This Ain't no Party, This Ain't no Disco Daphne

I've been listening to a lot of Talking Heads, hence the obscurity of today's title. Regardless of the worded obscurity, my efforts are becoming slightly more clear with this latest piece, a direct homage to the story of Apollo and Daphne (or at least Daphne).

The inspiration for this came from the blog Illustration Friday, where I will be submitting it soon (a few more changes might be coming, you never know). Illo. Fri. is a blog where people can create and share artwork inspired by a weekly prompt, and the prompt for this week which was "caged." The story of Apollo and Daphne in a very tiny nutshell is this: Young amorous Apollo is struck by cupid's arrow with irresistible love for Daphne (a nymph who's father was a river spirit named Peneus). Daphne flees from the young sun god's advances and pleads for her father to rescue her in some way, shape, or form (PUN), and he turns her into a Bay Laurel (tree). That's good parenting like only classicism can dish it. At any rate, paternal discrepancies aside, I elected to illustrate Daphne being "caged" in her new form. So, we're off.

I started with a small sketch (that needed a lot of work):

I brought this into the computer, scaled it up to size and then decreased the opacity so that the lines would be more faint so i could print it and do this to it:

Feeling much more satisfied with this foundation, women are hard to make up off the top of your head by the way (way to go ladies), I transferred it to the final paper and went at with the gouache and this is the end result:

I'm satisfied with the way the piece came out and I think definitely adds a lot to my burgeoning portfolio. I'm pleased with the atmospheric energy contained in the background, especially those white, pink, and blue trails of light. In addition to that, I enjoy how pink Daphne is in contrast to the golds and browns of the trunk and how her features are beginning to be exaggerated and combined with those of the tree (this includes her dramatically elongated neck and shoulder). I also just really like rendering tree bark (A LOT). Speaking of which, I've got a few wordless (possibly not) comics lined up on the docket for the next coming months and one of them is going to be very densely wooded, so expect more bark.

Oh, and in terms of expectations, I've also been working on 4 large scale paintings that I am hoping to bolster my "fine arts" portfolio with for gallery submissions this fall but my camera is still swimming in the mess it made in it's bed so no pictures for a while. There will be more soon, although probably not next week because I get to spend a week adventuring and relaxing with my family and my wonderfully talented and doubly beautiful (in oh so many ways) girlfriend Melissa Schmid.

So there might be a lapse in the frequency of posting but have no fear, there is more on the horizon, even if it ain't no mud club, or CBGB. Happy viewing as always!