Return of Persephone

[slickgreekgeo]

With Persephone, I wanted to be experiment with new techniques, as well as being bolder with my color choices. To do this, I studied some of my favorite artists, mainly Bouguereau for color. I created dozens of custom brushes to get the vegetation just right (it was very time consuming I admit, but I can use these brushes to save time for future works). For highly detailed areas like the birds and face, I painted them double the size and shrunk them down (it's actually a lot faster this way, as opposed to struggling with getting detail down at a very small size).

Reference for the figure can be found here: http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/46017998/?qo=12&q=by%3Amondkalbstock&qh=sort%3Atime+-in%3Ascraps

I also looked up a lot of references to get a feel for the background, but nothing too closely. The background was easily the hardest part of this painting (It took me 5 times to get right, I kid you not).

Overall, I'm quite satisfied with this piece (I think it's my strongest in terms of detail and color). I worked on this on and off from January to now, so I would say this took more than 100 hours.

........

For those unfamiliar with Persephone, here's an excerpt from Widi:

“The figure of Persephone is well-known today. Her story has great emotional power: an innocent maiden, a mother's grief at the abduction, and the return of her daughter. It is also cited frequently as a paradigm of myths that explain natural processes, with the descent and return of the goddess bringing about the change of seasons.”

You can read the full article here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persephone

A larger version of this painting can be found here (http://www.mkrevolution.net/art/grass/persephonelg.jpg).
_________________________

Hope you enjoy, feedback is always appreciated.

[slickgreekgeo]

*Please take a look at the close ups, as I spent tons of time getting in all those details:

http://www.mkrevolution.net/art/grass/face.jpg

http://www.mkrevolution.net/art/grass/bird.jpg

http://www.mkrevolution.net/art/grass/foot.jpg

http://www.mkrevolution.net/art/grass/frog.jpg

[Haxxxor]

red nipples wohooo
the bg looks a bit to blury but the woman has very sharp edges what doesn't fit very good the bg especially the tree should get some more edges.
but anyways it is a great peace and i think the 100hours were worth it.
i hope you show us more from this sort because the painting rocks

[Elwell]

Is there a reason why the hummingbirds are so enormous?

[indigo flynn]

She looks very old and sort of jaded- it's lovely, but I can't possibly see her as Persephone.

[Rickert]

Very beautifull. My first reaction on this piece was: it's a little bit too 'crispy/sharp' (too much detail maybe?). And the blurry area (motion-blur) irritates me and distracts from the piece as a whole I think..

Still, I may be not right about that.

Furthermore, I must say it's nicely rendered but a little bit overkill IMO. Maybe it's because of my personal taste for sketchiness in a piece. It looks like there's been too much time in it.


Excuses for the harshness in my words here. Don't get me wrong it's a great(!) work of art, I'm just trying to give some critique instead of asskissing.

[EDIT:the more I look the more I like it. Some parts for example; the colorfull, blurry background on the left, the bird and the bird are superbe done.
Also the rest of the sketchy parts is what stands out, and I like the tree. Just some parts are too sharp in my opinion and kind of give the painting an unbalanced look-->sketchy//fullyrendered..]



^Rick ;)

[chaosrocks]

My first thought was a costume era continuity thing..yes I know she's naked. but shes definitly wearing comtemporary make-up and its rather harsh and unnatural make up at that. I know the Persephone got hardened in her 6 months in hades, but Hades took her because she was innocent and beautiful.... This woman is beautiful.

on a technical note she doesn't look like shes actually sitting on the ground, but rather floating above it. The style is elegant but not quite integrated.

chaos

[Hermine]

i cant see the ref you used, need to be login i think.

[slickgreekgeo]

Haxxxor: Thank you; I admit I 'overblurred' some parts; I'm a big fan of blurring areas (especially the bg) to add depth, but it seems I overdid it. And yes, I learned a lot of new techniques and more about color, all of which I'll apply to to future paintings.

Elwell: I was expressing my artistic freedom. I kid; I guess I got 'immune' to the size of the birds after painting for so long, that they seemed to be 'correct'. I agree with you there.

indigo flynn: 'Old' was something I definitely wasn't going for, but I appreciate your honesty.

Rickert: I always appreciate honesty and 'harsh' critiques more than 'asskissing'; It helps me improve tremendously and is one of the reasons I choose to post at this forum, so don't be afraid to offend :) You have a point about the whole sharpness/blurry thing, I admit I overdid it. As for the sketchy/refined thing, I guess I painted in that way so I can hold the viewere's attention in the more detailed parts. I admit I wasn't entirely successful at that, I'm still learning :)

chaosrocks: You're make some good points, especially in regards to the contemporary look (I'll definitely keep that in mind when I paint more images greek-myth related). You have a point about the floating thing, I definitely skimmed over that bit. Great feedback, thanks for posting.

Hermine: Try this link, let me know if it works: http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/46017998/?qo=12&q=by%3Amondkalbstock&qh=sort%3Atime+-in%3Ascraps

I would post the image at my server, but I doubt the model would appreciate that.

Thanks everyone for taking the time to post, much appreciated (and very honest, gotta appreciate that).