Astra-zoriya

For our final for color and design we had to design a mandala that had elements of interest or importance to us. A mandala if you don't know is a sumbol in the form of a circlular design that has a central focal point used for meditation throughout the world.


This is the Astra-zoriya a religious symbol for my race of kat people called the Sanura. The symbol is supose to symbolize balance, the coming together of two oposite forcess, night and day, cool and warm light and dark. Astraya is the goddess of night her name meaning wandering star. Zoriya is the goddess of day her name coming from the word zenith which is when the sun is at its highest point


On the left is zoriya in warmer colors and a brighter blue. Her hair is the colors of the dawn as though her hair were the sunrise spreading through the sky. The little kat spirits are suppose to be like sun beams. Though you can barly see it in the pic the sky behind her has been spunged to balance the star texture on astraya's side. On the right is Astraya in colors and darker colors. Her hair is the colors of dusk spreading night across the sky. The kitty spirits on her side are suppose to look like moon beams and are actually not white but a very light blue. Non of the colors for either side are used on the opposing side on purpose. In the center there are the phases of the moon since sanuran religion is lunar based (aka they follow a lunar calander with 13 months, 28 days each and one extra day to honor the godess' kinda like our new year). The moons incircle the wheel of fortune found in tarot cards, its also a color wheel one of the main reasons for this is we were required to use an angalagous split complimentary color skeem, mine having blue as its primary color. The whole design is suppose to reflect tiffany stain glass style thus why everything is outlined in black.

The final pencil design for those of you who are curious and the
wip of the whole painting process is here... enjoy and please take a few moments to comment


Medium: Gouache on 15x20 Illustration board
Class: Color & Design
Time: Aprox 20+ hrs
Completed: Aug '05

© 2005 Alicia Ravenswood - All Rights Reserved - All images are mine so if you copy or use them without my permission I will send my minions of kitties after you.