Art in Motion: How the Stars came into the Sky

Some months ago I decided that it was time yet again to pad the children's illustrating portfolio. With this in mind, I began to hunt for a legend to bring to life. I came across an allegedly Chinese tale about how the stars ended up in the sky. In a nutshell, the story told of how some children were playing in a field when they noticed pieces of the sky falling. They picked up all the pieces that they could, but some fell in the river and were washed away. Alarmed, the children brought the bits of sky that they had collected to the wise-woman of the village and sorrowfully told her how the rest had been lost. But she told them not to worry. That night, the wise-woman sewed the pieces of the sky back together, and filled the gaps with something that glimmered. When the sky was flung back into the air, the parts that had been filled in could still be seen, glittering and sparkling high above.
This is the first part of the story. The piece was first drawn by hand, scanned into the computer and painted with digital oil.

HOW THE STARS CAME INTO THE SKY

The initial sketch (done in four parts and put together.)