Marai redux

[pyraxis]

shashigai has a beginner's drawing book where one of the exercises is to draw objects that you could call your beloved. We were talking about what that would mean if I applied it to my own art.

He asked about Jade Vanderholle, the computer game character I used for my 3D modeling class last year. Was she something that held my love? I made her out of perler beads, even. Would I paint her?

But the thing is, that love is what I put into the painting of Marai from Dekan, and when it was finished, it didn't inspire much interest from anyone outside. Since then, I've been wondering why. She holds things I very much care about. Why didn't that translate into the art?

It was her lover, Bonnus, that she was dreaming of by the fire, wondering if he would ever come home to her. Shashigai said to remember how it felt when he was still living up north. I didn't know when he would come to join me, if ever.

In that case, I said, I'd frame it totally differently.

So I sketched out another try, and since it came out all right, I spent today adding colour. I'm curious whether it gets any closer.

Comments

[dejablue7.livejournal.com]

That looks really nice :)

[pyraxis]

Thanks :)

[tigerweave.livejournal.com]

well, I think it is beautiful, which isn't perhaps what you want to hear as that isn't much critisism :-P When I first saw it before I read your explanation, I thought she really did look out that window in a longing and almost loving way. I thought she might say, be in a land she absolutely loved. Maybe like me/Imoh when I went home to visit my Auntie in her little cottage where I studied healing with her for a number of years.

[pyraxis]

Oh, I never thought that it might be the land too! She does love it there. She's looking out over the clan farmstead and then the north woods on the far side.

When you went home... does that mean you grew up there too? Marai grew up on the farm and then later she came to be in charge of it. She really didn't want to do it at first, for years she refused, but I guess she must have eventually decided it was all right because she's still there now.

It's ok about no criticism. I also just kind of wanted to see if people would enjoy looking at it.

[epihaptic.livejournal.com]

That is very nicely done. I too picked up on the yearning look. But then I focused on her legs, and my reading started to change. The chair appears to be facing almost directly away from the wall, so her upper body must be rotated to the point where her braced arms may be needed to hold the position. Is this a quick glance, caught in the moment? Or is inner tension reflected in the awkward position she chooses to hold?

[pyraxis]

Interesting... the design of the chair was supposed to slightly resemble a cage, and there is tension there. She could go to him, except all her responsibilities, her home and her family, are here. At the same time, she knows he's also holding himself back from coming to her. He's afraid of how he might hurt her - and he could well be right - he carries the same kind of curse as a werewolf. So it leaves them both caught halfway, longing and refusing the longing.

[yonjuunana.livejournal.com]

Oooh, I really like this one.

Possibly vaguely unhelpful but the absolute first thing that caught my eye was the detailing in the fabric of the sleeve... sat there for a moment being like "oh wow, that is gorgeously drawn, how did she do that?" and it took me a minute before I could move on to looking at the whole painting.

The hair and the head scarf look amazing as well. I like the glow of the fire both inside and in the distance, and the textures of the stone.

My main critique is that something seems a little bit off about the proportions in the hips and legs, like compared to the size of her shoulders and arms they should be a bit larger, or something is awkward about the positioning. But everything else looks really good.

[liedownlovely.livejournal.com]

Ah, your art is so gorgeous. Ngh.