The Year Beast

A book cover I designed in Photoshop in a traditional wood-printed bookplate that was popular China around 1930's. I chose it to avoid the cliche way-overused Chinese ink-painting style.

"The Year Beast" is written by a friend of mine. The novel is an adventure story about the Chinese mythical monster "Nian" ( 年 ). The author wanted an aggressive cool-looking monster on the cover that can attract both young and adult readers.

I discussed with my dad, an archeologist, on how ancient Chinese bronzewares illustrated beasts in general, to find the specific look of the details like fangs and nose. I found it exciting to combine these important historical elements with my own imagination, therefore, comes my fierce, predatory monster of "Nian".

Yes, I'm saying that Chinese mythology has more solid stuff than Yingyang, dragons, and Monkey King. And we know more than Chinese ink painting.