arthurian-mythia

[arthurian-mythia]

King Arthur at Tintagel

uniquedevontours

[arthurian-mythia]

long ago, in a land of heroes and gods and monsters—

or, bedwyr and cei listen to arthur tell a story

Caitlin R. Green, Concepts of Arthur

[arthurian-mythia]

Fan Art was made for me by one of our amazing Beta Readers.

Check them out https://www.instagram.com/merlin_caity_art/

[arthurian-mythia]

New Project headed by Dame Leslie, Donate your OCs to the Arthurian Community or find new knights to write about or take suggestions for characters that previously didn't have a name.

[arthurian-mythia]

lady of the lake (2021)

ko-fi

[arthurian-mythia]

king arthur and the body of sir (cei)

god kay makes me so sad. idk!! it's something about how his character becomes transformed in later narratives to the point of unrecognizability. it's lonely to read about!!! it's like you've buried someone, and then you turn around and someone who looks like them is standing right there, but it's also Not Them.

Caitlin R. Green, Concepts of Arthur

Sir Kay, Seneschal of King Arthur's Court, Harold J Herman

[arthurian-mythia]

Bookish Gawain.

I think Camelot would totally have a library - which explains the sheer number of books on that shelf.

It's rare that I'm happy with my watercolours, but I think I pulled this one off rather well. The background could have been darker, I guess - that's always a difficult thing for me. I made it muted, that's something.

[arthurian-mythia]

Gobert, some Roundtable characters, Feb 2023 (see more) 

@gobertillu

[arthurian-mythia]

Ten of Hearts

[arthurian-mythia]

Excalibur’s Geode № 32

[arthurian-mythia]

The Kid that would be King was at the top of my Best Arthurian Movies of all time.

on my quest to watch every adaptation i possibly can of king arthur i stumbled on this and UHHH IT WAS SO GOOD AND WHOLESOME??? obviously it is more of a kid friendly retelling of the story, but the way they incorporated all the legends, even some stuff from T.H White, and they even gave us young chaotic Merlin !!!??? i'd definitely recommend watching it, such a cozy movie it is on disney+

[arthurian-mythia]

Excalibur paperweight and letter opener (designed by James Houston).

[arthurian-mythia]

Happy New Year, friends.

[arthurian-mythia]

The Secret Language of a Page of Chivalry: The Pre-Raphaelite Connection

Adapting Neil Gaiman’s Chivalry is a decades-long dream fulfilled. The story as text can be enjoyed on multiple levels, and so can the art. You look at the pages and see the pretty pictures, but the pictures also have meta-textual meaning. Knowing this secret language adds to the experience.

Some people pick up the references quickly, but I’ll share with you some more of what’s going on under the surface.

In Ye Olden Days of Art Making, most painters made pictures that contained visual narrative cues. Flowers in a picture might be heraldic signs that signaled political affiliations, or could indicate purity, anger, or love. Purple was the color of kings. A dog in a picture might represent faithfulness, and butterflies could represent the soul.

There are Pre-Raphaelite paintings with so many symbols and ideas in them that you need a deep working knowledge of Victorian and Edwardian social mores to understand what’s going on.

For example, Ford Madox Brown’s Work, a painting which took some 13 years to complete, was first exhibited in 1865 with a catalogue explaining all its symbols and elements. There is nothing in that picture that doesn’t mean something.

I brought some of that visual meta-textual sensibility to Chivalry, (and I’ve written about the symbolism and meanings in the work in other essays.)

I also brought into the work direct Pre-Raphaelite art references.

From 1868-1870, Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones created four paintings illuminating the tale of Pygmalion and Galatea, entitled Pygmalion and the Image, and wrote a poem with each line titling one painting:

The heart desires

The hand refrains

The godhead fires

The soul attains.

A perfect little poem for Chivalry, and I think of it often when some people present me with what I think is a very strange question: why didn’t Galaad just take the Holy Grail from Mrs. Whitaker?

It kind of breaks my heart that people would even ask that.

Burne-Jones painted two versions of this series of which this is the second.

In the first panel of this page, Sir Galaad kneeling before the Grail is derived from the figure of Pygmalion kneeling before Galatea: The Soul Attains.

Sir Galaad’s restraint even in the face of his greatest desire makes him worthy of his prize.

There are two Pre-Raphalite references in this page, the most obvious being in panel 2: it’s Sir John Everett Millais’s 1857 work A Dream of the Past: Sir Isumbras at the Ford.

The painting was very poorly received on first exhibition, compelling Millais to redo significant portions of it. It was caricatured and ridiculed, and then ended up becoming influential and popular, and isn’t that the way it goes.

That’s an art career in a nutshell, really.

The Sir Isumbras image also influenced John Tenniel’s illustrations for the Lewis Carroll Alice in Wonderland novels.

Sir Isumbras derives from a 13th century Medieval romance poem about a good knight whose pride causes him to fail in his Christian duty. He is presented with a series of difficult challenges before he can find happiness again, reunite with his family, and be forgiven his sins. The painting by Millais is based less explicitly on the poem than it is on a later parody of the poem. (It’s complicated.)

My using Sir Isumbras as the base for the shot of Galaad with the children is obvious here. In the Millais painting, Sir Isumbras carries a woodcutter’s children across the ford. In Chivalry, Sir Galaad carries the children of Mrs. Whitaker’s neighborhood down the street.

While Sir Isumbras spent many years learning humility and Christian duty, Galaad has a long quest to fulfill before he can achieve his goal. And on the way to that goal, he’s humble and nice to children, too.

That the Millais painting was such a huge influence on many a depiction of knighthood over the years made it a perfect reference point here, and the story behind both the painting and the poem give it further layers of meaning.

The next panel has a far less obvious reference, but the source is Arthur Hughes’s painting The Rescue.

Arthur Hughes is one of the lesser-known Pre-Raphaelites, but his art is widely seen and influential. He’s certainly been a big influence on me, as many of his paintings appear again and again in Arthuriana references, as he was a prolific King Arthur picture tale teller.

The Rescue (1907-1908) was originally part of a diptych which was separated and sold back in the 1920’s. His style was becoming unpopular by the time Hughes painted the work, and little is known about this work except that one panel was in the collection of Andrew Lloyd Webber at some point. Maybe still is. Dunno.

Anyway, the diptych depicts a little child kneeling in prayer menaced by a dragon in one panel, and in the next, safely trotting away with a knight on horseback. I like that this is a diptych, a kind of proto-comic art form common in medieval religious art, so this was perfect to use here.

Another reference to Arthur Hughes is in this double page splash from later in the book as Galaad on his quest encounters the Hesperides.

I didn’t set out to reference this Arthur Hughes piece at first, but it’s one of my favorite paintings. When I realized my sketches for this scene kept echoing the Hughes composition, I went with it. The Hughes painting of Galahad is one of the most famous depictions of the character, so it makes me happy to have this referenced in Chivalry.

Kindly ask for CHIVALRY, published by Dark Horse Comics in the USA and by Headline Books in the UK at your local comic shops or bookstore. Written by Neil Gaiman. Adaptation and art by me.

For further reading on this project, go HERE.

HERE.

And HERE.

Thank you to my Patreon patrons for sponsoring my work and this post.

Colleen Doran Illustrates Neil Gaiman will be a solo exhibit at the Society of Illustrators in New York City this spring. Watch this pace for updates.

Have a wonderful holiday season.

[arthurian-mythia]

Interview: John Matthews, King Arthur and Sarmatians

A bonus episode from our interview with John Matthews talking about his time working on the 2004 film, King Arthur and links from Arthurian myth to the Sarmatian people.

Links:

The Great Book of King Arthur & His Knights of the Round Table - Amazon (US)

The Great Book of King Arthur & His Knights of the Round Table - Amazon (UK)

Hallow Quest - John Matthews' website

John Matthews - Goodreads

Our Links:

Our novella, Ap Ector No.1: Cries in the Storm is out on Amazon Kindle.

Tumblr, Twitter, Redbubble Store, Twitch, Discord (Where we hang out it doesn't belong to us), Email: arthurian.mythia@gmail.com

Check out this episode!

[arthurian-mythia]

Camelotpunk Zine - Now Accepting Applications!

Hello all! Let's get this project going - Camelotpunk is a charity zine based on medieval Arthurian literature and modern adaptations. The aim is to produce a diverse collection of art and writing, visualizing an Arthurian universe that could be described as "Camelotpunk", whatever that means for you! Medieval lit, modern lit, BBC Merlin, The Green Knight, Cursed, High Noon over Camelot - everything is fair game! For more info, check out the schedule and FAQ.

Without further ado:

[Artists Apply Here!]

This project will hopefully be accepting around 12-24 artists, subject to change based on the number of applications. The application is for anyone looking to illustrate page art, cover art, merchandise, and/or marginalia. For this application, please have prepared a link to a portfolio or images/PDFs of your 3-5 best pieces. You may also add examples of merch or other design work if you like. Find content and format guidelines in the FAQ! Apps are open until April 29.

[Writers Apply Here!]

This project is looking for around 3-10 writers, based again on the amount of interest. Writers may choose to do a fictional piece, a piece of academic writing, or poetry. For this application please have prepared links to 2-3 posted works or Drive files that illustrate your style and skills. Find content and format guidelines in the FAQ! Apps are open until April 29.

[Mods Apply Here!]

I'm looking for a couple more mods to help with administration and design. A mod's role and requirements on this project are described in the form. Mod applications will close a week before participant applications, on April 22.

- - - - -

For all of the above positions, experience with zines is not required - first-timers are very welcome! If you feel you can handle the workload, you're welcome to apply for more than one position. For any questions, this blog's asks and messages are open, and I can also be contacted @jetiisse.

That's all for now! If you're interested in this project, please help out by reblogging! The more creators who get to participate, the better!!

[arthurian-mythia]

Interview: The Great Book of King Arthur & His Knights of the Round Table

In this episode we interview author, John Matthews and speak to him about his new book, The Great Book of King Arthur & His Knights of the Round Table, a book that compiles 32 Arthurian tales with illustrations by John Howe and foreword by Neil Gaiman. We talk to John about what got him into Arthurian myth, and find out how he put together the book.

Links:

The Great Book of King Arthur & His Knights of the Round Table - Amazon (US)

The Great Book of King Arthur & His Knights of the Round Table - Amazon (UK)

Hallow Quest - John Matthews' website

John Matthews - Goodreads

Our Links:

Our novella, Ap Ector No.1: Cries in the Storm is out on Amazon Kindle.

Tumblr, Twitter, Redbubble Store, Twitch, Discord (Where we hang out it doesn't belong to us), Email: arthurian.mythia@gmail.com

Check out this episode!