This is an illustration commission I made for a client, who wanted a print of asian guardians, who protect his newly build house. We decided to go with Japanese Nio guardians, two wrathful and muscular guardians of the Buddha standing today at the entrance of many Buddhist temples. Together these two figures symbolize the life and death of things. 

The japanese writing at the top says 'We protect this temple'.

I decided to go with a a traditional Japanese red colour in the end, and leave the illustration in a black white thick ink style. The illustration is currently in printing, I went with a watercolour paper with rough edges. I will post once I have it! 

I initially wanted to make the primary colour of the illustration a yellow colour, based on the original colours of the Kinkaku-ji temple. 

The Kinkaku-ji temple, image by Gabriele Garanzelli from Unsplash.

The two guardians were sketched in my sketchbook, later scanned and refined in Photoshop and Illustrator. Agyō is on the right, and is a symbol of violence. He bares his teeth, and is said to make an 'Ah'-sound with his mouth. On the left is Ungyō, he symbolizes latent strength, holding his mouth tightly shut and shown with his sword. His mouth is supposed to be shaped as to make the sound 'Un'. 

The shape of the mouths are the reason for their names Agyō (Ah) and Ungyō (Un).

I based the Nio guardians on a collection of images I found on google.