Lizjonesbooks

Illustration Friday-- Primitive

Illustration Friday-- Primitive

[info]lizjonesbooks
4/19/08 10:51 pm
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I've been reading a book on the Ancient Celts this week, and so have taken my subject choice from the stories. This is an image of Cernunnos, Celtic god of the forest and abundance. I've based this on a cave drawing of a human-stag figure from 13,000 BC. It predates stories of Cernunnos, but fits nicely from a symbolic angle.

With the forest greening around us, and the fruit trees giving every indication of making this year abundant-- he seemed like the logical choice!


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  • [info]steve_savicki
    4/20/08 03:20 am (UTC)
    You must've used two different art styles to distinguish the character from the background.

  • [info]darklingwoods
    4/20/08 03:30 am (UTC)
    ohhh I like this!

    • [info]lizjonesbooks
      4/20/08 03:31 am (UTC)
      Glad to hear it! The stories are pretty amazing. Also pretty gory, on the whole. Took me awhile to find one that I liked.

      • [info]darklingwoods
        4/20/08 04:11 am (UTC)
        I don't think I've read his story, but of course I know who he is by name, I'll have to read up on him! :)

        • [info]lizjonesbooks
          4/20/08 02:53 pm (UTC)
          It was a new one on me. I'd read about Arawn and the hounds of Annywn(sp?) in the Dark is Rising series, if memory serves. but there's a lot more to the story than that, of course.

    • [info]steve_savicki
      4/20/08 03:33 am (UTC)
      *brags- first to comment*

      But what do you like about the pic?

  • [info]tltrent
    4/20/08 01:06 pm (UTC)
    Absolutely gorgeous. I *really* love this. :)

    • [info]lizjonesbooks
      4/20/08 03:00 pm (UTC)
      Thanks, Tiffany!
      You get some credit here-- After reading Hallowmere, I felt compelled to dig back into our Celtic history stash and read more about the sidhe(raths), and the old stories.
      Such fascinating stuff. I'd read chunks of the Mabingion earlier this year but found myself adrift in a sea of unfamiliar names and places. Now I have a better sense of which stories to read, and how to map them.

  • [info]saputnam
    4/20/08 01:45 pm (UTC)
    Very nice Liz! I love anything Celtic and think you have depicted Cernunnos perfectly.

    I really like how you have used the various shades of green to show light but wished you had highlighted the head a little better.

    • [info]lizjonesbooks
      4/20/08 03:04 pm (UTC)
      I was sort of debating how much light to show on him. Easy enough to pick it out brighter, though.
      Did you go check out the cave painting original? It almost lacks a face-- it's all dark, perhaps hidden behind a beard... I couldn't really make out what it was supposed to be. I wonder if it's hinting at the inscrutable nature of the divine, or whether it's something else(hard to know, since none of the associated stories accompany the drawing, of course). All the stories of Cernunnos describe him as having a mature(human) male face with a beard, so I went that route. Fun stuff to read about!

      • [info]saputnam
        4/22/08 01:16 am (UTC)
        Liz I really like what you have done, the forest has much more detail now. I love the play of light on the trees!

        • [info]lizjonesbooks
          4/22/08 01:31 am (UTC)
          Thanks! I superimposed two images of our woods and played with fades in and out, and then some filter color layers... love woodlands!

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    4/20/08 02:47 pm (UTC)
    You've been tagged on my blog!
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  • [info]kellyrfineman
    4/20/08 04:57 pm (UTC)
    Oooo. Cool.

    And now, brainradio is playing "and the green grass grows all around, all around . . . "

  • [info]jackfirecat
    4/20/08 06:41 pm (UTC)
    wonderful. Also reminds me of the forest spirit from Miyazaki's Princess Mononke. Maybe he based it on the same source.

    • [info]lizjonesbooks
      4/20/08 08:03 pm (UTC)
      Cool! I haven't seen that one yet, but I really want to. I think this is a concept that goes way, way back. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if Japanese tradition had a similar figure...

  • [info]nymwae
    4/30/08 12:24 pm (UTC)
    This has a very spirit of the earth feel to it. Nice :)
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