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Shoujo Heroine in 15 StepsWant to become a shoujo manga heroine? Just follow those 15 simple rules*:

01 - Have an exotic hair color that looks beautiful, but for some reason causes people to bully you a lot (bright red and silverly-white are hightly recommended).

02 - Be an orphan. Then, be raised by a kind older sibling or live by yourself on a cute, small place. Or just win a mysterious mansion as inheritance from some eccentric distant relative.

03 - Have a dark past in your family, like having your mother missing on a full-moon night, a curse casted upon your bloodline or a prophecy involving yourself. Keep a shiny and pretty-designed small objetc that is the k

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Submitted: October 21, 2012
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Bloom in Adversityby *Hanami-Mai

Fan Art / Manga & Anime / Digital / Movies & TV

Finally, she's done!

"The flower that blooms in adversity
is the rarest and most beautiful of all"

Right after Rapunzel, Mulan is my second favourite Disney princess. It bother me when stories only portray women either as the ridiculous useless "damsel in distress" or some exagerated (and then, also ridiculous) super-brute-kickass (annoying Lara Croft comes to my mind right now...). I guess the main reason why I like Mulan is that she is a both strong and feminine character, intelligent and brave more than just plain "stronger than the guys". I tried to show this "delicate and strong" concept in the drawing, balancing the sword and the falling peach blossoms.

Drawing her was a major challenge - specially because my serie's aesthetics is based on traditional fairytale storybooks, and mixing that with chinese elements was not easy... But overall, I think I'm pleased.

The color scheme was very hard, since she wears at least 3 important outfits with different colors in the movie - first the green, yellow and blue one, then the pink and red from the matchmaker scene, and finally, the blue outfit from the final part of the movie. I tried to mix the first two to make something that could instantly say "Mulan" and also be fit for a soft, light kind of classical Hanfu.

The garnment itself was very fun to design, on the other hand. For the brief research I made (and please correct me if I'm saiyng nonsense...) I had the impression hanfu is far more open to shape variation than the japanese kimono. So I could use several hanfu pictures for inspiration, mix many ideas and come up with this flowy outfit with huuuge sleeves (who doesn't love huge sleeves? ^^)

On the details I focused on the peach blossoms and the peonia, both very popular flowers in chinese art tradition. Mulan's sword design in the movie is pretty cool, so I decided to keep it as the original. The sword and flowers are meant to symbolize both strong and gentle personality of Mulan. And the cloud background pattern... well, that was an obvious choice. ;D

Detail shots on my blog: [link]

ALSO, I'm currently opening new COMMISSIONS, so check out if you're interested: [link]

Other princesses so far:

textures and patterns used do not belong to me.

love 3 3

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~Marikokitty Apr 15, 2013 Student Traditional Artist

Beautiful~

*Hanami-Mai Apr 16, 2013 Digital Artist

Thank you! ^^
And thanks for the watch!

~Marikokitty Apr 16, 2013 Student Traditional Artist

No problem and thank you for the llama

*Hanami-Mai Apr 16, 2013 Digital Artist

You're most wellcome!

~moonlitinuyasha1985 Nov 11, 2012

It truly shows how unique she is.

*Hanami-Mai Nov 11, 2012 Digital Artist

Thank you! I'm glad to hear that!

~Eldr-Fire Nov 4, 2012 Hobbyist Traditional Artist

Gorgeous! It was instantly recognizable as Mulan, but also in a unique style. I love the beautiful details you have in the embroidery and fabric. Her hair is also very pretty, and the design of the clothes.

*Hanami-Mai Nov 7, 2012 Digital Artist

Thank you very much!

I put a lot on effort on her, so I'm happy to hear that!

~MarikoBarbie Nov 4, 2012 Hobbyist Artisan Crafter

Acho que ela foi um dos maiores desafios. Realmente usar essas cores de um modo significativo e que resultassem num conjunto lindo, forte e delicado! Amei!

*Hanami-Mai Nov 4, 2012 Digital Artist

Muito obrigada! Nossa, demorei muito pra terminar a Mulan, foi bem difícil.

Mas ao menos acho que gostei do resultado. ^^

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