I have been busy this month!
I finished Persephone and Hades or is it Hades and Persephone ;) I also completed a quick gouache painting for a short story, called "Revenge."
Revenge is about a father who's daughter was taken away by a jealous King. After years of wandering (and caring for small animals) a witch in a purple cloak find the man and the plan for revenge is set in motion. It was written by a young person, elementary age. I thought it was pretty dark for someone in their preteens or early teens, but it inspired a creepy painting. All good there!
The only real details in the story were the color of the cloak, that the man was short and the man's hair, "white as milk." Not a way I had ever heard white hair described as, but it does tell you he had very white hair. I gave him a face inspired by Jack Nicholson and a hidden vorpal dagger walking stick. Not many easy to hide weapons say "revenge" as much as a vorpal dagger... And it is fun to say.
Once I was done with this and scanned it in, I did a few minor fixes. The dagger was pointed in a weird direction and I processed a de-saturated version (shown.) The original is crazy vibrant, very much my style, and the purple of the cloak and orb are bright. Nothing I did would make them pop as much, which makes me kind of sad.
Persephone and Hades is done with ink wash. It was fun to paint all the crystals and add details like Hades Cloak of Souls. I tried ensure that I fit as many of the sneaky little details that are hidden within the myths in this painting.
For starters Persephone gets darker the closer she gets to Hades. Her hair and gown get darker. Her riches are of the flora / food variety, and her skies are clear and bright.
Hades offers all the riches of the earth; gold, silver, and gems of all sorts. He also manages the underworld, where the souls of mortals go. I figured a good way to represent this is by having his cloak be like the river Styx with a representation of souls on it.
Hades does not have a lot of information about his appearance. He is closely associated with death. It is common practice to not mention something you fear, even in this day and age.
The really cool thing about this one is, you can hang it however you want, there is no wrong way. I even put my signature in two places so you will not know which way the "artist intended it to hang." MWahahahahahahaha.
I am trying to get all the things together for a give-away. On March 12th my art adventure reached its second anniversary. I want to celebrate that, and that I have over 400 followers on Instagram.
First Prize will be a 8x10 in commission, my choice in medium. Second will be a collection of items including a print, mousepad, notebook, greeting card and postcard. Third will be the winners choice of two prints.
I just have to get the set of things together to photograph for the post.
The contest will run on both of my Instagram Pages, @happygothart and @bycarissac. Make sure you check them out and get some cool prizes.
That is all that is going on right now. Stay tuned! I am gearing up for all kinds of cool things.