Journey to the West - Characters Design

The Reason

In early 2020, I enrolled in one of the character design courses at The Brainstorm school, Burbank - CA, to improve my drawing skill.

The assignment was to create a minimum of 3 characters from some of the given mythological novels. Journey to the West was one of the options.

I tried to create characters in a more realistic style because I wanted to put myself out of my comfort zone. I learned how to add more details and texture to all of the equipment and outfits.

I used Photoshop for this project.

Journey to the West is a classic Chinese mythological novel. It was written by Wu Cheng'en, the Ming Dynasty novelist, during the 16th century. The story is about the journey of Tang Monk, Xuanzang, and his three disciples, Sun Wukong (the Monkey King), Zhu Bajie (the lustful Pig), and Sha Wujing (the River Demond). They have to travel on from China to the land of Buddha in the west and bring back the holy Mahayana Buddhist scriptures to China. During the journey, they have to undergo 81 adventures. And after they complete their journey, they all become Buddha's disciples with different titles.

The final character designs

Sun Wukong - The Monkey King

The mighty monkey was born from a magical stone egg, which had been absorbing energy from the universe for thousands of years. The name Sun Wukong was given by his very first martial art teacher, Subhuti - one of the 10 principle disciples of the Buddha. Wukong was punished by Buddha after creating chaos in heaven. He spent 500 years being imprisoned underneath the Wuxing Shan mountain, created by Buddha. Wukong was rescued by Monk Xuanzang and became Xuanzang's first disciple. Wukong is brave, aggressive, smart, and extremely arrogant, due to his skills and magical abilities. He is also very protective toward his monkey members and his master Xuanzang.

Zhu Bajie - The Lusty Pigsy

Zhu Bajie was originally the commander-in-chief of 80,000 Heavenly soldiers. Zhu Bajie fell in love with the Goddess of the Moon and then drunkenly seduces her. Zhu Bajie was punished by the Jade Emperor and is banished from heaven. After spending thousands of lives that ended in love tragedy, Zhu Bajie refused to go into the human-well to start his next life. He accidentally fell into the pig-well. One of the rules in Hell is that before a spirit goes into one of the wells to start the next life, the spirit has to drink the soup that makes him/her forget everything about his/her previous life. Unfortunately, Zhu Bajie refused to drink the soup before falling into the pig-well, so he remembers everything, in his piggy body. Buddha has sympathy for Zhu Bajie and allows him to have all of his magical abilities back. Later on, Zhu Bajie becomes the second disciple of Xuanzang.

Sha Wujing - The River Demond

Sha Wujing was originally a general in Heaven. He was the Curtain-Lifting General. He got banished by the from Heaven when he accidentally broke one of the holy vases. He was exiled to Earth and became the river demon. Every day, Sha Wujing is struck by seven heavenly swords through his chest. He is the demon with magical power, therefore, those heavenly swords will not kill him but he is still suffering all the pain through his chest. He has to hide at the bottom of the Liusha-he river, quicksand river, to avoid the punishment. Xuanzang comes by the river and learns about the punishment that Sha Wujing is suffering from. Xuanzang then asks for forgiveness from Buddha. Sha Wujing becomes the last disciple of Xuanzang.

Xuanzang - The Master

Xuanzang originally was one of the Buddha's favorite disciples. He fell asleep in one of Buddha's lectures and he was exiled from Heaven. Xuanzang had to be reborn again as a normal human being and had to learn to appreciate being Buddha's disciples. In his new life, his parents were murdered right after he was born. Hoping Xuanzang could survive the massacre, he was placed inside a bucket and sent down the river by his mother before she got killed. Xuanzang was rescued by a monk and was raised as a Buddhist novice. Later on, Xuanzang learns about the real purpose of his life is to bless everyone with Buddhist lessons. He decides to go to the holy land of Buddha to bring back the Mahayana Buddhist scriptures to China. On his journey, Sun Wukong, Zhu Bajie, Sha Wujing become his three disciples.

Characters line up

The Process