#Lyx here sharing leyends and myths again

[lyxthen]

Day one of trying (and failing) to illustrate Mexican leyends.

This one is for "La Mulata de Córdoba". This is how the leyend goes, as I remember it:

In Córdoba, Veracruz, lived a woman known for her beauty and wisdom. She knew how to heal with herbs and could predict the movements of the stars and the weather. Despite her kindness, however, she was not well liked by the comunity. Women envied her, men desired her, but she turned down every single one of their proposals. One day a powerful man decided he wanted to have her for himself, however the woman turned him down, just like she had done with everyone else. Outraged, the man accused her of witchcraft, and demanded her to be executed. She was incarcerated and scheduled to be burn in the stake the next day. All she asked for as her dying wish was a piece of coal to draw with on her last night.

The next day, a prison guard went to check up on her, only to discover that she had drawn a wonderful mural of a ship, so detailed it almost looked real. The woman smiled at it with pride. "What do you think?" she said, "I like it a lot, but I feel like something is missing." The prison guard shook his head in disbelief. "Nothing is missing, it almost looks like it could sail away!"

And just like that, the woman jumped to the ship and did just like the man had said, sailing away into the distance until she faded away, and was never seen again.

Some say it was an act of black magic. Some say it was a story the guard made up after letting her escape. Some say it was God himself that saved her. In any case, the tale has gone on to become one of the most well known, and one of my favorites as well, though I can't put into words why. For my drawing, I dressed her in the signature attire of the state of Veracruz. I will probably make many sketches like this, before I'm satisfied with it, and then maybe I can ink it and paint it with watercolors.