Illustration #5 - Am I Pretty?

Another oldie from last year. This illustration was based after reading an old Japanese mythical spirit that freaked me out, Kuchisake-Onna the slit mouthed woman.

In the past (during the Heian period) she was a beautiful woman who cheated on her husband. Because of this, her husband grew jealous and slit her mouth with scissors from ear to ear Heath Ledger style and saying "Who'll think you're beautiful now?" She is now rumored as a spirit who wanders the streets of Japan at night, wearing a surgical mask to cover her mouth. She approaches random lone people and asks them, "Watashi kirei?(Am I pretty?)" If the person answers yes, she will then remove her mask and ask "Kore demo?(Even this?)" If the person says no, she will cut the person's mouth in the same way as hers, usually with scissors. If the person says yes again, she would follow them home and slay them at the doorway of their residence (being that "kirei" is a homophone of "kire" meaning "to cut.") If the person says she is so-so or average, she will hesitate giving the person ample amount of time to run away.

I thought this was a truly frightening myth as the idea of not knowing the outcome of the your decisions when pursuing her, be it right or wrong, is unbeknownst to you - unless you think ahead quickly. That is true terror there instead of the typical jump scare.

Outlined in graphite and colored in Windsor and Newton tube watercolor.