In the Green Shadows

In the Green Shadows

Medium: Watercolors, India ink, various mediums

Size: 25x20 inches

For detail closeups, prints, and original painting: -click here-

"The Lady drew herself up tall, and the lanterns dimmed by comparison to the unfiltered aura of her being. She was slender, with emerald eyes, and up close, Lily could see the fine veins that traced under her translucent skin like a fan of tattooed lace. Her hair was thick and black, and coiled in a serpentine cascade of braids. Jasmine blossoms were twisted into the strands, like sweetly perfumed stars. She wore a green silken shift with a subtle pattern woven into the threads, and belted at the waist with a tangle of jasmine vines. The patterns in the silk of her gown shifted and writhed like living runes, and her stark face was both terrifying and beautiful."

Started with this scribble of the faerie Queen Mab (lady of dreams) in my sketchbook. Looks faintly like Southeast Asian statuary. Regal. Distant. Slightly alien.

And her handmaidens.

Then a thumbnail to try and figure out how these initial elements might be placed on the page. Thumbnail sketch is only about 3 inches wide. Very quick. Mostly composition and placement of everything. I had some faint ideas of lanterns (the circles), and two twisted trees that Mab stands between.

Once I knew the rough composition, I had some other figures that I needed to develop in order to fit into that framework, and also determining more exactly the shape of the trees that Mab was standing between. So more scribbling in the sketchbook. A lute player lounging behind her, and more musicians in the tree branches, as well as fey spectators.

Now to combine things with Photoshop. Scanned all the sketches and moved things around in Photoshop so that they were all roughly in place.

More Photoshop combining.

And still more. Sometimes I mirror flip the sketch back and forth at this stage to spot balance issues in the composition. The reversed view gives a fresh vantage.

After I settled on the composition, printed it out and refined the sketch as I transferred it to the final drawing surface. This is one of the intermediate transfer sketches.

And the final transferred piece, ready to paint.

Painting.

I seem to be fascinated by poppies lately. Well, I guess I always am, but more so in recent pieces! But they have been fitting, as flowers of sleep, and these pieces have been about dreams.

Mab of Dreams

Mab of Dreams
Medium: Watercolors
Size: 17x12 inches
Prints & Original: -here-
Detail Closeups: -here-
Sketch: -here-

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The colors for this piece ended up being a surprise. I'd intended originally a rocky outcropping jutting into the dark blue night sky. Somewhere along the line that quickly changed instead into the dusky green of forest shadows. The initial intention of golden butterflies/dreams/souls took on a different aspect than I'd planned as well, with rich blue hues. I wanted to create in Mab, a creature of otherworld fae beauty; but beware and do not forget that she has a dark side, stark and icy, a masterful manipulator of man's deepest desires.

* * *

Shakespeare - Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet, Act I, scene IV :

And in this state she gallops night by night
Through lovers’ brains, and then they dream of love;
O’er courtiers’ knees, that dream on court'sies straight,
O’er lawyers’ fingers, who straight dream on fees,
O’er ladies ‘ lips, who straight on kisses dream,
Which oft the angry Mab with blisters plagues,
Because their breaths with sweetmeats tainted are


* * *


And Thomas Hood, "Queen Mab":

A little fairy comes at night,
Her eyes are blue, her hair is brown,
With silver spots upon her wings,
And from the moon she flutters down.

She has a little silver wand,
And when a good child goes to bed
She waves her wand from right to left,
And makes a circle round its head.

And then it dreams of pleasant things,
Of fountains filled with fairy fish,
And trees that bear delicious fruit,
And bow their branches at a wish;

Of arbors filled with dainty scents
From lovely flowers that never fade;
Bright flies that glitter in the sun,
And glow-worms shining in the shade.

And talking birds with gifted tongues,
For singing songs and telling tales,
And pretty dwarfs to show the way
Through fairy hills and fairy dales.

But when a bad child goes to bed,
From left to right she weaves her rings,
And then it dreams all through the night
Of only ugly horrid things!

Then lions come with glaring eyes,
And tigers growl, a dreadful noise,
And ogres draw their cruel knives,
To shed the blood of girls and boys.

Then stormy waves rush on to drown,
Or raging flames come scorching round,
Fierce dragons hover in the air,
And serpents crawl along the ground.

Then wicked children wake and weep,
And wish the long black gloom away;
But good ones love the dark, and find
The night as pleasant as the day.

Queen Mab Sketch

Mab of Dreams

Sketch for next painting. This is on the board now and ready to be painted. It's been hard this past week to drag myself up to being motivated to finish the sketch and get started painting for some reason. But hopefully now that the hard part is done (brainstorming, research, design, sketching) I can settle in and get working on this.

An earlier stage when I was just noodling around with the concept in my sketchbook: