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Reposting for edelgard’s birthday ♥️

“Portrait of Lady Edelgard Von Hresvelg”. Oil on wood panel. 28” x 24” 

Finally, my portrait of Edelgard from Fire Emblem: Three Houses is finished.  This has been my major project over the last year or so, although its roots go back to about 2020.  I had this massive preamble in mind about how much FE3H has influenced myself and @misslovelyillustration ’s lives since she made me start playing it five years ago, but for now I’ll just say that I haven’t been this captivated by a video game since either Jet Set Radio Future or Metroid Prime.  In fact, I figured I was well past the age to ever be enamored by a video game ever again.  Three Houses just seemed to be the right thing at the right time.

I’d like to thank my sister Liz for being the model for Edelgard and @misslovelyillustration for twisting my arm into playing the damn game…as well as for her continued love and support.

Finally, I would also like to thank my friend/Mentor Merrily for lending her tailoring skills in putting the costume together.  Without her, I doubt I could have brought this painting together, at least not to the level I had envisioned for it.

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Irving Ramsey Wiles - Russian Tea (ca. 1896)

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Nicolai Fechin - Woman with a mirror (1915)

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Currently reading (cover art by Boris Vallejo)

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Giorgos Rorris - Maria on the stairs (2010)

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Just something I put together real quick. I meant to post this last week, but I've been pretty busy. Honestly, Nosferatu not winning best cinematography was an absolute crime.

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Nosferatu has been living in my head rent free for the past month and a half and I finally had the chance to draw them!

Not sure if it's out of my system though because I feel like I might have to draw Ellen in her bonnet at some point.

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Anyone else feel nervous when sharing big changes to their OCs or is it just me? :’)

I've had a few people ask me about Julie and Albert on and off wanting to know if I had any updates. The short answer is yes, but I’ve made a lot of changes. 

For those who don’t know, I created Julie and Albert my senior year in art school. We had to re create a fairytale and I chose Beauty and the Beast. I took the original story and reimagined it in a 1940s setting.

I loved their old character designs, but over the years, I found myself hitting a wall with their story. It was no longer fun to make and I was afraid that saddling the narrative in a real life historical time period could also lead to unintended mistakes/consequences.

Recently, I decided to start over from scratch in order to lean into the fantasy and fairytale aspects and I’m so happy that I did. It has allowed me to get more personal with their narrative and draw from my own experiences with my religious trauma. It’s a vulnerable place to be and that’s kind of scary for me, but now I actually feel excited to continue their story. :)

I’ve been nervous to share these changes because I know many people liked their old designs, but I had to share this eventually. 

That said, I hope you all enjoy where these two are now and who they will continue to become. I’ll be posting more are of them as I can while I continue to write their story. 

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Hubernie Vampires

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#noticeHowTheMoonInTheBackGroundRepresentsZephia #yaKnowLikeHowZephia'sHornsLookLikeACrescentMoon

Its finally time to share my first piece I made for the Emblem of the Arcana tarot!

First up is Marnie for the Hanged Man tarot card!

I definitely ran into a few challenges (Marnie's outfit is made out of so many parts! T_T) but overall, I'm decently happy with it!

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I want to tell a story to the artists and would-be artists out there.

When I was 19, I made a large oil painting of the nerd I would eventually marry. I poured all my attention and care into this painting. It's the only art I have from back then that still holds up as a work I'm proud of today.

I entered it into a judged show at the local art center. It got an honorable mention. I went to see the show with my beloved model. One of the judges came up to talk to me, and highlighted that all the judges really liked the painting. It would have placed, except, you see, the feet were incorrect. They were too wide and short, and if I just studied a bit more anatomy-

I called over my future wife, and asked her to take off her shoe. Being already very used to humoring me, she did. The judge looked at her very short, very wide little foot. Exactly as I'd lovingly rendered it. I would never edit her appearance in any way.

The judge looked me in the eye, and to his credit, he really looked like he meant it when he said "Oh I'm so sorry."

Anyways the moral of the story is that all of those anatomy books that teach you proportions are either showing you averages, or a very specific idea of an idealized body. Actual bodies are much more varied than that.

So don't forget to draw from observation, and remember that humans aren't mass produced mannequins. Delight in our variation. Because it's supposed to be there.

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Portrait Of Mrs. Howard-Johnston, 1906 Giovanni Boldini

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Like everyone else I literally couldn't help myself and had to hop on the art train.

Not expecting much since I was playing around, but here is Roan of Arc! Her first VMA fit has been living in my head rent free for about a week

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Symbolism in "Portrait of Lady Edelgard Von Hresvelg"

This is something that I’ve usually never really felt comfortable doing. If you ever wonder why some artists are a bit more reluctant to actually *talk* about the “meaning” of their work, its because it strikes the same tenor as having to explain why a joke is funny.  If I have to actually lay it out for the viewer why certain decisions were made in the execution of a work of art, the magic of the whole experience may be lost.  Moreover, many artists avoid making definitive statements on their work because they do not wish to deprive viewers the opportunity to derive their own unique explanation. 

While I chiefly view myself as a fine artist, most of my artistic training was as an illustrator.  As an artist, this can lead to an interesting dichotomy when it comes to creating paintings.  During my studies, I was told that the job of an illustrator is to solve pictorial problems for people often by making pictures that tell a story or convey an idea.  Fine art’s definition, in contrast, tends to be more nebulous.  But I digress, on to the painting…

A number of people on reddit and Tumblr have remarked on the candle with the snuffed-out flame.  No interpretations on it have been offered, the mere presence of a candle with a smoldering wick is a strong enough implication.  However, this is one instance where I drew inspiration from art history so I believe it is worth elaborating on.  The animus for the candle originates in the Arnolfini Portrait by Jan Van Eyck.  Below is an image of the painting with the pertinent candle circled.

Art history scholars have a number of different readings about the candle’s presence, but the one I was taught in Art History is that the lit candle indicates the presence of the holy ghost or the watchful eye of God.  Three Houses draws from a number of religions for its world building, in the case of The Church of Serios, the developers took the majority of their cues from The Catholic Church.  If a lit candle would suggest Edelgard’s faith in the Goddess, then an extinguished one must imply Edelgard’s *loss* of faith. 

In addition to the extinguished candle, I would also like to direct viewers to the reflection of the candle in the polished wood table surface. In the reflection the candle is still burning very brightly, almost down to the base of the candelabra.

The purpose of this image is to recall a saying from old Taoism Philosophy in China: “The candle that burns twice as bright burns half as long.”  Those who are familiar with Edelgard’s back story in Three Houses will find its relevance obvious.  I doubt I am the only one to make the allusion.

This brings me to the next major piece of symbolism I employed in the painting, the dagger and the drapery on the table.  The dagger’s significance should go without saying, but its application as a device will become more apparent after I explain the table cloth.  To put it succinctly, the majority of the dark shadow shapes made by the tablecloth are arranged to evoke the shape of the crest of flames.  Below is another visual to help illuminate this detail. 

The immediate implication here is the detail of Edelgard possessing the crest of flames.  As for why I decided to depict it in a more concealed way…When I first got the idea for this painting, the whole concept was that if a person saw this painting in a gallery, they would be looking at an actual artifact from Fodlan, one that created by an artist who actually lived there.  This is why the second row of the inscription reads “In the Imperial Year” on the left side and “1179” on the right.  This means the painting would have been completed just before Edelgard starts attending Gareg Mach, and long before the greater public would know she has the crest of flames.  How the artist came to know this would remain a mystery.  I like to imagine it as a detail that Fodlan’s historians would debate over for years after the game’s narrative.

There is also a second message that I have intended with the dagger’s placement cutting (heh) across the crest…Gripping the dagger over the crest of flames is a statement about what the path is that Edelgard will take, especially when the crest is examined as representing the Goddess Sothis.  In fact, there are two (technically three) lines of dialogue from Three Houses I had in mind for this symbolism.

That about sums it up!  I may do a couple more posts in the future where I show how the painting evolved from thumbnails, to studies to the finished image if theres interest in that sort of thing.

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Dean Cornwell - Spanish Tavern (1922)

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“Portrait of Lady Edelgard Von Hresvelg”. Oil on wood panel. 28” x 24” 

Finally, my portrait of Edelgard from Fire Emblem: Three Houses is finished.  This has been my major project over the last year or so, although its roots go back to about 2020.  I had this massive preamble in mind about how much FE3H has influenced myself and @misslovelyillustration ’s lives since she made me start playing it five years ago, but for now I’ll just say that I haven’t been this captivated by a video game since either Jet Set Radio Future or Metroid Prime.  In fact, I figured I was well past the age to ever be enamored by a video game ever again.  Three Houses just seemed to be the right thing at the right time.

I’d like to thank my sister Liz for being the model for Edelgard and @misslovelyillustration for twisting my arm into playing the damn game…as well as for her continued love and support.

Finally, I would also like to thank my friend/Mentor Merrily for lending her tailoring skills in putting the costume together.  Without her, I doubt I could have brought this painting together, at least not to the level I had envisioned for it.

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Adrestian Trio!