PlanningThe story behind Orion according to mythology is that Orion was this great hunter. He fell in love with goddess Artemis, and her jealous brother, Apollo, sent a huge scorpion to kill Orion. Orion managed to kill scorpion but died in the process, so as a token of their love, Zeus placed Orion in the sky as a constellation. I drew a scenery of Orion fighting Scorpio.
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The Orion piece is done using Prisma colored pencil. I first started with the water and the scorpion. I used many different colors to build up different values. I think the hardest part was using all of the colors cohesively. In the sky, I depicted the actual Orion constellation along with the other constellations that occupy the sky along with Orion, however I wanted Orion to catch the viewers' eye. The composition of Orion in the middle accomplishes that. Building the value in the Scorpion was probably the hardest because it required so many colors. I used a range of them along with a gel pen to establish highlights. Orion himself is the man shooting the bow. I need to add more value around him to distinguish him better against the sand. The sand was the last thing I did. I also used a variety of color to establish the texture and motion in the sand.
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PlanningAndromeda is another constellation that is also known as "The Chained Woman." The story according to Mythology is that Andromeda was a beautiful princess. Her parents, Cassiopeia and the king often bragged about her beauty, claiming she was prettier than the sea nymphs. As punishment, Poseidon chained Andromeda to a rock in the ocean and sent a sea monster, Cetus, to kill her. She was saved by the hero Perseus, and was put in the sky as a token of bravery.
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I did this piece in oil paint. I'm happy with how it turned out. I I used different colors and layering techniques to build up the values and the colors in the sky, rocks, and ocean. I wanted to create a sort of distressed effect, as if it's stormy or kind of a dark mood. In the foreground I included Andromeda herself. She's chained to a rock as the story goes. I put Andromeda on the painting last because I decided to change her placement on the painting. At first, I was going to have her chained to the rocks in the mid ground, but I decided to change the emphasis and composition so that she was in the foreground so it would make her more of a focal point in the piece.
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This portrait is made using oil paint. It's supposed to be a portrait of Ariadne in her crown. I used myself as the reference picture and pictures of crowns I found on the internet. I used oil paint to build up colors and values in the hair and skin. I decided to do a purple/grey background because I thought that it was subtle and drew attention to the crown, as they are complimentary colors. I think the purple in the background draws emphasis to the crown and Ariadne herself. I wanted the crown to be big and bold since that is the constellation, while showing the story behind it with the portrait of Ariadne.
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Planning |
For this piece, I focused on the constellation Cetus. This is a continuation of the constellation piece for Andromeda, so my references are sort of the same. Cetus was the sea monster who was sent to kill Andromeda while she was chained to the rock. He was killed by the hero Perseus before he got the chance to do so, but was placed in the sky by Poseidon as a token of bravery.
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This piece was also done in oil paint. I wanted to make it look like a continuation of the Andromeda piece, so it's set in the same background and is zoomed in on the rock Andromeda was chained on. At first, I was going to paint Andromeda on the rock as well, but then I decided that maybe the story would be that Andromeda was saved already and the monster was retreating in defeat. I think showing the defeat of the monster helps tell the story better. I used many different colors to build up value. I also used a palette knife in the water and rocks to make them look more textured. I think I will add more texture to the monster himself. I really like the water and the sky because I think they show lots of motion within the piece.
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