Author: Sierra Iverson

Hello everyone! If you remember Fine Art Fables from last Winter semester at all, I am back at it but with a slightly different twist. This time around I will be focusing more on character designs of the characters featured in many mythological stories. To add a fun twist, the works will be done in the style of Winx Club,

This week I am focusing on Artemis, virgin Greek Goddess of the Moon, the hunt, wildlife, and protector of women and children. The post from this week is inspired by a book I’ve been reading: Artemis: The Indomitable Spirit in Everywoman by Jean Shinoda Bolen. It is about the Artemis psychological archetype that some women identify with, which is essentially a woman that has a long-term goal or target and is able to rise to whatever challenge necessary to reach that goal. Artemis is atypically represented as a woman wearing a short tunic, carrying a bow and arrow. I wanted to try and make her bow and arrows more fantastical than realistic, like she can summon them whenever she pleases. I also kept her feet bare, like she would be more in-tune with nature that way, and also quieter for hunting.

For my last blog post, I thought I would share with you my first illustration for MerMay. For those of you who do not know, MerMay is an art challenge in the month of May, where every day or once a week, you create an illustration of a mermaid. The rules are flexible and there are many prompts you can follow. Obviously, due to my love of folklore as established by my previous blog posts, this challenge perfectly suits my interest.

I hope everyone has a great summer, and I hope to come back this fall with more art for you all to enjoy!

Hello everyone! I have decided to experiment with a different topic for the last couple weeks of the semester. The new theme I will be working with is the theory of magical or metaphysical properties of different naturally occurring objects that can be used in manifestation, prayer, or spell work.

Today, I made a digital painting showcasing a few highlights of items that work well to manifest abundance and financial security. These include: wheat, pomegranate, citrine and adamite crystals, basil, almonds, coins and Jupiter placements (days of the week, zodiac, etc.)

Happy Manifesting!

The Dragon After His Winter Sleep is a very brief Chinese fairytale. It is just a few paragraphs long. It describes a scholar in his study, who suddenly finds a glowing little firefly burning marks along his table and books as it moves around, as if it were on fire. He took the firefly outside, but when it did not leave, he went back inside, put on his ceremonial robes, and took the bug back outside again. This is when the firefly transforms back into a dragon form. According to Chinese belief, the dragons would hibernate during winter much like all of the other scaled creatures and insects. It is also believed that when the first storm in the springtime comes, the dragon flies into the clouds. 

My own artistic inspirations lead me to draw a small firefly in front of a more massive dragon, drawn how the Chinese would have depicted a dragon, instead of in the western style. Because of the fact the dragon flies into the clouds, I made the dragon form the color of a sky, while as a firefly I used more warm tones, as if trying to keep warm in the winter months. 

Here is a link to where I found the story.

The story we are familiar with through modern retellings of El Dorado originates from an old story originating from Muisca Mythology in Columbia, South America. It is also known as El Hombre Dorado (“The Golden Man”) or El Rey Dorado (“The Golden King”). However, the more modern stories tell the tale of a golden city or empire, the original myth covers the story of a Golden King. The Golden King describes a King of the Musica people. As an initiation rite or coronation for a new king, he had to cover himself with gold dust and then submerge himself in Lake Guatavita. While in the lake, people would throw gold, emeralds and other precious stones into the lake. It was a sort of offering to the god the Musican people worshipped. After the Spanish came to Columbia, that is when the story began to morph over time to become a golden city or empire. Of course, any researchers trying to find this city have never been successful. 

Intrigued by the original myth of the story, I drew a rendition of a Musican king walking into the lake during the initiation process.