Old, old sketches that have been rotting in my drafts - similarly to the most recent Tragoidia post (you can even see some of the pics posted there in here, too).
Starting with some stupid faces. Rare look at my Aphrodite. I like Menelaos, Aga and Cly here. Idk what happened to odydio
Orestes and beggar!Odysseus with Argos - concept art for one of my past commissions, Sthenelus and Diomedes.
Agamemnon, Elektra and Tragoidia!Orestes - it's only fitting that they're getting posted next to each other.
When I finally got around to watching Supernatural with my sibling I expected Mary Winchester to be just as evil as John Winchester with the way some people talked about her only to see she isn’t this evil woman but in fact a mother who was brought back to life to see her kids fully grown up and not knowing how to connect to them because of that 🧍
Ok so
This is a redrawing of an illustration I made last year. Medusa's story wasn't my favourite until I took an interest in her origins, why she looked so strange and fierce on old potteries when she looked beautiful in modern adaptations. I discovered the ugly Medusa, a monster like any other, living with her sisters Stheno and Euryale on an unknown island, whose destiny is to be slain by Perseus.
Anyway, here you have scared Perseus (because yeah he's a young man trying to get that damn Gorgon's head into his bag to free his mum, he's fucking scared) and a Medusa quite reminiscent of Medusa's 80s Clash of the Titans snake body (love this silly movie so much, the 2010 version is so badddd though). I also used the golden number here to make the movement smoother.
Stay tuned because I actually made a lineup of the Gorgons sisters, but I'm very tired (basically, I finished my studies and it took a toll on me ; this specific lineup is what I'm most proud of but also the piece that almost made me burn out, so I have to reconcile with it before showing it to you)
Love to hear your thoughts on Medusa, her big monster family and other things.
Close-ups below!
THE GORGON SISTERS
FINALLY
First, Tumblr didn't want me to post the images in their full size. I apologise for the quality of some images; at least the face close-ups are fine !
So yeah, I wanted to draw them so much !! Each design has specific elements that explain their character. Notice that these designs are not the definitive ones and they'll change in the future.
I gave the Gorgons Minoan clothes to make them look ancient, since the Minoan civilisation predated the Ancient Greek civilisation. However, I really like to give them Greek clothes and accessories in my sketches, so they collect clothing from different people across the centuries. They share some colours and the same bronze wings
Medusa (green) :
- Yes, I'm for green Medusa because it contrasts nicely with blood and she's the only one who's mortal (if it bleeds, we can kill it). Her name means "the ruler" and "the protector" so roughly "the queen who protects", thus the richer clothing and many vipers on her head.
- She wears the cute little boots we see in every one of her portraits on pottery (I don't know if they're wings or simple feathers, but I like them a lot!!).
- Along with her jewels, she wears a coral necklace, whose placement and colour remind us of her future fate (also a nod to the myth where her blood, both poisonous and healing, petrifies algae into coral). A sword hangs from her hand, a harpe, the same type as Perseus '.
- She doesn't have a tail, but rather sturdy legs, setting her apart from her sisters. However, she does have a little one hidden under her robes.
Euryale (blue) :
- We have little information from her and Stheno, apart from the fact that they're both immortal and that in some versions of the myth, they can petrify or not. But for Euryale, her screams of anguish at Medusa's death inspired Athena to create flutes, so I really wanted to give her this oppressive look that'd fit those piercing screams. Her name means "far-roaming", which gives us the idea that she's fast (I can only imagine Perseus scared shitless with Euryale coursing after him so fast while screeching).
- Grabby hands. She doesn't have weapons like her sisters, which gives us more unhinged feelings from her since she kills with her bare hands.
- The tail is a reference to the 80s movie Clash of the Titans ! Since Euryale is stressful, what better sound than the rattlesnake's tail to give her ?
- She has squares and lines on her clothes, like prison bars. She will catch you.
- Bicephal snake ! Euryale is weird, she can have a
cuteweird pet. I will, however, put it on Euryale's hips next time. Gorgons have a sick sense of fashion : they put snakes around their waists !
Stheno (red) :
- Her name is either "forceful" or "powerful", which gave me this idea of a big and strong gal. She's long but slower than Euryale, like an anaconda, and muscled like one too.
- She wears more jewels than her sisters, like a dragon collecting gold. Maybe she even sleeps like one.
- Her clothing is bare-chested, for she isn't ashamed of herself and it's true to noble Minoan fashion : since they worked very little, noble women had beautiful dresses opened at the chest area. I think I treated her like a princess while designing her and I'm not sorry for it. Free them breats.
- Is it a spear ? Yes, a doru ! I like to think Stheno's strong enough to throw her weapon at her victims from afar and impale them instantly. You can find lines and triangles on her robe that remind us of her doru's shape.
I love them, they have taken up space inside my brain. Stay tuned for more !
Old sketches below :
Y’know for a group of ppl who hate heroes for killing for glory, self defense or protection, especially if it’s at the expense of a woman whom they feel is neglected or erased by the narrative, Medusa fans really do get out of their way to neglect and erase Danaë just so that they can have a clean narrative where Medusa can kill Perseus with no negative consequences. Isn’t that what they claim is being done to Medusa? That her narrative and tragedy is ignored or erased to make Perseus’s actions more heroic?
RIP Danaë you didn’t get locked away in a box/tower by your father or seek safety at an altar to get away from a creepy guy who wants to force you into marriage just to get erased from the narrative because everyone is hellbent on making your child the spawn of Satan.
Hera, Zeus and Hebe.
Maybe I’ll design the Olympians, maybe I won’t… I’m already working on a bunch of other stuff so idk
Ok uhhh I just realized I gave Clytemnestra the same hairstyle as Agamemnon so now, in order to compensate, Clytemnestra now has matching hairstyles with her spouses