(DATABASE) Assignment 3: Two strong sketches

Jerry D

Mazu – Mythopedia

The parts of Mazu’s character I noted was that she doesn’t speak, doesn’t marry, has 2 demon protectors whom she bested in combat and the ability to predict weather. She also tried to kill herself after failing to save her father from a storm which is what caused her to become a goddess. 

Composition one, I wanted to find a god of nature or something on that line but most of the ones in the site had gods focusing on people. I decided to go for the next best thing, a god that protects fishermans from China. Once again, I wished to focus on the environment which is why many of my sketches had the goddess herself quite small. That caused me to worry she would be overshadowed due to the small size of the illustration. The first composition I’ve selected has her looking out into the ocean. The border would be very thick clouds on the top, with the ocean on the bottom, and her demon protectors on each of the sides. This composition would focus much more on the border itself than the actual illustration. The actual illustration would involve a rendition of her after she lost her father and became a goddess. Glowing and floaty

The second sketch I chose I wished to focus on the character more. The top of the border would be thick clouds with her demon protectors. The sides would be typhoon winds and the bottom would have rushing waves. The character would stand beside a boat looking into the sky. 

Henry Xu

Hephaestus, a master blacksmith and the greek god of fire and the forge. He was generally outcast from the rest of the Greek Gods and considered generally undesirable on account of his lame leg, but he could hold his own.

https://mythopedia.com/topics/hephaestus

Emily Fakaros

https://mythopedia.com/topics/brigid

I tried to incorporate many of Brigid's symbols, and depict two of her dedicated holy wells. The one with the cross, and the three arches. Brigid is often depicted as a fiery-haired maiden with a cloak of sun beam, and she is seen here covered in growing plants due to her association with spring and new life. She is also associated with death, and many of her sites included graveyards. The rising suns in the borders show her connection with the dawn, and their transition into rivers highlight another one of her main associations. There is also the quill and hammer as she was inspirational to many poets and craftsmen.

For the final I'm planning on doing the first sketch shown, with border elements from the second since I like that one better. Someone suggested I use a dip pen so I think I'll go with that, and then my usual watercolours.

Aaron Scobbie

I chose the Greek myth of Bellerophon, who ends up having to kill the Chimera, which was considered an impossible task that would definitely kill him. The second sketch depicts the lead up to the chimera fight (as it lives in a nice mountain cave), though the second sketch depicts a later beat in the story where since he survived the Chimera and someone sent a whole bunch of soldiers to ambush him and kill him for good. What really interested me about the story is that he falls out of grace with both the gods and the pegasus that he had to tame - he apparently becomes so arrogant due to the belief that he should live among the gods, that he tries to fly up to Zeus and gets thrown off by the horse. In some stories, he survives the fall and wanders the earth for the rest of his life, disgraced, but in others he just straight up dies after falling from the pegasus in the air. 

I ended up getting a lot  of good feedback on border things and that'll for sure be heavily changed. I'm planning on not mirroring it like both other sketches are. Other than that, probably going with the first sketch. 

Chloe Groth

https://mythopedia.com/topics/ra

In both of these sketches I wanted to focus on the idea that Ra was a deity of creation, and the creation of the sun, moon, and humanity. In the frame I wanted to include symbols that alluded to the other titles that Ra went by--being a god of the sun, kings, and order--and snakes as a hint to the story of Isis poisoning him with a snake and his own drool.

The first one has him holding both of his "eyes", the sun and the moon, over Earth. He weeps over the world, creating humanity from his tears.

The second one has more of a focus on his falcon head specifically, still with the sun and moon and the tears, but the tears transition into becoming the world instead to symbolize the creation of humanity. His eye is also the symbol of the Eye of Ra.

Maggie Hoang

I chose the Norse goddess Idun, who represents youth and fertility and is known for the magic apples that prevents aging, which is the reason behind the Aesir gods' immortality. The first sketch is similar to what you would see on something like a tapestry where Idun is placed in the center with surrounding decorative elements and the focus is on the magic apple. The second sketch has reference to her story of being kidnapped by the shapeshifting giant Thjazi and eventually rescued by Loki as their respective bird disguises. The borders are inspired by Nordic wood carvings, as shown in the annotated sketch. I want the first piece to feel grand and to focus more on Idun's power as an Aesir god rather than her story; the second one has more of a fairytale/narrative style.

Mythopedia Link

una Vernelli

Here's my submission! Having some composition issues but my concept feels solid.

I chose the Ceilleach as my narrative subject. It’s a Celtic deity that is related to the winter time and is often depicted as an older female creature similar to Babayaga. She collects fire wood on the first of January and it’s believed that the conditions of that Day predicts the length which winter will remain for.  

Some attributes include: carrying a hammer, taking care of wolves, turning into a raven, wearing skulls, red teeth, wearing a veil.

brie

Guanyin – the Chinese Goddess of Mercy and Compassion

• Characterized by her kindness+protection of those who are suffering

• All seeing, all hearing being who is called upon by worshippers in times of uncertainty, fear, and despair

• Typically shown standing on a dragon’s back, sitting on a lotus, or riding on clouds

• Usually accompanied by two attendants

wanted to find a way to make this piece look as gentle and inviting as possible, the colours are mostly just there for stand-ins right now to help separate the compositional elements.i am leaning more towards the first drawing, but thought about incorporating elements from the second drawing as well since it includes more backstory/contextual clues (fire, Buddhist temple, more blooming flowers)

Angie Soberanis

 In my sketch I included: 

• they are depicted as skeletons with eyeballs in their sockets, having eyeball necklaces, owl feathers in their hair dresses and sandals 
• illustrations of the four god creators of the lord and lady
• animals associated to them, owls, spiders, bats, and bees
• stars, which its said that they swallow the stars during the day 
• floating spirits-people got cremated so their souls could travel to the underworld 
• and ofc a lot of skulls 

The second sketch would have had the same border as the first sketch but I'm going to work on the first one for my final 

Emily's thumbnails

For my project I decided to go with the triple goddess from Celtic mythology: Morrigan! (Sorry for the roughness of these sketches, my brain isn't working properly this week) Stylistically it'll be Art Noveau inspired, with intricate borders that are sort-of a cross between traditional Celtic knots and Alphonse Mucha. I want it to have a vintage fairytale storybook look by using a washed out, limited colour palette.