HOME | DD

Description

ATL TONATIUH means "Water Sun" in the nahuatl language.

This is an illustration which I've worked on to serve as the cover of the sixth chapter of my latest comic book/graphic novel, "The Legend of the Five Suns ", which is a not so loose adaptation of the eponymous pre-hispanic Mexica (or Nahua) myth, telling the origin of the world, the creation and destruction or metamorphoses of four different suns/sun-gods, their worlds and its' inhabitants, as well the creation of the fifth world, ours, and the rise of a new sun and a new creation. This also includes other traditional nahua (Central Mexican) folk tales, such as the creation of Octli (a.k.a Pulque, an alcoholic beverage made with the Maguey or Agave plant), the legend of the volcanoes Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl, the discovery of maize, and also explores some elements from the nahua, especially Mexica cosmology: the three vital energies (Tonalli, Teyolia and Ihíyotl), the four corners of the world (Tlahuiztlampa - East, Mictlampa - North, Cihuatlampa - West and Huitztlampa - South), the underworld (Mictlán) and its regions, as well the birth of Huitzilopochtli and other concepts related to daily pre-hispanic nahua life.
This comic book/graphic novel is 140 pages long, and is the main subject of my completion of course/graduation work in Graphic Design by UTFPR in Curitiba, Brazil. Currently, I have printed only one sample, in Brazilian Portuguese language, but I'm still studying the possibility to get it published (I would need some financial support if I were to do that), and translated into spanish and english (what I can do by myself).

This chapter deals with the role of Chalchiuhtlicue, the Water Goddess, as the Fourth Sun, the "Water Sun", following the end of the previous, Third Era (when Tlaloc, still enraged by the kidnapping of his first wife, the fertility goddess Xochiquetzal, by Tezcatlipoca the trickster night god, refused to let it rain. After years of drought and famine, he started to rain fire. It was Chalchiuhtlicue, who came to Tlaloc as his new wife, who gave him peace of mind, and thus, she took his place as the next sun). As stated previously, for this story I chose to associate the Five different eras of the Nahua cosmology with the actual/historical "eras" in Mesoamerican chronology (for example, the civilizations from the First Sun Era feature pre-classic period Olmec aesthetics, despite displaying some nahua customs, because the story is told from a post-classic nahua perspective). For this chapter and era, I chose to represent styles from the Early Postclassic phase of Cholula , at the time it was being inhabited by the "Olmeca-Xicalanca", as well by waves of migrating Tolteca-Chichimeca, and still had some Maya influences. In this chronology, the Fourth Era takes place immediatly after the fall of Tollan, and deals with the early organization of the altepeme (city-states) in the Tolteca-Chichimeca world, a Central Mexican area with several groups migrating and bringing distinct influences. They still retain Tolteca styles and ways of life, however they have also went through severe political changes because of their ways with dealing with supplies, thus forming less centralized governments. Chalchiuhtlicue is often depicted as a loving and caring goddess, albeit also wrathful when needed, just as the Sea which she represents. Other characters that play some role in this chapter are Youalahuan ("Night Drinker", an aspect of the Red Tezcatlipoca, or Xipe Totec, here the name of his teoixiptla - a category of sacrificial victims which impersonate specific gods during a monthly celebraton in the Xiuhpohualli, the 360+5 days calendar. In Xipe Totec's case, it's the Tlacaxipehualiztli), Tezcatlipoca, Xipe Totec, and a couple of mortals, Nata and Nena, who just barely escape the epic flood created by Chalchiuhtlicue, that marked the end of this era.

As I stated inthe description about a previous chapter, The Legend of the Five Sun comes from two major written sources, one included in the Codex Chimalpopoca and another in the document known as History of the Mexicans by their paintings, and while both versions share some similarities, they also have their differences, sometimes contradicting each other . The addition of more traditional nahua legends into this larger narrative, and the pursuit to merge it with historical Mesoamerican chronology necessarily make it not a definitive translation of the pre-hispanic nahua thought, but a bridge between that and a modern view, albeit counting with mythological elements.

I hope you like it as much as I did producing it!

And don't forget to follow and share my work at:

Behance | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter

< THE RAIN SUN (prev.)| (next) THE MOVEMENT OF THE SUN >

Description

ATL TONATIUH means "Water Sun" in the nahuatl language.

This is an illustration which I've worked on to serve as the cover of the sixth chapter of my latest comic book/graphic novel, "The Legend of the Five Suns ", which is a not so loose adaptation of the eponymous pre-hispanic Mexica (or Nahua) myth, telling the origin of the world, the creation and destruction or metamorphoses of four different suns/sun-gods, their worlds and its' inhabitants, as well the creation of the fifth world, ours, and the rise of a new sun and a new creation. This also includes other traditional nahua (Central Mexican) folk tales, such as the creation of Octli (a.k.a Pulque, an alcoholic beverage made with the Maguey or Agave plant), the legend of the volcanoes Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl, the discovery of maize, and also explores some elements from the nahua, especially Mexica cosmology: the three vital energies (Tonalli, Teyolia and Ihíyotl), the four corners of the world (Tlahuiztlampa - East, Mictlampa - North, Cihuatlampa - West and Huitztlampa - South), the underworld (Mictlán) and its regions, as well the birth of Huitzilopochtli and other concepts related to daily pre-hispanic nahua life.
This comic book/graphic novel is 140 pages long, and is the main subject of my completion of course/graduation work in Graphic Design by UTFPR in Curitiba, Brazil. Currently, I have printed only one sample, in Brazilian Portuguese language, but I'm still studying the possibility to get it published (I would need some financial support if I were to do that), and translated into spanish and english (what I can do by myself).

This chapter deals with the role of Chalchiuhtlicue, the Water Goddess, as the Fourth Sun, the "Water Sun", following the end of the previous, Third Era (when Tlaloc, still enraged by the kidnapping of his first wife, the fertility goddess Xochiquetzal, by Tezcatlipoca the trickster night god, refused to let it rain. After years of drought and famine, he started to rain fire. It was Chalchiuhtlicue, who came to Tlaloc as his new wife, who gave him peace of mind, and thus, she took his place as the next sun). As stated previously, for this story I chose to associate the Five different eras of the Nahua cosmology with the actual/historical "eras" in Mesoamerican chronology (for example, the civilizations from the First Sun Era feature pre-classic period Olmec aesthetics, despite displaying some nahua customs, because the story is told from a post-classic nahua perspective). For this chapter and era, I chose to represent styles from the Early Postclassic phase of Cholula , at the time it was being inhabited by the "Olmeca-Xicalanca", as well by waves of migrating Tolteca-Chichimeca, and still had some Maya influences. In this chronology, the Fourth Era takes place immediatly after the fall of Tollan, and deals with the early organization of the altepeme (city-states) in the Tolteca-Chichimeca world, a Central Mexican area with several groups migrating and bringing distinct influences. They still retain Tolteca styles and ways of life, however they have also went through severe political changes because of their ways with dealing with supplies, thus forming less centralized governments. Chalchiuhtlicue is often depicted as a loving and caring goddess, albeit also wrathful when needed, just as the Sea which she represents. Other characters that play some role in this chapter are Youalahuan ("Night Drinker", an aspect of the Red Tezcatlipoca, or Xipe Totec, here the name of his teoixiptla - a category of sacrificial victims which impersonate specific gods during a monthly celebraton in the Xiuhpohualli, the 360+5 days calendar. In Xipe Totec's case, it's the Tlacaxipehualiztli), Tezcatlipoca, Xipe Totec, and a couple of mortals, Nata and Nena, who just barely escape the epic flood created by Chalchiuhtlicue, that marked the end of this era.

As I stated inthe description about a previous chapter, The Legend of the Five Sun comes from two major written sources, one included in the Codex Chimalpopoca and another in the document known as History of the Mexicans by their paintings, and while both versions share some similarities, they also have their differences, sometimes contradicting each other . The addition of more traditional nahua legends into this larger narrative, and the pursuit to merge it with historical Mesoamerican chronology necessarily make it not a definitive translation of the pre-hispanic nahua thought, but a bridge between that and a modern view, albeit counting with mythological elements.

I hope you like it as much as I did producing it!

And don't forget to follow and share my work at:

Behance | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter

< THE RAIN SUN (prev.)| (next) THE MOVEMENT OF THE SUN >