Orestes And Erinys

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)

As previously mentioned, I am kinda going through a Greek Mythology Phase™ right now, which led me to creating this painting depicting Klytaimnestra after the murder of her husband, Agamemnon. The snake is in reference to a dream she had, in which she gave birth to and nursed a venomous snake/dragon instead of a child, which is seen as a prophecy of her death at the hands of her own son, Orestes.

I decided to do a bit of research into historical Mycenaean Greek dress, seeing as the Epic Cycle and the events directly thereafter are most likely set in the mid to late Bronze Age and as such the style of clothing and architecture would differ considerably from that of the later Archaic, Classical and Hellenistic Periods that is often associated with Greco-Roman mythology.

Then again, I'm not a Historian, Classicist, or anything of the sort, I'm just some random sixteen year old with too much free time on their hands, so I make no promises of accuracy. There are also certain elements that I deliberately left inaccurate, either because it didn't fit the colour scheme, such as the fresco on the wall, which should have had several yellow elements that just looked a bit muddy when I tried to add them, or because I was too lazy to paint them in intricate detail, such as the skirt, which should consist of several layers of different fabric atop each other, but I didn't want to paint all that.

Said skirt is inspired by John Colliers painting also depicting Klytaimnestra after the murder.

Anyway, sorry for the long, nerdy ramble of text, I hope you like the painting and have a nice day :)

(a couple of close ups in case Tumblr fries the quality)

I read that we’re about to get a movie in the coming year, so I decided to rewatch the series, which in turn led to a new bout of fan-brainrot.

Anyway, here’s some fanart of everybody’s favourite Medicine Seller. I also took the opportunity to mess around with the colour choices, as I have recently found my art lacking in that regard. I am not entirely happy with the result, but it looks decent enough to post.

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Close-ups:

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It may not be Christmas anymore, but I recently finished re-reading Charles Dickens' 'A Christmas Carol' and so I present to you this illustration of the Ghost of Christmas Past. My interpretation of the spirit is not entirely faithful to the description written in the book, as some elements were either impossible to really depict artistically or I just couldn't be bothered to paint them.

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Daphne, the Nymph, amidst her (infamous) transformation into a laurel tree 🌿

(Close Ups:)

My current main wip is frustrating me somewhat, so I painted this quick, one-layer doodle as a distraction and I might as well post it