Probably should have posted this around Easter, but I didn’t finish it until now so… Better late than never, right?
This is Ostara, or Ēostre, an old Germanic goddess of spring and fertility. She is described as warmth and life returning after winter’s cold, as the birth and rebirth of all animals and plants.
It’s not surprising that her most well-known symbols are the hare and the egg, both ancient tokens of fertility and reproduction that have been used and reused across multiple religions and cultures. Some believe Ostara and her hares are the source of our modern day Easter Bunny, but there is no definitive source to back it up.
This is the kind of stuff I read up on when surfing around the web, going on the pagan/folklore sections of Wikipedia is like being sucked into a black hole! :P
Of course I added a hare to my drawing, but I couldn’t figure out a way to give her eggs without it looking weird, so instead I gave her a slightly kurbits-like tattoo featuring birds and eggs.
Kurbits, by the way, is a style of painting that originates from the Swedish region Dalarna during the 19th century. The style is still used today painting the Dala horses that have somehow become an international symbol of our country.
Some work-in-progress pics of the process (no, I don’t have a scanner). First I sketched her out in graphite on one paper, then traced it to a new clean sheet and filled in the lines with black ink. Base colours/shading were done with ProMarkers, and then I added finer details/more precise shading with coloured pencils.
The downside of traditional non-digital art is that you can’t just hit Ctrl+z if you make a mistake, so it’s nice to have a “backup” of what the drawing used to look like in case I botch something up, haha! ^_^
That’s really nice! It makes sense that Ostara could be connected to the modern Easter Bunny for me XD Thanks for introducing to us.
You did a good job with the colouring. It looks so vibrant! I like the idea of using markers and coloured pencils together ^^
Thanks for sharing this!
Absolutely gorgeous work! Love your line work, and the color work as well!
Gorgeous art work! In fact, I thought it look so goddess like that, before I read your caption, I guessed what it could be: some type of goddess. It just has that air around it!
So much awesome, it looks amazing! :D
Wow, she’s beautiful! I love your artwork, and this one is so good :D I really like the bright colors on this one and the row of flowers. I think that’s cool how you incorporated the egg with the tattoo design!
I really admire your technique! Also, the coloured pencil shading looks amazing together with the markers. I’d have no idea if you wouldn’t have written it. I might try this sometimes, great tip! :)