Playing with Shadows

Shadow Puppet designs

First Prototypes

Eland: Character Design

The Rain-Animal

The Eland or the 'Rain Animal' needs no introduction at this point. The chief of all animals and the most spiritually potent of the Bushman tradition comes to be the fourth and the most powerful inclusion into the team. The harmless and serene antelope metamorphoses into the most formidable force in the spirit world.

The Jackal: Character design (part 2)

Jackal: The Watchful Guardian 

The Baboon: Character Design (part 2)

The Baboon: Ferociously funny

The Baboon: Character Design (part 1)

Baboons in a San Rock Painting

In my post the 5 most significant Khoi-San animals we saw the strong prominence the baboon plays in the bushman rock art.There is visibly marked difference in the perception of the Baboon as opposed to other animals in Bushman tradition. The reason for their prominence in Bushman culture can be their close resemblance to humans. Anthropologist Dorothea Bleek even found that the Naron do not even hunt a baboon as they are so much like 'people'. The bizarre shamanic powers and the supernatural potency of the baboon makes him the next mythic superhero character in my story.

Next Post: The final character design 'Baboon: The ferociously funny.'

Source: Images of Power, D.L Williams/ T. Dowson.

The Lion : Character Design (part 2)

Strong. Impulsive. Powerful. Stupid

The Lion: Character design (part 1)

The lion, the king of the jungle and of all beasts, hold a very different position in Khoisan culture. Fables around the world depict the lion as the strong and mighty master of the wild. However in Khoisan folklore, the lion is of a rather naive and foolish character. The lion is seldom the one that triumphs at the end of the story. In one bushman folktale, a pack of jackals triumph over a lion through their wits. 

The jackals said that he seemed to be a strong thing,but he was really only a little thing who had not been able to resist a small stone."- The Lion and the Jackal

Lions are also frequently represented in the rock paintings. Knowing the bushman belief of shaman's transforming into various animals during trance, it is not surprising that it was believed that shamans could turn into lions.Lions were "believed to have some of the shamans' accomplishments: they knew things that ordinary people could not possibly know, they could become invisible, and they could cause things to happen by supernatural means." (source: Images of Power, D.L Williams and T.Dowson.)

According to bushman sources, sometimes evil shamans would come prowling in their feline forms. Invisible to ordinary eyes, these evils spirits can only be warded of by another shaman. It is very fascinating to compare the two striking ways the bushman depict the lion. A powerful animal, ferocious and strong yet foolish and naive in behaviour. It has strong shamanic powers yet not as powerful as an eland. The Khoisan understanding of the lion poses a very beautiful juxtaposition that values mind over might. 

Character Designs- initial sketches

Attempts at developing a visual style.

The Mantis and his friends.

The many faces of /Kaggen , the mantis.