Myrrha an Cinyras

One of the pieces I had previously posted was one of Myrrha and Cinyras, after looking back on the image I had done, I have realised that it looked unpleasant and cluttered, the drawing of the figures look unprofessional, the paint work was poor as there is no concept of colour or tonality, the bordering looks shabby and the image is cluttered. So I decided to recreate the image in a different way,

The image is of the same concept, that Myrrha has ran into the forest after tricking her father into incestuous activities,  and the gods heard her cries to be punished, and turned her into a tree.

I believe the second image is a lot more successful than the original, the composition gives it a greater effect of a solid structure, and I have avoided cluttering the image with unnecessary items which draws focus to the main feature.

I have added certain things to give the image to give the appearance of a tree, such as the leaves at the end of the woman's hands and in her hair, and the look of roots entwined with her lower legs.

Hermes, Aphrodite and Athena

I have recreated an image of Hermes statue in pencil.

I am very pleased with the outcome of this image, I think the shading and composition give the main figure more depth, with the main figure being in the left corner and the strong lines on the right side of it, it almost borders the image and draws the eye to the detail in the shading.

I also did a sketch of my own version of Aphrodite birth rising from the sea.

and recreated a statue of Athena in the walker museum in Liverpool.

i took the photograph of the statue att this angle to try and capture the solemn look in her face and to try and capture the  complexity of different tones in the structure

Myrrha and Cinyras

Throughout the stories of the ancient Greeks and there mythology, the gods have  proved themselves to be extremely petty and spiteful, a prime example of this is the story of Myrrha and Cinyras, Cinyras was a king with a beautiful daughter Myrrha, the king often boasted that his daughter was farer than the goddess of beauty herself, this angered Aphrodite, as a punishment, she gave Myrrha a desire for her father no child should have, she was cursed to fantasize about him night after night, eventually, through the help of her servant, she tricked her father into thinking she was her mother, afterward when he had realised what he had done, he banished her, as she ran into the forest, she prayed for the gods to punish her. They accepted and turned her into a tree, she was pregnant with her incestuous baby who grew inside her and was raised by nymphs, and the child’s name was Adonis.

The myrrh from a tree is Myrrha’s tears.

I recreated this story with three alternate versions of Myrrha, as a tree, with the image of a myrrh tree branches as a boarder.

Sandro Bottcelli

Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi also known as Sandro Botticelli, was a painter during the renaissance, famously known for his work based on Christianity but also famously depicted the painting of the birth of Aphrodite (Venus), the goddess of love, beauty and pleasure.

The image shows the birth of Venus from the ocean, floating ashore after being born of the ocean and Uranus, the story depicts that Cronus castrated Uranus and threw his genitals into the ocean. the name Aphrodite means foam-arisen. 

Here is another adaptation of the birth of Venus by Granger

this is an image of Cronus severing Uranus' genitals.

This image shows Aphrodite and Ares.