I’m learning and trying to create depth here. The Little Cat is climbing a cliff and finally arrived at the top — I’m visioning this vast landscape displayed as the background.
I’m still learning about perspective, so creating this one has been a pretty challenging process.
In Malaysian/Malay/Indonesian folklores, there is a character named “Pak Belang” (Mister Stripes), or “Kakek Belang” (Grandpa Stripes) that usually live deep inside the forest with magical powers of granting wishes and feared by the villagers.
I just found out, Pak Belang refers to Panthera tigris. The tiger.
I find it endearing for folks to call animals with honorific. To honor and acknowledge those who have been living far longer before we humans came.
When I was a kid, my late grandma always said, “excuse me…“ whenever we walked passed some abandoned gardens or some kind of forests.
I asked her why; she answered — and apparently it’s really common among Javanese folks — that the forests or some abandoned places might have some invisible residents. We as humans need to respect them, as they know more about the place than we do.
I feel this is not only specifically on Javanese culture; but also on many many many cultures and beliefs outside Java.
Next time you hike on the mountains or in the forests, don’t forget to say hello — and always always always pick your trash along the trip. Be mindful.
(I also just realized I forgot to draw the cat’s tail.)
Quick blurbs
I rarely saved post drafts when writing a blog post because I usually able to ramble in a short period of time, until today, I decided to write about how I designed this blog (sidebar, cute background, pixel-thingy, and the likes.) Suffice to say, it’s, uh, long. My dormant Happiness Engineer-soul came back in full force, hahahah!
I’m still working on it. Hopefully, I can publish it by this evening (Malaysia timezone).