Another character/creature completed. Pretty happy with the results and I think it will be a lot more fun in color. It will be a long while before I paint them. Originally the intent was for just the one, but things develop an identity separate from vision once the lines start forming.
In the mean time, I’m designing the intricate triskellion disk that the Satyr and this Feline Fae are sitting upon. I’ve been doing a lot of celtic knotwork lately and will share more soon!
I‘m ramping things up to finish my mini art book, for the 2012 Sketchbook Project. I was all ready to lay out the map insert when I realized that I over measured by an inch on the main page. Given the cats had slept on the template a few nights already and left a love crease in it, I was already prepared to lay it out again. Can’t wait to share that soon!
Today, however, I am developing one of the two characters for a different feature section of the book that are guarding the spheres. One is depicted atlas style, under the weight of the sphere, the second will be perched above a globe on the adjacent page.
I chose a satyr like female creature. The horns are styled after Welsh black ram horns, but inverted. Hopefully I will have time to go back and tweak the contraposta some more. Combining skeletal structures in mythical creatures is challenging in and of itself. Somehow, I always seem to do it with contorted positions that require subtle foreshortening. A little tension in the pose creates interest and suggests a larger story in motion, so I hope.
See concept sketch and development phases
Literary Sketch
She knows the seal peoples coming and going. She watches the battles that brew between a race of the sea and a race of the land. Polution is bearing a heavy toll on the creatures of the sea, as the creatures suffer the magic is turning darker. The gentle selkie are not pleased.Down in the deeps of the kelp forest she makes her home. She does not tolerate strangers well, so beware of bewitched kelp. To avoid the sting and strangle of the kelp you will want to spen dmuch time eating the plants of the sea so your scent and energy are more aligned to them.She is also extra wicked in her desiring for shining and light filled objects. To win her welcome and get her to share her knowledge you need to use a large fresh water pearl. The properties of the pearl will also calm her temper and bring out her more noble side.
She has been completed for a while now. In some way I have had a hard time feeling done with this. The painting is done, but it has this half made story in my head that wants a more developed world. I have seen the other creatures in the murky kelp- funky yellow eyed brown molting and decrepit skin things with sharp teeth and eel like bodies. I need to sketch them out.
I will have to explore that all out more later in both the sketching and in the literary sense. Would like to develop some amalgamation of a tentacled creature too- because so many limbs would be fun to play with.
I like to test my creations against the imagination and perception of my boys. They say it how it is, but that is great when they find weak areas. They also describe the character to me, and it helps me figure out if I am using the right illustrative language so to speak.
Can’t wait to share the springtime cute paintings I am working on soon. Cuddly bright fuzzy things that are not my usual subjects. Fun! I imagine that will lead to the things popping up in my garden soon as well.
Hope you are all bathed in much inspiration as the spring unfolds and the year continues to bloom!
Artist Notes
Literary Sketch
She is known well, unforgiving and hungry, ever lusting to devour the joy of the soul. She lays traps for young children, and is especially fond of fairy children. She leaves her shiny possessions out in the wild. Parents warn their children to never take anything that does not belong to them, for if they do Ciarólca will come for them, take them and devour the joy from their soul till they are no more.
She knows the laws, for if she breaks them the knows the price. She can only exact her vile acts on those who have wronged her, by stealing from her. All that matters to her is that she can devour their souls joy and gain back the appearance of youth. Her appetite comes at a heavy price, for with each soul’s joy she devours she gains more mass upon her back. Eventually her desperate appetite will crush her.
Here is another character concept sketch for an earth caring spirit. Unfortunately I did not pay attention and left my watermark over my little sparrow. In the final I intend to have a few creatures eating on the mulberry fruits.
The squirrels especially love them, as I have found rabbits do as well. My cat Kali made a mad sport of it one day when I was taking the recycling out. Luckily she has no front claws and I was able to catch her that time. Good thing she has a bell collar.
Literary Sketch
She knows the seal peoples coming and going. She watches the battles that brew between a race of the sea and a race of the land. Polution is bearing a heavy toll on the creatures of the sea, as the creatures suffer the magic is turning darker. The gentle selkie are not pleased.Down in the deeps of the kelp forest she makes her home. She does not tolerate strangers well, so beware of bewitched kelp. To avoid the sting and strangle of the kelp you will want to spen dmuch time eating the plants of the sea so your scent and energy are more aligned to them.She is also extra wicked in her desiring for shining and light filled objects. To win her welcome and get her to share her knowledge you need to use a large fresh water pearl. The properties of the pearl will also calm her temper and bring out her more noble side.
She is one of the many characters I sketched out visual and literary concepts while I had the snagfu with the twitter mystery. I found it so productive I have begun to do character sketches daily- Really loving it!
A week or so ago I went through a kind of cleansing phase. One of those times we have to walk through the shadow and darkness of our inner demons. Wading through doubt, fear, and insecurities seeking the clarity, direction, and meaning of our goals and purpose. It is horrid in transition but the benefits in the end are so empowering.
I have been giving a lot of time to other goals, while they are my goals too- they left me feeling like I abandoned my self. I was not doing enough for my art goals. Then the unrest of that spilled into other things. In the end a feeling of being overwhelmed and defeated was there, leaving me to sit and go through some hard introspection.
I had to find a balancing point to keep me inspired and moving on all the things I want to do. I had to just plunge into my art a bit and rediscover why I love creating so much.
Ultimately I gave myself permission to reset goals to be more realistic and in harmony with each other. I had to choose where I needed to lower some ideals in order to push up the achieving of other standards.
It is essential we learn a solid compromise with ourselves. Neither giving into and spoiling the child that will find a hundred reasons not to work, nor squashing the vital flexibility that allows the flow and inspiration which comes from play.
So here I was feeling all romantic and young with creativity and art and looking for something very different and new.
The drawing above is a study for a painting. I used to explore shape in the drawings before painting and found it a good practice- so I went back to it. I really wanted a centaur with a unicorn horn- and have not been able to find a name for such a creature in myth. So if anyone out there has ever heard of one let me know – PLEASE!
This one is of an adolescent Centaur / Unicorn coming of age. I wanted a mood of wonder and fascination with the world along with a sense of innocence and youth. The contrapposto and foreshortening were really challenging with the figure but it turned out really well.
In mythical or fantasy art there is this idea that it is easier because you don’t have to depict reality. It is the opposite though that is true. To do it well you have to really know and study real life forms. If you do this your creation can be real to the viewer and will allow them to relate better. What makes it harder naturally is- there are no real centaurs / unicorns so you have to study and merge forms in a believable way.
