The Olympic Games is an international multi-sports event that has been held every 4 years since 1896. The games were originally organized as a summer sports event until 1920. In 1924, the winter games began in Chamonix, France. Until 1992, both summer sports and winter sports event were held in the same year. Since then, the summer games are held during the first year of an Olympiad (a period of four years), the winter games during the third year.

In other word, the Olympic Games event will be held every 2 years. That summarized the Olympic Games history. Now, because every time the event was held in different countries, they never stick to one mascot (or mascots).

For example, we had a snowball and an icecube as mascots for the Olympic Winter Games 2006 in Turin.

Neve the snowball & Gliz the icecube

For this year, the Olympic Summer Games 2008 is held in Beijing, China. And below are their official mascots for this event called the Fuwas. These creatures’ design and colours actually inspired by the five rings of the Olympic Games logo.

In China’s traditional culture and art, the fish and water designs are symbols of prosperity and harvest. And so Beibei carries the blessing of prosperity. The ornamental lines of the water-wave designs are taken from well-known Chinese paintings of the past. Strong in water sports, she reflects the blue Olympic ring.

As a national treasure and a protected species, pandas are adored by people everywhere. The lotus designs in Jingjing’s headdress, which are inspired by the porcelain paintings of the Song Dynasty (A.D.960-1234), symbolize the lush forest and the harmonious relationship between man and nature. He is an athlete noted for strength who represents the black Olympic ring.

Huanhuan is a child of fire, symbolizing the Olympic Flame and the passion of sport — and passion is the blessing he bestows. The fiery designs of his head ornament are drawn from the famed Dunhuang murals — with just a touch of China’s traditional lucky designs. He excels at all the ball games and represents the red Olympic ring.

Like all antelopes, Yingying is fast and agile and can swiftly cover great stretches of land as he races across the earth. His head ornament incorporates several decorative styles from the Qinghai-Tibet and Sinkiang cultures and the ethnic design traditions of Western China. Strong in track and field events, Yingying represents the yellow Olympic ring.

Among the kite designs, the golden-winged swallow is traditionally one of the most popular. Nini’s figure is drawn from this grand tradition of flying designs. Her golden wings symbolize the infinite sky and spread good-luck as a blessing wherever she flies. Swallow is also pronounced “yan” in Chinese, and Yanjing is what Beijing was called as an ancient capital city. She is strong in gymnastics and represents the green Olympic ring.

To be continued…

(What? Seriously?!)

In the next installment: Find out what Helio is up to!

Featuring a Malaysian artist, kidchan.

“The Prince and I”

Click on the pic for full view.

kidchan’s (since some artists prefer to keep their real name unknown, we’ll stick to her Internet alias) gallery is pretty unique in my opinion. Her drawing style reminds me a bit of CLAMP (a team of four female Japanese manga artists; creators of Tsubasa Chronicles, XXXholic, Chobits, Card Captor Sakura and more) mixed with Yoshitaka Amano (a Japanese artist known for his illustrations for Vampire Hunter D and for his character designs, image illustrations and title logo designs for the Final Fantasy video game series).

My little sister was the one introduced her gallery to me. She had her deviant gallery on her watch list for quite some time. And when I saw it, it was captivating. Colourful illustrations with little bit of manga touch which I believe will attract most people that appreciate arts and manga. Her works are not simply like anime posters that you stick on your bedroom walls but more to something that you want to hang on your walls and looking at them admiringly.

“Artificial Maiden”

Click on the pic for full view.

Here are some more samples of her work. As usual, click on these drawings and they will lead you to its original location (kidchan’s deviantart gallery) with better (and larger) view of the drawings.

“Madame”

“Sweet Melancholy”

“Final Fantasy 7: River”

Her rendition of Cloud and Kadaj from the movie, Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children.

…….

Did you hear that?

No?

Well, I could’ve sworn I heard some squealing of the fangirls just now…

“Mystic”

“a Story of Farewell”

“Portrait of Adam”

If you’re in Australia this Saturday on the 2nd August 2008, go visit SMASH! It’s an anime and manga one-day convention that will be held in Sydney. She’ll be there. Who knows, maybe you’ll be lucky and could get her autograph. Click on the banner below for more details.

Make sure to check her life blog as well at kitmun.livejournal.com.

Let’s see what Helio and his pal are up to today.