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Dancing on the Seawalls

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This is a picture I've been working on for a while. I'm not entirely satisfied with the texturing on the walls, and I may fix it in the future, but I felt like it was time to upload it and get some constructive criticism.

The woman in the picture is Aglaia, also known as Viola, of Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night." This is a fanart of her as she appears in Alan Gordon's medieval mystery novels, where--fifteen years after Shakespeare's play ends--Orsino has died. Viola has remarried to Feste, the jester of the court, who is actually part of the secret spy/assassin group known as Fools' Guild. They're posted to Constantinople, and Viola trains to become a jester herself, taking the professional name Aglaia. (According to the book, Aglaia was one of the three Graces of Greek mythology--the other two were Euphrosyne and Thalia, who represented Good Cheer and Mirth, while Aglaia represented Splendor.) This scene does not appear in the book, but I loved the idea of Viola dancing on the seawalls of Constantinople, completely free.

The reason for the chain is that Alan Gordon's books are set partially during the Fourth Crusade, when the Venetian fleets attacked Constantinople. The Golden Horn, which was an extension of the sea that struck inwards into the city, was blocked by a huge iron chain that was strung from shore to shore. In the book "A Death in the Venetian Quarter," Feste makes a dash for it from shore to shore by running across the chain, like a squirrel on a telephone wire.

Constructive criticism, please! Anything you have to add would be very helpful and greatly appreciated. :)

Drawn in Rollerball ink on heavy watercolor paper. Colored in Paint.NET.
Image size
500x692px 31.76 KB
© 2008 - 2024 2138
Comments1
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woot-behappy's avatar
Lol! She's a jester!