A Literate Battle

My last piece seemed a little dark, so I was feeling the need to do something a tad more…light-hearted? Apparently I haven’t worked through all of those end-of-summer blues, and whatever it is that’s been haunting me is still lurking around in my color schemes. I think I managed to inject a splatter of boyish enthusiasm, at the very least. And my ninja is always a gas to draw.

Now, everyone knows how strong, agile, smart, and astoundingly cool ninja are, but I bet you weren’t aware that they were so literate. Hidden in this picture are a sprinkling of characters from the kanji alphabet. Admittedly most of them are from the first-grade level. It’s great learning a new language. You go back to being 5 again.

The kanji are:

• katana (this one should be easy to find)
• ishi
• ki
• hayashi
• mori
• and me (say it “may”)

I’d tell you what they mean, but that would make finding them way too easy! See if you can find them all. With a little luck, I’ll know more kanji next time (though I have no idea how to camouflage a thirty-stroke character as an actual “thing”).

click here or the image to see the EPIC battle

Illustration Friday