a lot of good about them, so I've always been quite curious.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Hey, I messaged you a while ago about 'Vyrilien' being printed on laptop sleeves... didn't know if you knew about this as well [link] :/
ps. I love your work ^^ <3
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Thank you ever so much for keeping me informed! I really appreciate it so very much~! <3
(pesky thieves! Don't they ever quit? 
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
The colours are amazing! 
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Thank you very much~!
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
This drawing is simply amazing. The expression and the way it appears/vanishes with the clouds is rather eye rich, (at least for me.^^) All in all, a magnificent piece of work, like all of your works.
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Wow!! I finally found the original artist of this!! Gotta go celebrate!
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