This month is the last month of a Component of the Month with Art Elements as from next month we are trialing a new themed challenge to incorporate all forms of medium and that is something I am really looking forward to!
But before we head into new waters we had the pleasure of working with a wonderful piece designed and created by the very talented Niky Sayers from the team. A rune. My rune was Algiz the rune of Protection, of the all seeing into other worlds and represented by Odin the God of the Gods, known for his ability to walk in other worlds amongst the living and the dead. Odin is the God of War and is accompanied by his wolves Geri and Freki. It is said that Geri and Freki struggled to find food so Odin gave to them the gift of sight in the form of two ravens, Huginn and Muninn who would fly high and find the prey for Geri and Freki. The antlers from Odins helmet represent the antelope which is the animal normally associated with this rune. I took most of my inspiration from Norse mythology but it is sprinkled with the stories from other cultures.
I love myth and folklore and magic. I had my runes read when I was in my late teens, I won't share the experience from that as it was quite dark - my life was very dark at the time and not just with teenage angst!
This is the rune Niky created. It is so beautiful that I knew if I tried to create a wearable piece of jewellery I wouldn't do it justice so instead I used it to inspire me to draw.
My finished piece is not quite finished or quite right. The mount is the wrong shape but it was one I had already! This is the first time I have used acrylics as a watercolour, light washes and layered, but I wanted the vibrancy that the acrylic colours give as my first attempt (no photo) was too dark and heavy that I created with a different medium. In this finished pieced I 're-styled' the ravens to give them more of a illustrative look, something more in keeping with my style and I turned the wolves around and made them howl. This worked better than my original design (below) which was leaning too much towards realism and I lost the quirky narrative style I like.
In the original sketch Odin was too dominant and the ravens too 'real' compared to the more illustrative look of the wolves.
I won't be doing any more to this piece, I enjoyed the process and have ordered myself some acrylic inks - watch this space! - as I love the vibrancy of the colours. I need to concentrate more on not straying into the realms of realism, I prefer my work to be quirky although I have to admit the ravens in my finished piece do make me chuckle a little more than maybe I should!
I hope you like the inspiration for my piece maybe one day I will execute it a little better.
I hope you will follow me and hop over to the other participants in this fabulous reveal.
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