Murugandi
  • Blog
  • Portfolio
    • Commissions
    • Colour
    • Black and white
    • Paper marbling
  • Game of Go
  • Shop
  • About
  • Contact

NGoB Yearbook 2019-2020

12/18/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture

The go playing cat on the 2019-2020 Dutch Go Yearbook is the fifth consecutive cover in a series I have made for the Nederlandse Go Bond. The covers feature animals, go positions and paper marbling. The other four designs with background information can be found here.
The cat came into being as a watercolour painting in May earlier this year. It was inspired by other go-cat related art I had seen in the past. You can read more information about it here. I gave away the original drawing in an art raffle on social media to lift spirits during the covid-19 pandemic and to celebrate having almost 800 likes on my Facebook page. You can watch the raffle video here.

I'm grateful to the NGoB; this series of yearbooks is becoming quite something and I hope future Dutch go players will enjoy my covers as much as I do. The 2019-2020 edition will be printed and distributed among the members of the Dutch Go Association in January 2021.
0 Comments

De Kunst van Go

10/16/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
Picture

About a month ago I made six illustrations for a new beginners go book by the Dutch Go Association (Nederlandse Go Bond), depicting go players through the ages.
The book is now printed and landed in my mail box yesterday. It is called "De Kunst van Go" (The Art of Go) and has 72 pages full of pictures, rules and exercises for Dutch readers who want to learn the game. The photos in the book are really nice and show all sorts of different European go players, from pretty girls crunching their brains to kids playing pair-go with their grandparents. 
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
0 Comments

Sala de Arte

10/9/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture

Gissella Gastin and Luciano Salerno asked me to participate in the Sala de Arte of the Congreso Virtual Latinoamericano de Go. The congress is organized by the Federación Iberoamericana de Go and the Asociación Argentina del Juego de Go and is taking place as I type, until 11 October. The Sala de Arte is an online gathering of go inspired art, some of which is especially made for the occasion. My entry is one of circa 30 and includes three of my "classic" go designs: The Tortoise Shell, the Go Butterfly and my most recent go artwork, Sniffing the Third Line (a cat playing go). 

All entries for the Sala de Arte were also shown on the Twitch channel of AAdeGo:
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/763714342 (my art starts around minute 31:30)
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/763772347

Especially my turtle was popular amongst the viewers. Even Fernando Aguilar, famous in the South American go world, typed a few words about this go shape that is more powerful than a ponnuki and is said to be worth 50 points.

It is nice to see that go related art is being appreciated and is getting attention in such a big event. Thank you Gissella and Luciano for the organization and let's make more go art in the future! 
Picture
Picture
Picture
0 Comments

Go Players through the Ages

9/2/2020

0 Comments

 

The Dutch Go Association (NGoB) asked me to make a series of black and white portraits for a beginners-book they are publishing this year. The portraits will be accompanied by short stories about the individuals. Some of them are fictional characters and some are real people. The pictures and stories take you through the ages of go players:

- 5th century BC: Li is described as a Chinese student aspiring to become a high functionary. To become one, he must master the four arts - calligraphy, painting, guqin and weiqi.
- 8th century AD: Zhou is a soldier who travels along the coasts of Japan and Korea on a Chinese trade ship. During his travels he plays go on deck with the other soldiers and the high priest.
- 13th century AD: Takashi is a Japanese samurai who learned to play go during his training to become a warrior. He is the strongest go player of the empire and is looking forward to the upcoming castle tournament. 
- End of the 19th century: Oskar is a German engineer who learns to play go from a Japanese professional player during his work time overseas. After returning to his homeland, he aims to spread go in Germany and writes the first Western book on the topic.
- Halfway through the 20th century: Kees is a student from Amsterdam who studies Japanese. During his time in Japan he learns the game from a Japanese student. Back home he starts a go club and aims to establish a national go association.
- 2015: Demis is the director of DeepMind and is the driving power behind the making of a computer program that should challenge the best go players on the planet. AlphaGo will eventually do exactly that and defeat the strongest human go player alive.
0 Comments

Art Raffle

5/23/2020

0 Comments

 

Congratulations to Maja Brouwer for winning my first ever art raffle and taking home the original of "Sniffing the Third Line". And congratulations to Dan Iugulescu for winning 14 different go postcards with my designs!
Today at 19:00 o'clock I randomly picked two winners live on social media amongst the people that followed my page and commented under the drawing I posted on Instagram and Facebook. 

Want to support the artist? All my originals are for sale and I also offer postcards and posters of all my art. Stay tuned for my new art and art lotteries in the near future.
0 Comments

Full Moon Fox

5/21/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
"Full Moon Fox", 17-05-2020. 13,2 x 25,2 cm.

My girlfriend Justyna and I got the idea to make a drawing together. I've recently been enjoying watercolour so that became the medium of choice. We also used a bit of ink. It took us a few hours to make and is smaller in size than most of my drawings: 13.2 x 25.2 centimeters, on special watercolour paper. The artwork shows a sleeping fox at night, lying in the grass next to a goban with go stones on it. 
Picture
Picture
0 Comments

Drawing Giveaway #2

5/17/2020

2 Comments

 
Picture
Justyna with drawing giveaway #2: "Sniffing the Third Line"

To celebrate having almost 800 likes on my Facebook page and because I want to do something to lighten the mood during the Covid-19 crisis, I decided to start a new project on the 1st of May. I will be making new drawings regularly (the aim is new art every few days) and I am giving away the originals amongst my followers.
This is the second drawing I will be giving away in the lottery. 

Giveaway drawing #2 "Sniffing the Third Line"
14-05-2020
20,4 x 20,9 cm
Watercolour and ink on paper
Picture
​I have been thinking about drawing a cat playing go for a while, inspired by several photos of cats playing around with go stones and in particular by two Japanese artworks made circa 1850. A few years ago Dutch go collector Theo van Ees showed me two woodblock prints by Kunisada Utagawa I (1786-1864) from his collection, in which a cat or a cat-like animal is positioned next to a go board with stones on it. These artworks were printed in a small picture book sized 17.5 x 11.5 centimeters, called ehon ​in Japanese, one of them on the cover and the other on the inside.
The print from the inside of the booklet is black and white and seems to depict a mythological go match taking place in a forest. Perhaps the two players are situated on a mountain, because clouds are visible under and above the branches of the trees. Next to the two fierce individuals, who are clearly immersed in their game of go, sits an animal. It probably is not a cat, but instead a wild animal of sorts, since it has claws and finds itself in a mountain forest. A bear, maybe? 
According to the seller that Theo bought the book from, the print shows "a demon playing the game of go". That is all I know about this print and I would love to know more about its story.  
Picture
Woodblock print by Kunisada Utagawa depicting a mythological go match and an observing bakeneko

​​​Edit on 19th of May:
My sister Philo Ouweleen, who is a Japanologist, has delved more deeply into the matter. 
Because of the added value of the written text in this type of booklet and its date, it is more accurately described as kusazoshi (草双紙) rather than ehon. More specifically, this is a gokan (合巻), a type of picture book that was popular in the late Edo period. Quality scans of all gokan can be viewed on this page and over here.
The volume that depicts these two go scenes is written by Mantei Oga (万亭応賀, 1818~1890). The title on the cover reads 倭文庫十七編, which roughly translates to "Japanese writings collection, 17th volume". Its full title is written on the inside of the book and reads 釈迦八相倭文庫, meaning "The Eightfold Path of the Buddha, collection of Japanese books". This volume is number 17 in a series of 58 books that tell an adapted, easily readable version of the story of Gautama Buddha and his path to enlightenment. The woodblock print artwork in the series appears to be a collaboration between Utagawa Kunisada I (歌川 国貞, 1786-1864), Utagawa Kunisada II (歌川 国貞, 1823-1880) and Kawanabe Kyosai (河鍋 暁斎, 1831-1889). Utagawa Toyokuni (歌川豊国, 1769- 1825) is also mentioned. The series was published between 1845 and 1871. The publication of volume 17 can indeed be pinpointed to circa 1850.

All pages of the 17th volume can be viewed in its entirety here. Number 27 and 30 show the artworks that I refer to and in addition number 36 also shows a go scene. 
And what about the black and white print and the mysterious bear? Actually, the bear is a cat afterall! A bakeneko to be precise, a supernatural creature (yokai) from Japanese mythology and folklore. According to the legends, a bakeneko - a "ghost cat" or "monster cat" - begins life as an ordinary house cat which is fed too much and becomes unusually large. Once reaching an immense size (I kid you not), the animal begins to display magical abilities or supernatural powers such as therianthropy, making it a shapeshifter. Pretty epic for a fat cat!

The other print is from the cover of the booklet and is in colour. Here the animal is domestic and the story behind the image seems to be more trivial and less symbolic. The scene likely takes place indoors: a lady watches how her cat (or is it a dog? The ears seem to point towards the latter) plays with the black and white stones on a goban. On the floor stands a go bowl and lots of black stones are scattered around. 
​​
After seeing these images several years ago, I planned to draw a cat next to a goban. This never happened at the time and I had completely forgotten about these images. After finishing my go cat several days ago, I remembered them and realised where my inspiration came from. 
​
For my own drawing I mainly used watercolour, something I had not done in many years. It was fun to try another medium again and even though it felt very clumsy at first, it turned out great. It goes to show that you should never give up on an artwork and keep going. The magic will eventually happen.
When I finished it, Justyna prophesied that go players on social media will go crazy over the drawing. And they did! My posts on Facebook and Instagram got by far the most likes, comments and compliments I have ever gotten. 
One of the comments was by my friend Peter Brouwer, who suggested a new title. I had called it "Cat playing Go", but Peter suggested "Sniffing the Third Line", which I liked much more and adopted. 
 
If you want to win the original of "Sniffing the Third Line", do two things:
1. Like my Facebook page Murugandi Art or my Instagram page @Murugandi.
2. Leave a comment under the post featuring this drawing.

I will do a draw amongst the people that follow these criteria. The lottery will take place on Saturday 23rd of May at 7PM CET (Central European Time).
Please take into account that the postage costs are to be paid by the winner. The drawing itself is, of course, my gift.
Picture
Woodblock print by Kunisada Utagawa on the cover of a kusazoshi: a cat or dog plays around with go stones
Picture
Photo of "Sniffing the Third Line"
2 Comments

Looking Back #2 Go Covers

4/7/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
Cover of the 2018-2019 Yearbook of the Dutch Go Association

This blog post is the second edition of Looking Back, in which I look back on artwork I have made in the past.
​
Soon the 2018-2019 edition of the Dutch Go Association Yearbook will be published. Each year the Nederlandse Go Bond (NGoB) publishes such a booklet in which the most important seasonal go happenings of the Netherlands are recorded, along some major international go news. 
As is becoming tradition, my go art is on the cover! This time it is my raccoon dog who drums his belly, a pun on the Japanese name of a famous tesuji combination of two stones played on the first line, capturing the opponent's group of stones in a spectacular way. The green marbling pattern was created by hand in 2019, then scanned and cleaned up digitally.

The raccoon dog on the cover of the 2018-2019 Dutch Go Yearbook is the fourth in a series of covers I have made for the Nederlandse Go Bond that feature animals, go positions and paper marbling. Here are the previous three:
And a picture of what the three booklets look like next to each other:
Three NGoB Yearbook Covers designed by Kim Murugandi Ouweleen (2015-2018)
The cover of the 2017-2018 NGoB Yearbook features my go butterfly, which originally was a logo that I created for the European Youth Go Championships (EYGC) of 2015 that took place in Zandvoort.
The patterns on the wings of the butterfly show several tesuji shapes, such as the crane's nest and a snapback.

The 2016-2017 edition, probably my personal favourite so far, incorporates my drawing The Tortoise Shell, a pun on the Japanese name for one of the strongest shapes in go called 亀の甲​ (the tortoise shell): a tortoise rocking the tortoise shell on his tortoise shell.

For the 2015-2016 yearbook I chose a design featuring Lee Sedol's famous move 78 that made AlphaGo go on tilt in game four of their best of five match in 2016. Lee Sedol lost the overall match to the computer program by 4 to 1 games, making AlphaGo the first computer to defeat a top level professional in the history of go. This wedging move by Sedol resulted in the only victory in the matchup for the Korean and became a symbolic victory of human capability.  


If you look closely, you might notice a difference in the look of the elephant cover with the following editions: the elephant is black and white, since most of my artwork was still black and white in those days, but also unlike the subsequent covers the marbled background is one shade of colour and blends together with the go board. The original was blue and white, but an editorial decision was made to change it to brown. The future editions were not altered, showing a small difference in style.

Technically the NGoB Yearbook series with my artwork on the cover started with the 2014-2015 edition, for which my drawing called Fighting Spirit was used. I don't really consider this volume as part of the series, however, because it stands out from the rest. It is completely black and white and as I had not yet discovered paper marbling, there is no exciting background. On top of that, the actual go drawing ended on the back side of the booklet instead of the front. See pictures below. I also include some examples of what each yearbook I illustrated looks like on the inside.  
My go art has also been published on two magazines of the German Go Association, called the Deutsche Go-Zeitung. The Raccoon Dog Drums His Belly and Fighting Spirit make their first appearances on the first DGoZ volume of 2015 and the second DGoZ ​volume of 2019.
Covers of the Deutsche Go-Zeitung: volume 1, 2015 and volume 2, 2019.
Do you run or write a go editorial, magazine, bulletin, leaflet, website, book, you name it? And would you like to include my art? Please leave a comment!
0 Comments

Black to Play

3/4/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
Endgame problem: black to play and win, komi for white is 0.5 points.

​​I recently finished this new go design that incorporates a fascinating 9x9 endgame problem. 
This swordfish is the 13th drawing in my series of go artwork that features animals, paper marbling and of course the game of go itself. I sell these works as postcards and posters in various sizes.

I came across this endgame problem on the Facebook page of BIBA - Blackie's International Baduk Academy - a go school (go is called baduk in Korea) in Seoul. BIBA is specifically aimed at  Westerners who want to study the game. The head masters of the school, Diana Koszegi and Seungjun Kim, kindly gave me permission to use their go problem in my art. 
The endgame problem is interesting for two reasons. At first glance, the position seems to be taken from a real match that was played on a 9x9 board, but on closer inspection it turns out that there are 21 stones for black and 23 for white. It is black to play and no stones have been captured. In these circumstances, in a real match both black and white would have the same amount of stones on the board. So we can conclude that this is a constructed problem. The second reason is the solution. Tip: think outside the box.

Do you want to know the solution? Have a try in the game editor below. I have included several diagrams so it is not apparent on first glance which of these is the solution. Enjoy.



​If you do not have Flash player, you can download the solution as an .sgf-file.
0 Comments

Looking Back #1 - Go Designs

3/4/2020

1 Comment

 
The Tortoise Shell
Go Butterfly
The Divine Move
Shoulder Hit on the Fifth Line
Move 37
Amsterdam Go
Fighting Spirit
Go Samurai
The Raccoon Dog Drums His Belly
Shared Life on the Goban
The Ear Reddening Move
Tsumego: black to play

Today I want to introduce a new part of my blog called Looking Back, which I will use every now and then to share artwork that I have created in the past. As the first post of Looking Back, I would like to share a series of 12 go artworks that I have made so far. 
This ongoing series features animals, paper marbling (known as suminagashi in Japan and ebru in Turkey) and the game of go (known as igo in Japan, baduk in Korea and weiqi in China). Several of these designs refer to the names of patterns and shapes in the game of go that often are derived from nature. For other artworks I took inspiration from famous go matches or gave my own twist to commissioned work.
I sell these designs as postcards and posters in various sizes. This project started little over a year ago, when I realised I want to offer my art in an affordable format. I did however want to be able to guarantee the best quality possible and that is why I decided to make the products myself at home. After taking a chance and purchasing a professional printer in December 2018 I soon found out that it is not easy to find the right paper. Not too thin and shiny for the postcards, not too thick and plain for the posters. After several frustrating weeks of failed tries I finally found the right materials and started offering my work online. Since then I have worked together with many go organisations as well as individual buyers. 

For those of you who are new to the game of go: go is a strategic board game in which black and white take turns, placing stones on a board, specifically on the intersections of the indicated lines. The goal of the game is to surround territory with your stones and whoever has surrounded most territory at the end of the match wins. The rules of go are simple, but the game never gets boring as there is an almost infinite amount of possibilities that makes every match you play a new challenge.
I have been hooked on go ever since I started playing in September 2004. The game, mind sport, art of go or whatever you want to call it has had a significant influence on my life. It gave me an outlet for my competitiveness, made me part of a community, influenced my drawings and even got me several jobs promoting the sport. You can read more about my go background in the GAME OF GO tab.

Do you like my go art and do want to support me? Check out my Etsy shop for posters and postcards.

Picture
About the works:

The Tortoise Shell - A pun on the name for one of the strongest shapes in go called 亀の甲​ (the tortoise shell) in Japanese. A giant ponnuki of sorts.​​
Picture
​Go Butterfly - Originally created as a logo for the European Youth Go Championships in Zandvoort in 2015. The patterns on the wings of the butterfly show several tesuji shapes, such as the crane's nest and a snapback.
Picture
​The Divine Move - The elephant is admiring Lee Sedol's famous move 78 that made AlphaGo go on tilt in game four of their best of five match in 2016. Lee Sedol lost the overall match to the computer program by 4 to 1 games, making AlphaGo the first computer to defeat a top level professional in the history of go. This wedging move by Sedol resulted in the only victory in the matchup for the Korean and became a symbolic victory of human capability.  
Picture
​Shoulder Hit on the Fifth Line - These penguins are witnessing move 37 played by computer program AlphaGo in game 2 against Lee Sedol. Shoulder hits are often played on the fourth line, sometimes on the third line, but rarely on the fifth. At the time of play, many professionals regarded this move as a clear mistake by the computer. Once the game progressed, however, the move turned out to be brilliant, creating a sphere of influence towards the centre of the board.
Picture
​Move 37 - An atmospheric close-up of AlphaGo's innovative shoulder hit, a move that announced new chapters in artificial intelligence and go theory.
Picture
​Amsterdam Go - Originally created as a logo for the Amsterdam International Go Tournament in 2016.
Picture
Fighting Spirit - Kiai! Originally an illustration to the French book "Les Chants de Maldoror" written by Le Comte de Lautréamont (1868). In the book the main character Maldoror takes on the form of a giant eagle to fight God, who is half dragon-tiger, half serpent. The board position is from a game from the 18th century between legendary go player Fan Xiping (black) and Liang Weijin (white), known as "nailing down the guoshou title".
Picture
Go Samurai - An appropriation of a famous woodblock print by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi.
Picture
The Raccoon Dog Drums His Belly - This artwork and its title refer to a beautiful tesuji combination of two stones played on the first line, capturing the opponent's stones. In Japanese this is called タヌキの腹鼓 (tanuki no hara tsuzumi).
Picture
Shared Life on the Goban - Originally created as a Christmas design for the American Go Association. The drawing shows a 6x6 whole-board seki. Seki (セキ) is the Japanese term for a local stalemate position of 'shared life' in which neither player can approach the other's stones. If either player would try to capture the other, he would end up being captured himself. This artwork illustrates the idea that go players share their lives on the go board.
Picture
The Ear Reddening Move - Created for the 3rd Latin American Go Congress that took place from 10-13 October 2019 in the Nihon Ki-in da América do Sul in São Paulo. The toucan, a bird species indigenous to large parts of South America, is taking the place of legendary go player Honinbo Shusaku. The go match in the artwork is one of the most famous go matches ever played, known as "The Ear Reddening Game". The match is at its most vital stage and the toucan is about to play a move that went down in history. Reportedly, when Shusaku played move 127, it mentally shook his opponent, Gennan Inseki, so much so that his ears turned red.
Picture
​Tsumego: black to play - The ring tailed lemur walks by unimpressed. Above him we see a remarkable life and death problem. Please have a look here if you want to know the solution.
1 Comment
    Picture

    Author

    Welcome to my website! My name is Kim Ouweleen, my artist pseudonym is Murugandi.
    ​I am an illustrator, graphic designer, author and go teacher from Amsterdam.

    Archives

    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019

    Categories

    All
    Disc Golf
    Game Of Go
    Looking Back
    New Art
    On Commission
    Products

  • Blog
  • Portfolio
    • Commissions
    • Colour
    • Black and white
    • Paper marbling
  • Game of Go
  • Shop
  • About
  • Contact