Saturday, December 15, 2012

The Gift of Poinsettia

This was done for the OC Winter Contest hold by the very kind Endorell-Taelos (Alicia Cooper) at DeviantArt. The point was to depict one of hers OC and one of mine in a winter/X-mas environment. I do not have specific OCs, but she allowed me to have one of my Butterflowers, and so the Butterflower Poinsettia was created.
I chosed Luciana among Endorell's characters, because I found it the most intriguing one. She is basically a Dragon mage princess, with a vampire illness, a kind girl, with a heavy past and duties.
So, here comes a little explanation of the pic's symbols:

yes, you 've seen right: the Poinsettia gives its blood as a (X-mas) gift for the gentle but thirsty Luciana. Normally Poinsettias have a white juice, but this is a Butterflower. And, no fear for the little creature: the petals can grow back.

The constellation above Luciana is the Draco. Obviously.

The flowers are typical ones used in winter bouquets, as well as the Bullfinch is a must in (Swedish) X-mas cards. Just to make the pic prettier.

The crown of light resembles the one of Lucia, here in Sweden is a key figure under X-mas times. And, Lucia/Luciana means "Light".

I tried to represent her as a young princess with a childish, but sad expression in her eyes, as if the happiness of these days could never be enough to cancel the terrible past following her. I also wanted to give a feeling of a regal portrait from Old Masters, at least a kind of.

Otherwise, I enjoyed very much to paint this, in Photoshop as usual. Hands referenced from mine. No refs for face. The character Luciana is copyright of Alicia Cooper.

Amphetamine Owl

This was a short task, but it put me far long out of my comfort zone, so it was very much welcome. A colleague/friend of mine wanted to give a decorated mug as a present for hers MC-driving instructor. 
The assignment was to depict this bulky guy yelling at her during lessons. I was provided with a picture of him, the info that he used to call her "amphetamine owl" and some details about motorcycle and his typical outfit.
The drawing was expected to be ironic and not too detailed, since it had to be put on a mug.




Here a pic of the finished work. It is really impressive how nowadays the finish and the quality of colours of ceramic items can be so good.