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Alexandrite
10-04-2006, 04:01 AM
http://img154.imageshack.us/img154/6182/sweblk2.jpg

Sirin.
Photoshop.
VERY MUCH IN PROGRESS.



in Russian mythology, the Sirin are bird-creatures with the face of a woman, the body of a hawk-owl. They were once related to Sirens of Greek lore, but now not so much. There are three birds - Sirin the owl, Alkonost the kingfisher, and Gamayun the wingless/clawless bird of prophecies. There are various interpretations for what each bird symbolizes, which I won't go into. (some people say that Sirin is the bird of happiness and Alkonost the bird of sadness, some say the other way around! I'm confused!)
For now, my Sirin is simply the owl-woman spirit of a forest, so to speak. We'll see where this painting goes. :)

I know I've posted WIPs here before and didn't finish them, but this one I will NEED to finish, because I am doing various illustrations for Studio class in school. :P

comments/suggestions/crits very very welcome and appreciated.
Arney
10-04-2006, 04:06 AM
fantastic idea! can't wait to see it in progress.
Iblis
10-04-2006, 03:53 PM
Iblis likes this painting. Why can't we change our votes? This is an absurd oversight especially in a WIP forum.
GaseousSnake
10-04-2006, 04:18 PM
Well, the idea is good, but its terrifying, though. XD

I don't like the proportions at all, but i don't see how else you could actually fix them...

I'll be watching this anyway :D
Alexandrite
10-04-2006, 07:37 PM
Arney: Thank you! I'll try to keep working on it :)
Iblis: thanks! Although, votes, wha? I'm confused :P
GaseousSnake: Hehe. Yeah, the proportions are a bit weird, since it's hard to match up a bird body to a female head/shoulders. Am thinking the shoulders should end where the wing-joints would begin, but beyond that, that's about all I could come up with... :( Since the bird half of the character only exists as an easily changeable sketch right now, I would love any ideas on how to make it look more...harmonious.

Also, forgot to mention in my original post: I'm kinda looking at this picture as inspiration, it's a painting of two of the mythical birds by Russian artist Vasnetsov:
http://www.rollins.edu/Foreign_Lang/Russian/vasn4.jpg
He has the proportions there much better, I think, although his birds are also almost like humans in costume. I'm going to try to be a little different :) and make the bird body a bit more natural-bird-like. Vasnetsov's work is amazing, but I can't copy him, it would be wrong... :) I've got some hawk-owl reference images, but if anyone has any suggestions as the piece goes on, I would very much welcome them.
Alexandrite
10-12-2006, 10:26 PM
It's been a busy week this week, so not a whole ton of progress yet :(
Just wanted to post a closeup / slight update, along with a reference image.
Going to try working on the eyes next, they are the things that make or break a painting imho. :)

http://img245.imageshack.us/img245/2179/sirinprogress5bhf2.jpg
Cris-Palomino
10-12-2006, 10:39 PM
Nadejda, I find this very interesting and look forward to seeing where you go with this. Considering the proportions of the hawk-owl (http://www.pbase.com/gerald_r/image/61586519), I think this is probably a good compromise in putting the woman's head on the bird.

Cris
Alexandrite
10-12-2006, 10:41 PM
oooh! Cris-Palomino thank you VERY much for the link - it's a wonderful extra reference image to look at, when I get to painting the owl body :)
Cris-Palomino
10-12-2006, 10:46 PM
You're welcome. PBase is a great place for reference. Search under hawk owl, hawk-owl to see what comes up.

Cris
Alexandrite
10-14-2006, 08:48 PM
Сирин прозрела - Sirin has eyes! :)

Her face is naturally the most detailed part of this painting, but damn, I fear I am setting a level of detail for myself that I can't keep up with in the rest of it...
Ahh well. I have a Studio class this term (this illustration is part of my work for that) where I basically get to paint whatever I want until the end of the semester. This piece might take that long, but I'd like to be able to print it out something like poster-size eventually and be able to see the details :)

Comments/critiques are welcome as always. You know that feeling when you've been staring too long at something, that you start to see it as you want, not as it actually is? yeah...


http://img281.imageshack.us/img281/7611/sirinprogress6bon4.jpg


(heh, my parents' comment when they walked by and saw what I was working on, and noticed that I had a photo of a hawk owl as well as the girl (in the above post) as reference, they said: "why is she stealing the owl's eyes?" http://forums.cgsociety.org/images/icons/icon10.gif )

Actually, looking at the reference, already I don't like how different the gaze is - I think I preferred the almost accusative gaze that the girl had, that I thought might be better for Sirin. Oh well, I will start fixing things tomorrow, I need a break from staring at it.
Cris-Palomino
10-14-2006, 08:56 PM
The eyes do look owl-like. I like the large pupils for this illustration.

Cris
TimonQ
10-15-2006, 03:42 AM
Getting kinda Michael Jackson-y too.
Once everything else is built up it probably won't come across that way as much, and the large eyes make sense in this context, but that's just my reaction to the current preview.
Renderings looking good so far!
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