Valentine treats....

Snow White

The Fairest of them All

35x50cm

Graphite pencils, pastels, watercolours.

I have been working on this one for quite a while, and even so I had to simplify my original idea quite a bit to finish it in time ... 

I just decided that the fairest of them all could only conceivably be Danila Kovalev...
It's a mix of many photos... you will understand how much I suffered in the last two weeks, browsing pictures of D. K. in various states of undress to source all the various parts... And then I started drawing from the top of the page, and by the time I reached the bottom of the paper I realized I had to frame the whole thing a bit tighter or end up with a somewhat embarassing picture. Ahem.

Those who read Woman as a Foreign Language will find more than a few echoes of Julia/n's in this.

May I remind you, on this Valentine occasion, that Woman as a Foreign Language is the most beautiful love story I ever wrote?  

Give it a go: it's for offer at Evernight at 25% off 

with the coupon code WINNER2017

Gildor, a pencil drawing

 

It’s been raining non-stop ALL day, a rather depressing business, but at least by working my eyes blind in the watery gloom, I managed to finish my new Tolkien illustration, starring the stunningly beautiful Paul Boche as Gildor Inglorion.

Gildor plays only a small part in the book and none at all in the movie (bah!), but he is the first elf that you encounter in the ‘real’ story, and not even meeting La Grande Dame Galadriel in the heart of the Golden Wood packs anywhere near as much magic as Gildor appearing out of the blue dusk in the homely woods of the Shire (chasing off a snuffling Black Rider in the process, I might add, so there!).

 

When Gildor and his companions take the hobbits on their nightly walk into the forest and a late banquet, “Sam walked along at Frodo’s side, as if in a dream, with an expression on his face half of fear and half of astonished joy… Pippin afterwards recalled little of either food or drink, for his mind was filled with the light upon the elf-faces, and the sound of voices so various and so beautiful that he felt in a waking dream…”

I always loved this, and hope I have captured some of the magic… The background is very freely copied from an ivy-overgrown tree in the forest just outside my garden. The moths are Smerinthus ocellatus, the eyed hawk-moth, a good totem I think for a far-wandering nocturnal elf.

 

 

“Elen sila lumen omentielvo” is the High Elven line that Frodo speaks to Gildor, “A star shines on the hour of our meeting.” 

With many thanks to Paul Boche for allowing me to use his picture(s) (three different photos went into this... he has a a challenging face!). 

 

Faber Castell Graphite Pure, from B to 9B

(it was COLD at my table these last couple of days)

In other news, I'll be posting book related stuff tomorrow :)

Haldir - a sketch

 

"Haldir" 

©Katherine Wyvern 2017

A new sketch I did a few days ago, still inspired and copied froma  picture of my arch-muse, Danila Kovalev (and I still don't think that I am done drawing this model and his incredible eyes... I have already a different thing in mind, way stranger... stay tuned).

The quote is from the Lord of the Rings, my favourite book ever (it sits on my bedside table at all times, where in other houses a bible might be found) and says: "“The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater.”

These words, spoken by an elf called Haldir, a minor character in the book, often come to me at times of sadness... 

In the book (unlike the movie) Haldir is always seen in the vicinity of the watery boundaries of Lorien, of which he is one of the wardens, and I thought that Aeshna cyanea, the Sounthern Hawker dragonfly, would be a good totem animal for him. They appear in my garden each summer (they fly in from large distances, and stay, because of the pond) and it is a thing of wonder to see them tirelessly guarding their watery realm, fiercely fighting off any intruder that chances by. They are also magically beautiful animals, the closest thing to a winged fairy you can get in this world (but not a fairy to be trifled with... these creatures can fight like dragons, indeed!). When the first Aeshna shows up, each summer, it's a time for celebration...

This drawing was supposed to be midnight dark and faintly moonlit, but it did not pan out that way, so this is the third attempt. Still, the way it came together in the end, as the simplest pencil sketch, no colour, no fancy effects, was deeply satisfactory. There are rare golden moments, as an artist, when something clicks into place, and you feel a sort of golden certainty that 'this is the right way to do it'. This drawing gave me one such moment...

Julia/n, a sketch...

Ever wondered what Julia/n in Woman as a Foreign Language might look like?
Well, here you go (add freckles to taste).
When I wrote WaaFL, the first inspiration for Julia/n was Eddie Redmayne in his Danish Girl makeup. Then once the story was already done and finished, I came across some pictures of this amazing model, and I had to go back, and rewrite half of the character descriptions. Ahem.

 Danila in Rioja

© Katherine Wyvern 2017

With many thanks to the wondrously beautiful and really kind Danila Kovalev, whose picture I copied for this bit of pencil sketching.



And I am happy to report WaaFL's latest review:

"....The blurb intrigued the hell out of me, and let me just say that the story more than lived up to my expectations. WaaFL is different than anything I've ever read, but so beautifully written and heart wrenching (in a good way) that I started reading and didn't get up until I finished. The characters drew on my empathy in a way few have before, and I found myself thinking that every single person needs to read this to gain a better understanding of what it means to identify differently than what your physical body dictates to society.

Rarely will I re-read a story, but this one has left me with a book hangover - two days later - that will need to be satisfied in the form of another dose of magic that Katherine has so poignantly woven."

Thank you, dear readers.

 

New picture for an old poem

"...Three and three hundred angels

From the towering gates of eternal bliss 

Kneeled

And paid homage - to the twin curve of your haunches..."

(From "A song for Laz' Law", bits of which were published in Head-Shy) 

With a thousand thanks to the wondrously talented (and flexible) @onyx_w on Instagram for allowing me to use some of his pics for my doodling.