Thanks everyone! 
and thanks, Antonio, for the advice. I’ve always LOVED Bouguereau - which is actually one of the things that inspired me to do this myth in the first place. I don’t know what I want the final composition of my image to be quite yet, but I’m sure going to be looking for inspiration from those pre-raphaelite masters.
Oh wow. I love your work. I can’t wait to see this! This was my second choice for topic, and now I’m glad I went the other way. No way I’d be able to do justice to them the way you will.
thanks, david
And Melissa, thanks! I’m glad you’re excited about my topic. I went and saw what you’ve been working on for this challenge and wow! I love what you’ve done so far. I love the story of Beauty and the Beast. Both that fairy tale and the Cupid/Psyche myth have a lot of similarities.
Just a sketch of an idea I was thinking about. I don’t know if I’ll go with this for the final composition, but for kicks I think I’ll go ahead and tighten the sketch a bit more. Let me know what you think. Oh and those things are supposed to be mechanical butterflies.
I’m so glad you like my painting. Beauty and the Beast, which is based on East of the Sun, West of the Moon–my second favorite fairy tale, which in turn is based on Cupid and Psyche… yeah. I’m a sucker for that whole family of tales, really. And you’ve always done such gorgeous illustrations of Sun/Moon that I just know this is going to blow me a away.
This sketch has a really classic appeal to it, very Old Master with the poses and positioning. I like it a lot.
Have you thought about some of the other scenes? Like when she first sees him maybe? Hard to imagine some of the garden bits with steampunk elements, I guess.
yeah, I’ve been thinking about the other scenes - especially the one you mentioned. But at the same time, I love the whole flight idea. Hmm… I’ll probably end up doing a sketch of the scene where she sees him for the first time - just because I do really like that scene - even if I don’t take it to final. It’ll be good to take some time to visually explore this myth before settling on a final idea.
Anyways, thanks for the comments and kind words.
Umm, this is just my previous sketch rendered out a bit more.
And another idea I had of depicting the scene after Psyche opens Persephone’s box… which in this case is some sort of large compartment or something, haha, I haven’t really figured it out yet, but I’m envisioning some sort of engine room type setting.
I really love the composition and the idea (particularly the whole ‘flying with dragonflies’ bit), but it’s hard to tell which story it is- the persephone story seems to have a stronger storytelling element, plus it’ll be easier to steampunkify appropriately without taking away too much from the story, which I think may be the case with the first idea (but you should do it outside of the challenge, I’d really like to see that with colour!)
Looking forward to seeing this moving forward. I have a huge grin now if you can’t tell.
thanks everyone for the encouragement
And thanks, Theresa. You really hit the nail on the head. The lack of story in the first one I think is what was bothering me so much. But like you suggested, I may go ahead and finish it outside of the challenge. But for now, I’ll start developing the second idea further. Or even do another part of the story.
the first concept really has a great feel
im looking forward to what the 2nd will evolve too
Indeed very cool concepts! I really liked the first one’s composition and poses, to me it felt much more different than the classic poses you usually see for this myth.
Although the second one looks like it will be using this type of pose, I must admit I’m am very intrigued by your idea of Persephone’s box! Looking forward to seeing where this will go! Best of luck!
Hey Brittany,
Really cool concept, and the sketches are great!! Like a lot. My favorite is your vertical composition, has a great feeling and mood. Again, cool works!! and looking forward for more updates!
Ooooh! Do Persephone’s box, all in a really classical style…BUT… with steampunk evil elements rushing out of the box! :love:
Thanks for the feedback, everyone. It’s really awesome to hear what you all think - it helps a lot. So, I guess it’s decided. I’ll be working on the second idea. I need to come up with a strong compostition I like while keeping with the idea of classical poses.