Original Belly Dancer Artwork by "Black UniGryphon" (Kandice K. Zimbleman)

Whoah!

I hadn't ever really realized that there was quite a number of closet fans of my artwork that were belly dancers! It just never really seemed that anyone ever noticed much, and I just did them because I not only LOVE belly dance, love TO belly dance, but I also LOVE drawing and depicting ethnic, and exotic dancers (as well as Ravers or Go-go dancing).

But, when I did a search of "BlackUniGryphon" or "Black UniGryphon" I found several dancers had made accounts on DeviantArt just to fav' my work, and ended up hooked on the art sharing site.


 So, just a lil' bit about me:

 Hi! I'm the artist alias "Black UniGryphon" (BlackUniGryphon).
My real name is:
Kandice Kathleen Zimbleman
My legal name is:
Kadice Kathleen Zimbleman-Wang








My Chinese name is:
任思麒 (Witten in mandarin Pinyin as: Ren Si-Qi)
(Sounds like: Run Szzz Tchee)




 


This is how you write "Black UniGryphon" in Chinese:
In Mainland People's Republic of China use Simplified Chinese like this: 乌独角兽
But, in other Chinese places on islands like Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Macao, it's written in the Traditional old script like this: 烏獨角獸
And I would also use the Traditional way if I were to do something dealing with Japan, because I don't think they can read modern simplified Chinese.

 I actually wrote the Chinese translation of "Black UniGryphon" to mean mean a type of magical or mythical unicorn, or 1-horned beast. It actually means "Darkish/Blackish Unicorn" because I didn't want to use the commonly used word for "Griffin" which is actually a VULTURE! I take offense to that. Griffins are pretty & graceful, as well as robust. Vultures are ugly & clumsy, and have bad taste in all things. I also didn't use the common word for "black", I used a more educated, and prettier & poetic sounding "wu" instead of "hei". "Wu" can also mean very dark, but not in a bad way.

Many people in Chinese will tell me that using 乌独角兽 sounds too manly, or masculine. But, I don't care. Even in Chinese culture they have a story of the Dragon Princess "Long Nü" which is a female character, even tho' "Long" (Dragon) is generally ONLY used for a man's name. In my culture, equines & unicorns have become more effeminate, even tho' they were originally masculine. (Look it up, it's true.)

 "Black UniGryphon" is my Fursona which comes from the  Furry Comunity.

NO, despite what rumors you MAY have heard from Vanity Fair, Episodes of X-Files, etc. I DO NOT GO TO SEX CLUBS DRESSED AS AN ANIMAL! That is TOTALLY FALSE! Most Furries don't do that! But, I did go to several conventions, namely Anthrocon. Often as a dealer, or as an artist, and was even published in their Convention book. And, yeah, I did wear either wings, or a tail. But, people bring kids, and there's no weird sex going on.


I have also been publishing my artwork online since 1999, under the aliases:
ZBlackUnicorn, BlackUnicorn, or EbonyUnicorn

Anyways, dance & music have always been an important part of my life. When I was a kid, I could've become a musical prodigy, but instead I chose visual art, and my music teacher was furious. I used to play violin as a kid, the recorder, and even had to take guitar class in middle school, plus I used to be in chorus, and even stared in several talent shows as a singer. I often times regret having not done more with music. But, instead I went crazy with arts & sciences. (That's a long story.)




Dance, however, has helped my life very much. It helped me to deal with depression, once I'd realized that my artistic dreams, after graduating college and trying in vain to go back to school were crushed by the 777 stock market crash that caused the Bailouts and the "great recession" which I actually call "the economic melt down". So, my dreams of going to CAL-ARTS were crushed. I was devastated, and I would stay in bed crying for years.

What pulled me out of that was an interest in belly dance, which also got me back into Yoga. But, I've taken a few lasses by Zoe Jakes, and also Taiji Chuan (tai chi), Taiji Gungfu Shanzi (Tai chi Kungfu fan style), Taiji Jianzi (sword Tai chi) and a lil' bit of Qigung (Chigong). I'm not an expert in either of them, but I can dance improvisational belly dance not too bad, and I'm not perfect with yoga, but I can do some advanced poses with my likes like butterfly & lotus stuff.

So, naturally, my artwork began to reflect my interests.


Generally, when you see my artwork, you will notice that the human figure of a woman, is usually my character "Lively".












But, I have noticed that many of the dancer fans whom like my work, also like my Chinese inspired work (much of which I'd created when I lived in China), or my fantasy work as well like Unicorns.








The easiest place to find my work is my gallery on Deviant Art: Here

If you like dancers, you will want to check my "Maidens" sub gallery.

My Chinese Inspired Art: Here

And, my Fantasy stuff is all over the place in there. It's mostly what I'm known for on the internet.

But, when I was a kid, I liked to draw American comics, and especially exotic beautiful ladies.

I still like those things. But, much of my Furry/Anthro audiance wasn't exactly happy with me when I switched back to drawing human figures again. But, I just CAN'T be stuck in being a Furries ONLY, or BEASTS/ANIMALS only artist. 

As for my interests in dance, I do have a Pyrate Cosplay character that I dress up as:

Marshall Kändiß (Or Marshal Kandice)
Which I've mostly dressed up as in Philadelphia, but a tiny bit in Boston.

But, enough of me, I'm sure you're more interested in my art than my dancing.
;-P



Anyways, here are a few examples of my artwork, if it's dancers that you are looking for:

Well I guess I ought to blog a complete list of my dancer pieces.
I have so many, and many different kinds.

I notice belly dancers tend to like many styles of dance as well.

Ghawazee Dancer Sketch

Artwork by
"Black UniGryphon" 烏獨角獸
Kandice Kathleen Zimbleman-Wang 任思麒























You can find the full version on Deviant Art if you would like to color your own version:



Ghawazee Dancer Cleaned Sketch Version 01 by ~BlackUniGryphon on deviantART


I have also vlogged about it:

Whimsical Tribal Fusion/ Tribaret Unicorn Theme Costume Artwork

Whimsical Tribal Fusion/ Tribaret Unicorn Theme Costume Artwork


I finally finished coloring this! :D



Just a Unicorn Costume design I made up.

The sleeves are 2 unicorns, 1 black, and 1 white, with feathers as the main, reminds me of a popular design of sweaters my friends wore in the 80s & 90s, or figure skating.

I've seen theme costumes in bellydance often with the bellydance Super Stars, like Jillina, Sherri Wheatley, and also World Dance New York has produced several shows with bellydancers in fantasy theme costumes.

Ironically, the THEME for Tribal Fest this year (2012) is "The Year of The Unicorn".


FULL SCREEN HIGH RESOLUTION VERSION & PRINTS HERE:


Whimsical Unicron Tribaret Fusion 01 by ~BlackUniGryphon on deviantART



Whimsical Unicron Tribaret Fusion 01 CU by ~BlackUniGryphon on deviantART


Whimsical Unicorn Tribal CS 01 by ~BlackUniGryphon on deviantART 

Artwork by
"Black UniGryphon" 烏獨角獸
Kandice Kathleen Zimbleman-Wang 任思麒

Windstone Editions Paint Your Own Figurines

Hand Painted By Black UniGryphon
(Kandice Kathleen Zimbleman-Wang)乌独角兽(烏獨角獸)任思麒





Windstone Editions is a company that produces limited amounts of sculptures made by master sculptor M. Peña. The sculptures are used to make molds, then those are used to make copies from the original. These sculptures are hand painted by a team of artists, usually with airbrushing. They are also very distinct by their glass eyes, and their fantasy, mythological, and whimsical themes, as well as the fact that they are all animal sculptures.



The figurines are very valuable, and often go up in value.

After a while, many artists began to crave blank sculptures, so they could paint their own, so the company began producing several lines of sculptures specifically JUST for artists to paint their own.

These Paint-Your-Owns (PYOs) were pretty expensive. So, I'd been wanting some for a LONG time.

I'd 1st heard about these PYOs from my online friend, Swandog, whom also got a rare limited edition version prototype of the "Kirin" (Japanese Dragonlike Deer-ish Unicorn) 烏獨角麒麟 which has an antler alicorn, instead of a regular horn alicorn.


So, for Christmas, I ended up getting 3 of them!




The 1 I wanted THE MOST was the Kirin (Japanese Unicorn). So, my spouse got it for me, for Christmas.


I also wanted a Unicorn (Western European) but THEY SOLD OUT LITERALLY the day, to the minuet, my friend was about to purchase it for me. So, he got me the Griffin instead.









You will noticed that I painted all of my figurines dark on a black base. Well I am Black UniGryphon. I also went with some Purplish colors as well, and painted my Kirin to be similar to a mother of pearl, but I hand painted it to appear that way, since I couldn't get the dark iridescent mother of pearl. I did, however, purchase REAL nacre which is REAL mother of pearl, made from real shells and pearls.I has some of that on the white parts.

Also, to note on the Kirin (unicorn) are the hooves.
When I was younger, my grandfather had a horse (named King) and his hooves were black. So, when I grew up drawing horses & unicorns, I always drew all horses and (white) unicorns with BLACK hooves (or since it was the 1980s, it was the popular Metallic GOLD).

But, when I was a teenager in High school, I found some artists which painted, or illustrated, unicorns that they would paint with ivory white hooves. So, when BLACK Unicorns became briefly popular in the mid 1990s, I ESPECIALLY liked the look of the WHITE alicorn (horn) with white hooves on the Black Unicorns. So, ever since, I do ALL unicorns with ivory white hooves (and alicorn/horn). It's kinda my signature.

When it came to doing the hooves on the Kirin, I actually redid them several times, so as to be PERFECT, since I was SO PICKY! I had to scrape them a number of times, to get the old paint off, then repaint several times.









Then, I got a Winged Wolf.

I was VERY tempted to paint my Wolf white-ish, but when I was lacquering my Griffin & my Kirin, I was so pleased with my results that, I painted the wolf dark also.

I painted the wings (on the wolf) to be inspired by a type of Song Bird called a "Starling" in North America. A favorite of mine. Unfortunately, the colors don't show on the camera like the human eye can see. (Plus, it's winter, and I live in the North, so, not enough sunlight at the time I shot the photos.) So, I might try to photograph these again, outside, in the summer.


NOTE:

Now, there's a special note to tell about my paint job. I wanted something totally unique, and close to my inner vision (within my creative mind) so, I began looking up lacquers, and I found a special lacquer from JAPAN by Tamiya Color, that shines purple and Green in different angles. I'd never done this before, and had never heard of anyone else doing this.

The lacquer was actually specially formulated for plastic hand modeled, remote control, hobby racing cars' body paint finish.

It was a REALLY good move on my part. I would also like to paint some 2nd versions of the same figurines, in white base colors in the future (if I can ever eventually get to afford doing that).


What's interesting about getting a Windstone Editions' PYO is the company's website, which allows you to upload photos of your painted figurine, for FREE.


Windstone Editions PYO Gallery

I got my own FREE gallery also: Black UniGryphon's PYO Windstone Editions Gallery

What I also like about the website is that they often allow & encourage their staff artists to paint their own rare sculptures, and sell them on the site frequently.


It's a very lovely company.
If you're thinking about investing in the Windstone Editions PYOs, I would say it's definitely worth it. But, due to the high cost, I would recommend practicing on other figures 1st.

I actually practiced the entire Autumn on Dragons, to be confident enough, and sure enough, to paint my Windstone Editions PYO.

Here are some which I practiced on 1st:

Yet to be finished Tribal Fusion Bellydancer Sketches

Yet to be finished Tribal Fusion Bellydancer Sketches

I was actually surprised at how much response I got over these, from the belly dance communities.

Altho', I DO have a gripe about 1/2 of the responses, since number of Bellydancers expect to be paid to dance, and make money doing so. However, those SAME dancers expected to just be able to USE my artwork FREE OF CHARGE or DEMAND me to:

A.) Do more for them FOR FREE, JUST BECAUSE THE LIKED IT.

B.) DO WHOLE ANIMATIONS FOR THEM FOR FREE, JUST BECAUSE THEY LIKED IT.

Drawing is NOT the SAME as dancing, let alone animation, FYI. It takes, practice, skills, and talent, especially if you like mine, that that would refer to MINE of the aforementioned.

Funny how YOU want to be paid, but REFUSE to pay for ME.

Since I was also depressed, I couldn't make myself finish them yet. But, also, because I am afraid of people stealing my artwork, AND MAKING MONEY OFF OF IT!

So, yes, I have mixed feelings, especially when the bellydance communities are usually very Hippy-ish, peace, love, community, helping each other out, looking out for the lil' guy, etc.

So, for this reason, I am forever more STICKING with my watermarks, logos, and GIANT CHINESE NAME STAMPS.

I understand that the whole concept of Chinese name stamps is a hard one to understand, even for me, because it's not based in Western logic, It's Chinese/Taoist stuff. They often use use HUGE stamps, often several, and it might not make any sense to a Westerner, in fact they don;t even need to fit with the layout of the picture. I've asked SOOOOOO many Chinese art Teachers, and Masters in China, and no one can explain it, they just say, it's a Chinese way, or it;s just Chinese stuff.





This was a popular Tribal Fusion costuming style a few years ago:


S Tribal Fusion Belly Dance 01 by *BlackUniGryphon on deviantART

By 2011 the long hair, like Cabaret belly dance started to become popular, and bled through into the costuming fashion, where as before it was usually up-doos.


Sketch Belly Dance Floorwork R by *BlackUniGryphon on deviantART


As Cabaret styles began seeping into Tribal Fusion Bellydance, things became very whimsical, and fantasy-like. So, I came up with this/these:



Whimsical Unicorn Tribal CS 01 by *BlackUniGryphon on deviantART
Whimsical Unicorn Tribal CS 02 by *BlackUniGryphon on deviantART


I have seen SO many creative costumes ever since.

If you like this blog post, please check the rest of my blog for similar artwork.

Thank you.