I was taking a break at the local coffee house when I drew this gal, an apsaras. Apsaras are from Hindu myth, they are said to inspire the arts and tempt aesthetics away from their meditations by having sex with them. Nice!

The most famous aesthetic to be tempted by the apsaras was Siddhartha. However, he maintained his meditations, acheived Enlightenment, and become the Supreme Buddha.

It’s interesting to note that this myth touches on an inherent struggle between aesthetic religions and the cultural arts, a struggle which can be seen whenever somebody want to ban/burn books or music albums. The fact that most books and albums are singled out because of their sexual content proves the symbolic insight of the apsaras myth.

My goal was to simply draw a curvy, hindu sex spirit. I know that face veils are middle-eastern, not Hindu, but I have a thing for belly dancers. It wasn’t hard to find inspiration or reference, ancient depictions of the Apsaras are not subtle (in fact more modern depictions are possitively puritan by contrast and that is not an exaggeration) they are almost entirely hips and breasts (which means they are the mythological gals for me!). I imagine that back in the day, the apsaras were probably the masturbation subject of choice for young men.