The Magician

🌟The Magician🌟

(yes, we have apparently become pretentious enough to title our paintings)

I thought I might do something magic-related for Halloween, so here you go.

It's been several months since I picked up watercolours, due to this parts of this illustration are a bit rough, but I am low key kinda proud of the composition.

(Close-up)

“Ephemeral Shell”

This painting (especially regarding the flower imagery) is vaguely inspired by the so-called “Schnitterlied”, an originally anonymous (tho later published, revised and quoted by several authors in the following centuries) German poem/song, dealing with fleeting nature of the material compared to the eternal nature of the soul (as appears to be quite common in texts of this era). I came across it when revising for my school finals (which I am still somewhat in the middle of, hence also the recent lack of posts, sorry).

(Close-Ups)

„Oedipus coming upon the dead body of his mother Iocaste” After first watching the 1957 production by Tyrone Guthrie and subsequently reading a translation of the play as written by Sophocles, I felt like painting something related to this story and the scene of Oedipus seeing his mothers corpse (although not outright shown in the actual play, but relayed by a messenger) struck me as particularly affecting.

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Close-Ups:

+ Bonus Snake:

Orestes and Erinys

A bit over a month ago I had to give a short presentation on Aischylos‘ Oresteia as part of my coursework and reading it gave me the idea for this piece.

Specifically, it is referencing lines 1057-1058 of the Libation Bearers, where, for the first time, Orestes is seeing the Furies.

(The text does explicitly describe blood dripping from the Furies’ eyes, but when I noticed this, the idea of a blood-covered face had already developed, and I chose to keep it. Also I didn’t have the time or patience to paint more than two figures, so I suppose you can imagine the rest of the Furies somewhere off-screen or something)

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(Close-ups)

Happy dictator-perforation-day to those who celebrate 🗡️🗡️🗡️

I pulled an all-nighter to get this out on time, because I consistently underestimate the time it takes me to paint, but I am quite pleased with the finished image

As a sidenote, whilst I did skim over the account of the assassination given by Suetonius in his biography of Caesar, I didn’t pay all to much attention to historical accuracy, deciding to prioritise composition instead (Not that my usual artwork is particularly historically accurate, since whilst I do make an effort at research before starting a piece, I still am just some 19-year-old with barely any qualifications in  the relevant fields lol)

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close-ups:

Modern Prometheus

Happy (somewhat belated) Halloween!

I originally planned something more elaborate, but in the end I had to settle for this rather quick doodle of Frankenstein, as I am currently a bit short on time. (Hence also the void background and lack of details in this painting)

(Alternative version & close-ups)