Because if you're portraying an epic story you have to have a naked lady.

Day Eighteen: A portrayal of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner - Pastel, Pen and Watercolour

This was really tough!!! Trying to capture the epic nature of the story in one image was hard but I hope I've done it some justice.

Garrr, this didn't photograph very well but I'm still pleased with it. A friend of mine requested my interpretation of roughly these verses of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner:

'Are those her ribs through which the sun
Did peer, as through a grate?
And is that Woman all her crew?
Is that a Death? and are there two?
Is Death that Woman's mate?

Her lips were red, her looks were free,
Her locks were yellow as gold:
Her skin was as white as leprosy,
The Nightmare Life-in-Death was she,
Who thicks man's blood with cold.'


I must admit I sacrificed being completely accurate for appearance when it came to 'skin as white as leprosy' as the piece was lacking some colour contrast to the cold colours - I'm sure I could have made it work but alas, time constraints!


I am really pleased with my night sky and giving Death a cow's head - I didn't want to do the archetypal image of death yet still wanted him to recognisable so I tried a few different skulls. 


And if you haven't read The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and don't really understand what's going here there's a boob for you.

Hell?

Day Seventeen: Pastel/Abstract

A friend of mine asked for something on the theme of 'monster'; I decided to divide it into two pieces and this is the first. This is the more fantastical interpretation of the word monster as I have depicted the Nine Circles of Hell - a subject which I have always found oddly facisnating though not being religious myself. The other type of monster, I considered, will be a more real interpretation of the word - awful people etc. But you'll have to wait for that.

I have included my original design so you can see which circle is which.

The Nine Circles of Hell