This was done for the OC Winter Contest :
[link]hold by the very kind Endorell-Taelos
[link]The point was to depict one of hers OC and one of mine in a winter/X-mas environment. I do not have specific OC, but she allowed me to have one of my Butterflower, and so the Butterflower Poinsettia was created.
I chosed Luciana
[link] among Endorell's characters, because... well, is the most intriguing one.
She is basically a Dragon mage princess, with a vampire illness, a kind girl, with a heavy past and duties.
So, here comes a little explanation of the pic's symbols:
yes, you 've seen right: the Poinsettia gives its blood as a (X-mas) gift for the gentle but thirsty Luciana. Normally Poinsettias have a white juice, but this is a Butterflower
And, no fear for the little creature: the petals can grow back.
The constellation above Luciana is the Draco. Obviously.
The flowers are typical ones used in winter bouquets, as well as the Bullfinch is a must in (Swedish) X-mas cards. Just to make the pic prettier
The crown of light resembles the one of Lucia, here in Sweden is a key figure under X-mas times. And, Lucia/Luciana means "Light".
I tried to represent her as a young princess with a childish, but sad expression in her eyes, as if the happiness of these days could never be enough to cancel the terrible past following her.
Otherwise, I enjoyed very much to paint this, in Photoshop as usual.
`anmari has been spreading her infectious positivity throughout our community for over 6 years. Throughout this time Ana has been at the core of all things devious, passionately developing an eclectic gallery, helping organise devmeets, participating in chat events and also recently completed dedicating her time as a Community Volunteer. We are absolutely delighted to bestow the Deviousness Award for May 2013 to `anmari, congratulations! Read More
Sta.sh
Fun fact about poinsettias: These flowers are Mexican, and their original name is tlaxóchitl, which means "flower that withers". The Aztecs called it cuetlaxóchitl, "flower with petals as strong as leather", and it was revereed because it represented energy and life force. They believed this flower fed the souls of fallen warriors, who came back to Earth as hummingbirds. They also believed it represented the blood of the sacrifices dedicated to the Sun God in the Winter Solstice.
It's interesting how the whole concept of the image just fits with the flower.
(by the way, I never could imagine it, since Poinsettia are a little difficult to keep alive, my mother-in-law is the only one who succeed among people I know)
But the one that chilled me was to learn about the sacrifices during Winter solstice and the coupling with this flower.
This is the second time I paint something, totally unaware, and then I get a comment about a legend describing the same concept (the first time was with 'winged vanity'.). Probably there's something archetypal about some subjects.
When I read the description I immediatly thought the same thing. It was like "wow, Jung was right" XD
I don't know which pic is gonna win, there's so much time left and surely there will be a lot of amazing entries!
For sure I like a lot to paint Luciana
Oh,don't be so modest dearie
Hopefully there will be
Yes,me too