The Song of Wandering Aengus

I wanted to draw an illustration for the Poem The Song of Wandering Aengus, by WB Yeats, since long ago. I especially love the song version by the Italian folk singer Branduardi.

The part depicted here is when the girl comes out from the silver trout (in italic below). It is not said in the poem itself, but I took the freedom to made her coming out from fire. Hers mermaid appearance comes from the silver trout.

My interpretation is that the Aengus quest is the Quest for Life itself, where Life is symbolized by the girl, born from all the four elements of nature: the fire, the water with the trout, the bright air where she disappears, the earth where apple trees are blossoming.

Well, just my two cents :) Hope you like the painting, anyway.

I went out to the hazel wood,

Because a fire was in my head,

And cut and peeled a hazel wand,

And hooked a berry to a thread;

 

And when white moths were on the wing,

And moth-like stars were flickering out,

I dropped the berry in a stream

And caught a little silver trout.

 

When I had laid it on the floor

I went to blow the fire a-flame,

But something rustled on the floor,

And some one called me by my name:

It had become a glimmering girl

With apple blossom in her hair

Who called me by my name and ran

And faded through the brightening air.

 

Though I am old with wandering

Through hollow lands and hilly lands,

I will find out where she has gone,

And kiss her lips and take her hands;

And walk among long dappled grass,

And pluck till time and times are done

The silver apples of the moon,

The golden apples of the sun.

The Snow Maiden (Snegurochka)

Long time, no blog, and very slow painting in the background of my life occupied by small children.

I started this one when the snow still covered the Scandinavian woods, and now it is finished only in the middle of summer.

This is my personal interpretation of a classic character of Russian folklore, the Snegurochka, or Snow Maiden, daughter of Frost and Spring. Despite she's typically depicted as a merry and kind girl, I wanted to show her sadness, since the legend tells her heart will melt, and she'll die, when she will first fall in love.

(Off)Spring

Time with my newborn and his brother do not let me paint so much, at least right now.

Just a little to paint a sketch of the little one, three months old, in a spring-elfish-maybeflemish version. This was intended as a portrait study, many elements are intentionally left rough, to give a painterly finish (nice way to say: "didn't have the time to do a better render" ). 

Painted in PS, 3-4 hours, in and out.

Seasons Greetings

A quick image painted in Photoshop from scratch, not very religious or X-mas related, but somehow inspired by the Nordic culture where I live: Santa Lucia, the white Reindeer and the magical Northern light, plus a hint of John Bauer, a great Swedish illustrator who was a master drawing Trolls and tiny Princesses.

Probably it will be one of my last illustrations for a while. It's too late now, so maybe I'll use it as Xmas postcard next year, if people will not be too disgusted about :) .

To the very few ones who visit this place, I wish a peaceful Xmas time.

Winged Vanity

This has been made for the contest Wings of an Angel at the Group Digital Art Fantasy, at DeviantArt.

The deadline was quite close and I didn't render as accurately as I would have done, but it's moreless Ok, maybe I'll refine wings and others details in the future.

I didn't want to paint a classical angel (good or demoniac), instead I tried to get inspiration from the Deadly Sins, I though it could be more interesting.
I don't think I'll have any chance to win something (there were already a lot of much more interesting and beautiful contributions), but it was fun and good for me to practice again some facial anatomy, and also a good excuse to paint with the peacock's color palette, which I really love, and also can mean Vanity and Proud in this case.
Used my right hand as reference for hers; painted in Photoshop from scratch as usual.

detail of face:

Eichhornia

Done for the contest "Girl with a Flower" hold at DeviantArt by Gabbyd70 .

This was a pretty good excuse to paint flowers again, and practice a little with faces, which I always need. It's not very clear if the girl is really human, but she tries to give the observer this illusion, at least. She's also not intended to be beautiful or perfect (asymmetries are intentional), but misterious and probably dangerous.

The flower she's connected with is the Water Hyacinth, a very invasive species which, while cleaning the waters where she grows in, accumulates the worse poisons...

 a couple of closepus:

You so Hot

This is just a quick stuff, made for fun after having seen two chili peppers in that posture. Don't know why, but they made me think of two Spanish slugs (Arion Lusitanicus), which are a kind of obsession for swedish gardeners (here they're called mördarsniglar, or Murder slugs).

I put this picture under the label 90' sketch, but it probably took me a little longer than so, 2-3 hours. I've got some back pain now in late pregnancy and it's getting difficult staying long time in front of the computer.

Fainting Autumn

Making doodles, I decided to go on with this one.
It depicts the spirit of boreal Autumn, as we experience it up here. Daylight becomes suddenly short and golden, the leaves have almost fled from trees, the girl tries to catch the last glimpse of light, but the day is already at its end, and soon snow will cover everything.
Technically, I tried here to work without references, just to give myself a challenge with anatomy.

I'm still not sure if the last version should be the whole figure or a smaller one.

a detail:

Bombycilla Garrulus

A very quick study in PS of a graceful and happy bird (Bohemian Waxwing) often visiting our garden.

It is called Sidensvans, Silk tail, in Swedish, and is very much found of Rowan (Sorbus) berries.

I took several photos of this bird, but the quality was always very low because of the zoom, so I wanted to paint a more detailed picture.

Aliens Glandulifera

There was something going on in my mind because of the gorgeous blossoming of Impatiens glandulifera in our garden:

When it happened me to see the first Alien movie on TV, then I understood, and I had to paint this:

I must also say that the famous Salad by Till Nowak was very inspiring too, even if I do not work in 3D as he does.

The anatomy of my Alien is freely inspired by the flowers and the fruits of the plant, and references are of course my own photos. Bumblebees normally love to visit these flowers, but in this case maybe she changed her mind...

Closeups: