How could I resist this topic!?!? Ok the first thought I had for this was to do “Swan Lake” but that required research for me. I wanted to find the original story. Guess what? The Tchaikovsky ballet IS the original story. There are other iterations that it was based on but otherwise, apparently, that’s that. And it has various different options for endings. This got me thinking about writing a version of Swan Lake someday and i just got carried away. So that got shelved.
Instead, I have done a version of Elaine, also known as “The Lady of Shallott.” Here she is looking out her tower window as Launcelot comes, by chance, to Astolat. I was thinking I was going to regret painting it in low-res but there are enough things I’d want to change on it if I were doing it “for real” that I’d have to do a bit of it over anyway (like run her braid down her back instead of over her shoulder and out her armpit. oh well). I started a version of this story about 10 years ago so I didn’t have to do the research. Someday, maybe, I’ll actually finish writing my version of this story, but for now, I leave you with Tennyson:
Elaine the fair, Elaine the loveable,
Elaine, the lily maid of Astolat,
High in her chamber up a tower to the east
Guarded the sacred shield of Lancelot;
–LANCELOT AND ELAINE by ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON
1/27/2008 @ 11:49 am
Beautifully done! Would love to see that in a storybook.
1/27/2008 @ 1:47 pm
Beautifully rendered.
Have you heard the song version of The Lady of Shallott by Loreena McKennitt?
It’s quite lovely.
1/27/2008 @ 2:45 pm
This is a really lovely illustration to an interesting tale.
1/27/2008 @ 9:35 pm
very details and beutiful piece.
1/27/2008 @ 9:37 pm
Very details and beautiful piece.
1/27/2008 @ 10:04 pm
This illustration is outstanding! I love it! I hope that you complete that book soon!
http://www.indigeneartforms.blogspot.com
1/27/2008 @ 11:39 pm
What a wonderful illo. Pulled me right into the story. Love it.