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I've been working on an off on this one for the past month. It started as a sketch but I thought about developing it a bit since I haven't had the time to paint digitally for a long.
Most of you may know about the myth of medusa, and I started this, simply, to paint a woman and because I thought medusa would be a cool character to paint. But before starting the sketch I decided to read a bit about her basically to try to know a bit more about the character I was about to paint.
Apparently there are various versions of the myth, but the one that caught my eye was the one from the Roman poet Ovid.
"In a late version of the Medusa myth, Ovid suggests that Medusa was once a beautiful woman, whose charms could rival those of Athena. When Poseidon sees Medusa praying in Athena's temple, he is smitten and he ravishes her there. And when she was caught being raped by the "Lord of the Sea" Poseidon in Athena's temple, Athena, enraged by this atrocity to her temple, transformed Medusa's beautiful hair to serpents and made her face so terrible to behold that the mere sight of it would turn onlookers to stone. In Ovid's telling, Perseus describes Medusa's punishment by Minerva (Athena) as just and well earned, a testament to her continuing support of the male hierarchy. It is Medusa's fault for attracting the lusty god of the sea, for as a female that is inherent in her nature"
After reading this I saw medusa differently. I would've probably drawn her evil-looking, enraged or in some sort of menacing pose, but after reading this last version I thought it'd be a better choice to draw her trying to show a different side of the character and trying to show the vulnerability of a woman who has been punished for being raped instead of punishing the rapist (and as stupid as this may sound, sadly, it still happens in some countries all over the world)
So, I made up a little story that i'm trying to show with this drawing: Medusa, crying, holding the head of the man he loves after she accidentaly turned him to stone, and holding a mirror with her other hand, ready to sacrifice herself in order to meet his lover again.
hope you like it!
Website | Fade To Black | Tumblr | Society6 | Sketchblog
Most of you may know about the myth of medusa, and I started this, simply, to paint a woman and because I thought medusa would be a cool character to paint. But before starting the sketch I decided to read a bit about her basically to try to know a bit more about the character I was about to paint.
Apparently there are various versions of the myth, but the one that caught my eye was the one from the Roman poet Ovid.
"In a late version of the Medusa myth, Ovid suggests that Medusa was once a beautiful woman, whose charms could rival those of Athena. When Poseidon sees Medusa praying in Athena's temple, he is smitten and he ravishes her there. And when she was caught being raped by the "Lord of the Sea" Poseidon in Athena's temple, Athena, enraged by this atrocity to her temple, transformed Medusa's beautiful hair to serpents and made her face so terrible to behold that the mere sight of it would turn onlookers to stone. In Ovid's telling, Perseus describes Medusa's punishment by Minerva (Athena) as just and well earned, a testament to her continuing support of the male hierarchy. It is Medusa's fault for attracting the lusty god of the sea, for as a female that is inherent in her nature"
After reading this I saw medusa differently. I would've probably drawn her evil-looking, enraged or in some sort of menacing pose, but after reading this last version I thought it'd be a better choice to draw her trying to show a different side of the character and trying to show the vulnerability of a woman who has been punished for being raped instead of punishing the rapist (and as stupid as this may sound, sadly, it still happens in some countries all over the world)
So, I made up a little story that i'm trying to show with this drawing: Medusa, crying, holding the head of the man he loves after she accidentaly turned him to stone, and holding a mirror with her other hand, ready to sacrifice herself in order to meet his lover again.
hope you like it!
Website | Fade To Black | Tumblr | Society6 | Sketchblog
Image size
850x1166px 1.6 MB
Mature
© 2013 - 2024 JoelAmatGuell
Comments3
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That story sounds a lot like Athena should be pissed at Poseidon instead.