Nicole Cadet Fantasy Art

WIP of The Erinyes for the AFAE Theme of Three show. Yeah I know, really original trinity pose (much like The Cauldron
 from a few years ago).

Anyway, the Erinyes were goddesses of natural law, protecting blood ties in particular. They didn't like murder or rape, and punished offenders by tormenting them rather than striking them down dead. They bring justice, however can be appeased, becoming the Eumenides. Traditionally there are three - Tisiphone , Megaera, Alecto and are said to be the daughter of Nyx, one of the oldest female deities of the night/ darkness. Their symbols are the snake and blood.

Tisiphone punished murderers and was in some stories originally human. Alecto punishes moral crimes such as anger against other, and has links to Nemesis. Megaera is the cause of jealousy and envy, but is also the punisher of these crimes.

I've chose to depict them in grey rather than black (mourning garb) or white (when they are appeased). They were neither good nor bad - they were goddesses of revenge and did not take circumstances into play. Accidental death of a parent of sibling was still death and punishable according to the laws of blood. They were often depicted as fearsome, hideous creatures, much like a gorgon, with snakes for hair, and blood filled eyes. But as goddesses they could take on any guise they chose, and to me, something that is beautiful is much more terrifying than something that looks fearsome. The whip and the torch were also weapons, and they rode in on a storm.

I'm trying a slightly stylised way of painting - their skin will be only thing which is reasonably realistic. Oh, I referenced myself though it's not looking much like me :) I've been avoiding all other work over the past two days while I paint this. I need to stop for a while, I'm getting a crick!

Remember this? : http://nixjim13.livejournal.com/63839.html... from last September??? Um, well yeah, haven't had a chance to touch it since then.

One day I shall finish this painting. I added a quick and dirty starscape (every so often I work up a few starscapes/ cloudscapes so I can just cut and paste them into paintings). Um, did I mention I kind of am majorly haphazard when I paint? I paint what I am interested in... and have the attention span of a gnat some days.


And a close up of what I've spent the last 4 hours working on :)



He looks nothing like the reference I was working from :) I like it when characters kind of evolve and become their own person. I finally feel like I'm getting the hang of painting guys, though I need to do some different angles :D

This is at about 180MB in size. Time to compress a few layers again!

And now I need to go to bed...need my sleep!!!!

This is what happens when you live by yourself... you have no one to show your stuff to so you inflict it on you online friends ;) I have to go to bed soon. I've got a 9 o'clock appointment tomorrow morning and I am not going to bed again at 4am, lol!

- I think the face may have been tweaked a little bit more... can't remember... but this is pretty close to about 100% size

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