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Morgalahan — Poseidon and Amphitrite
Published: 2009-04-24 18:01:04 +0000 UTC; Views: 4164; Favourites: 29; Downloads: 703
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Description
In ancient Greek mythology, Amphitrite (Ἀμφιτρίτη) (not to be confused with Aphrodite) was a sea-goddess.[1] Under the influence of the Olympian pantheon, she became merely the consort of Poseidon, and was further diminished by poets to a symbolic representation of the sea.Poseidon was a son of Cronus and Rhea. In most accounts he is swallowed by Cronus at birth but later saved, with his other brothers and sisters, by Zeus.
However in some versions of the story, he, like his brother Zeus, did not share the fate of his other brother and sisters who were eaten by Cronus. He was saved by his mother Rhea, who concealed him among a flock of lambs and pretended to have given birth to a colt, which she gave to Cronus to devour.[4] According to John Tzetzes[5] the kourotrophos, or nurse of Poseidon was Arne, who denied knowing where he was, when Cronus came searching; according to Diodorus Siculus[6] Poseidon was raised by the Telchines on Rhodes, just as Zeus was raised by the Korybantes on Crete.
According to a single reference in the Iliad, when the world was divided by lot in three, Zeus received the sky, Hades the underworld and Poseidon the sea.
- Taken from Wikipedia
I imagined that yes, Amphitrite could indeed have been the consort of Poseidon, however, there must have been some courtship involved. Here we have a scene of the two Sea Gods, Poseidon offering a beautiful magical sea shell to Amphitrite as a gift to win her love. She seems somewhat amused by his blatant attempt to win her affections. Will she accept his gift and fall into his arms, or will she spurn him and play hard to get?
I didnt plan the composition all that well when I started, and struggled to figure out what I would do for a background...eventually decided to make it look like a mural.
This is my contest entry for ~AzraelEvangeline 's competition.
These are ~AzraelEvangeline 's character Lekmee on the left, and :yami-caffeine:'s character Sul on the right.
The theme of the competition was to take two or more of their characters, a myth, and to combine them into a picture.
All textures from cgtextures.com
Painter X and Photoshop CS3 Demo
About 3 weeks worth of work.
Close up of their faces: [link]
Related content
Comments: 32
I like this concept/.
Allow me some time and I will return with a crit?
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Meh, I didnt even make a 'special' mention in the first of three rounds of judging. This has led me to be a bit dismissive of this picture. I dont really care anymore
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Awww...come on. That's no way to speak of a masterpiece.
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What a beautiful piece! I love the stone texture; it really does look like a mural...
For my only suggestion, I agree with Zocho - the eyes on both subjects seem focused somewhere off in the middle distance rather than on each other. If I were a better artist, I'd offer suggestions on how to fix this...but alas, I have no idea. -_-
Other than that, this is a wonderful bit of work. The folds in their clothing are especially nice, and give it a very Grecian feel. ^_^
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Thanks 
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Yeah, this one looked like it represented a huge amount of time and effort. O_O' I will say, I sort of like the more slender, fey-like rendering of a young Poseidon; it's not something I've seen before and I think it turned out pretty well here.
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Thanks, I worked really hard on this, and I'm rather nervous e about the competition, since the first round of judging ends on friday
In my opinion, gods have the ability to assume any form they wish, so there's no reason why Poseidon couldnt have looked like this if he wanted to, it's more out idea of gods that shapes the way they look, in this case the 'classical' greek idea, which is very much indicative of the tastes of the males artists of the time
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Well good luck with the competition! I'm sure you'll do great. ^_^
Yeah, this one makes me think of a more youthful Poseidon than the traditional robed-and-bearded garb. Heh, and I've had more than my fill of the "classical" Greek mythos; my husband is actually Greek and more than happy to expound on his cultural traditions. *eye-roll**husband love* He's our DM...and trust me, if you ever play a cleric in his game, you want to go with the Greek pantheon. Things will just work out better for you. ^_~
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lol, I see. I dont do the cleric thing often, and the one time I did, the DM twisted it for me and made my goddess the main villain of the campaign 
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Heh, they can't handle their manly gods displaying a more delicate side - makes them uncomfortable. ^_~
And sorry about your campaign! I hate it when DMs do stuff like that. Bill's not so bad; it's actually good to play any kind of good-aligned cleric in his games - it's just that if you worship a greek god, well, they have this reputation and you get a lot of NPC booty. O_o Which goddess were you a cleric of, out of curiosity?
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I would agree with you completely, they just cant handle their manly ego's pricked ever so slightly, with their buff role models made more effeminate
And um, the goddess in question was Shar, dunno if you know her.
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Heehee. Boys are funny... ^o^
Yeah, I know Shar. Forgotten realms, right? As I recall, not the nicest goddess, but she had some good domains...
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Yep, forgotten realms. I really liked her from the PC games, as in she was the goddess of Viconia from Baldur's gate, so I made her mine...then mr DM decides she makes a perfect villain *sigh*
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Aww, that's unfortunate. I never played any of the PC games, so I'm not sure how she was represented there, but I do recall her being a bit scary in the tabletop compendiums O_O Still, that's irritating.
Although we're currently having some interesting involvements with our PC cleric of Taia, who is one frightening goddess...
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The textures you used is what makes this piece, I think. It certainly gives it the vibe you were aiming for, and good sense of colour.
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Thanks, I worked hard on this, and probably shouldnt have worked in the resolution I did, but it turned out well enough
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great work! ^_^ i love the textures you chose, it really brings the piece to life.
Only crits would be that the way the folding is painted in Amphitrite's top part makes her right breast look kind of flatter than it should be or maybe it's just me >_> also the eyes, though awesomely coloured (as always) lack something i cant quite put my finger on. She's not focusing them on anything, it feels as if she's staring at something else beyond the picture
overall great pic, the hand holding the shell is greatly done, well done hands always impress me for some reason :3
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I suppose I could add a few more highlights to make it seem as though the folds were bulging out a bit more.
I used an old plaster texture, to make it look as though this were painted on a wall. It's the only one I used, everything else was painted by hand, including the skin texture.
~littlefluffie also mentioned the eyes, I'll see what I can do.
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I only worry about the positioning of the arms. The one holding the trident in the background is reminiscent of Morgalahand holding her spear 'at attention', in that it should be psoed more naturally. The arm in the foreground of the pic is perfect, but combined with the arm in the background they both start to look a bit clunky. Did you use Poser to work out the character's positions relative to each other?
Nothing else to really add to the volumes of compliments about the pic. As soon as ou figure out character positioning there'll be nothing the rest of us can say anymore
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Now that I look again, I agree with you about his arm. Originally his arm was in a different position and I had him leaning on something, but I decided that it looked stupid since there was nothing I could add that he could be leaning against, so I redid it with him holding the trident, which also added another Poseidon element to the picture. I think his arm might be a little too far forward now, and should be bent at more of an angle with his hand closer to his body. I'll see if I can change it, but I might end up leaving it like this, since I want to move on to other pictures, and this has already eaten up a few weeks of my time
I used Daz3D, the free program, which helped me, but I'm still learning how to use it. Mr. Fluffie is the 3d master here, not I
I will be practicing in the future with more pictures consisting of multiple characters.
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Oh,I wasn't going to suggest you change it. Character positioning and natural poses are one of the major reasons I end up not finishing a picture and tossing the rough work in the bin 
Otherwise, drop a line keeping me updated regarding what you're doing with yourself. I admit I'm curious, despite my current job taking up all my time without recompensing me. Welcome to working classes, everybody!Raise your fist and resist, my proletariat brothers!
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Ah, well, I didnt change it in then end, but I will try and focus on it more in the future, especially when I draw someone with their arm out
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I am far from master... the closest I could get to a title is a seasoned amateur, and even that is laying it on a bit.
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What a lovely entry! I love Poseidon ... and Sul's a fantastic fit for him ((beard or no beard! 
Thanks for the entry and good luck in the contest. <3
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Haha! Yeah, Sul did fit nicely. I really enjoyed painting him, he's inspired me to paint a lot more male characters from now on. This is my first real painting of a guy
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Wow, well you did a fine job! C: He looks great.
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Thank you for your beautiful entry! 
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Thanks, I hope it stands up to the already great entries you've received.
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I would write a stunning critique, except apparently you need a subscription to do so... nevertheless, I will be writing an abridged version.
Firstly, my critique is divided into two parts: an irrelevant part that you can largely ignore, and the substantial part, which you may read and absorb if you wish.
The irrelevant part has to do with your subject matter. Being a Classicist, I do notice the absence of a beard on Poseidon, and that he is a bit scrawny. But that is, as I said, irrelevant to the matter at hand, but I felt I should express my puritan up-stuck-ness somewhere
Now for the relevant part. Overall, a subtle render of the subject. Its not flashy, and does not need to be, as the characters' poses convey the message by themselves. The only small flaw I find is Amphitrite's gaze... she does not seem to be focusing on anything in the picture, which can be distracting to the viewer, whereas Poseidon is clearly adoring his Queen. The unique characterisation is successful, I think. A very bishonen interpretation of the Greek god, but if interpreted in this light, succeeds. The subtle contrast of skin tones against each other is very nice. The only thing I fault in the colour scheme is the trident. I feel the black and red don't fit in with the rest. Perhaps a bronze would have suited better, to reflect Poseidon's skin tone (and the fact that his trident would have been Bronze, at least in the Iliadic times). Finally, excellent use of texture. The characters are brought alive by the careful attention to skin texture, combined with the aging of the bowl/disc in which the picture stands.
That's my 5 cents worth... tell me if I'm being pretentious
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As to the irrelevant part: These are the characters of the contest hosts, therefore I had to try and keep it looking like them. By rights not only should he be brawnier with a beard, but she should be mostly naked, or at least have one breast showing. I didnt want to have to flag this picture as mature tho
Hmm, I see what you mean about her line of sight, didnt notice it until you mentioned it tho. Dont see how I could change that without having to redo her head, since it's the angle of her head that creates the problem. For the most part, I think it's ok.
As to the tident *goes and double clicks on the photoshop icon, preparing to take Fluffie's advice and change the colour*
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Oooh... I see. Well, then I blame the contest people
What you could do is simply make her eyes look down, not her head. It will make her look demure, and draw the attention more to the seashell a bit.
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Hmm, I'll try, that should involve more eyelid and less eye showing. We shall have to see.
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