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ObsidianSerpent — Masquerade Ball
Published: 2012-03-30 17:30:47 +0000 UTC; Views: 8484; Favourites: 239; Downloads: 180
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Description
"The Merlin Tournament of Champions" [link] has ended, so all the contestants can de-anon.This was my entry. (There were four lovely teams in the contest. I was on Team Canon and we came second. Whoop!)
My prompt was "Masquerade Ball" and the idea behind the painting is that Merlin needs something to wear to a masquerade ball. Gaius finds him a costume that Balinor once wore to a ball when he was still a member of Uther's Court.
It's the usual acrylic on canvas board. (A BIG canvas board...*LOL*)
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Comments: 114
Thank you so much and I'm really pleased that you liked the colour symbolism. The frame was great fun to paint. 
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Oh, cool. I never noticed the moon necklace around Merlin's neck and the sun buckle around Arthur's belt, matching the dragons. Obsidian Serpent catches just the right symbolism. Love it!
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Thank you, I'm glad you liked it. I do enjoy a bit of symbolism if I can get it into a painting. (and Arthur and Merlin do lend themselves to it, with the whole "two sides of the same coin" yin/yang symbolism going on. 
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You are amazing at painting! How big of a canvas do you usually use, and how big was this one? This must've been huge.
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This canvas board was MUCH bigger than I usually use, it was 20" x 16" (50 cms x 40cms).
Most of the other pictures are much smaller, about 12" x 10" or so, a lot of the portraits are 10" x 8"
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Thank you so much for your comments. I do appreciate them.
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Hi
Just wanted to let you know that your art has been featured here [link]
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Thank you for that, that's really nice of you.
Unfortunately our computer has gone wrong, (I'm borrowing someone's laptop to type this), so there will be no more fanart from me for a while. (I won't be able to print off any reference photos or upload any art that I paint.)
I shall see you again when the computer is fixed. (And since we have no money to get it fixed, that might be quite a while.)
xx
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You are Welcome 
I hope you get some money to get it fixed soon.
See you when I see you
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these are paintings????? HOLY CRAP!!! OMG watching you atomatically!!!
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Thank you very much! And thank you for watching
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Merlin has just entered the great hall via that archway behind him. He's immediately seen Gwaine standing there and has gone over to talk to him but his eyes are scanning the room for Arthur.
Arthur is in the middle of the room already. He catches sight of Merlin from the corner of his eye, or maybe hears his voice over the noise, and turns to look at him.
(And although I can't paint well enough to make this bit work, Arthur would be stunned by Merlin's gorgeousness....much like the prince seeing Cinderella all dressed up for the first time at the ball.
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Oh ok! thanks for clearing it up! and It's amazing! 
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Oh god! the bottom left! Draging him away to do naughy things! XD i love! Its set my imagination into overdrive
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Thank you, I'm so glad you liked the story in the picture.
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My god, this is just wonderful! My compliments also for second place!
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oh lordy you have arthur down so well and omg gwaine in the green *dies*
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Thank you, I'm really glad you liked it. (And that you could recognise who Gwaine was meant to be.
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how could I not recognize that awesome set of hair
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So pretty. Read enough masqueradeball fics to fill in the story. lovely lovely. <3
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Thank you very much.
Yeah, hopefully I think it's easy to fill in the gaps in the story in your head. Although I don't think I've read a Merlin masquerade story, though I'm sure they must be about.
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omg, I love all the details!!! *___*
and I wish there was a ff to accompony it too >.<
and the kiss <333
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Thank you. The details took me AGES, this one took a while to paint.
Yeah, a fanfic of this would be really nice.
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and it came out amazing, so it was totally worth it!
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This. is stunning. The detail and the stones and the borders and the dragons! (Dragons! *squee*) and the wow. I love how you've merged an entire story into one painting - each scene just flows so well. Merlin's costume is very pretty~ And yay - the kiss at the end ^-^ Amazing work! You never cease to amaze me.
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Thank you very much, I'm really glad you liked it. This one was a lot of work and took a while to finish. I've got it hanging in my bedroom now though, and I am quite fond of it. (I had to make a frame for it myself since it was an odd size and I couldn't buy one ready-made. And I couldn't afford to have one made professionally. So I made a frame out of pine strips and then stained them. It came out okay though.)
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I'm looking at this again and the turquoise-and-gold bit is a nice element. Reminds me a little of rococco style? The sun held by the dragon looks so real... *drools* I love this.
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Yeah the frame decoration is quite out of period, it's very roccoco/baroque. But I get a bit fed up with celtic knotwork and it's nice to do something quite different. (And everything about Camelot is anachronistic anyway, from the armour to the boots)
The sun was quite fiddly to paint, I'm glad you liked it. I painted the spikey sun in first...then painted the blue behind it, (carefully painting around the spikes to give them a crisp edge), then went back over the spikes again to sharpen the edges a third time.) (Not obsessive, no siree.
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The other contestants must have been shocked to see a fan art of this quality in the contest. I'm surprised your team didn't come in first with this on their side, but congrats on second! I'm pleased that we get so many scenes in one painting here. I'm not sure which scene is my favorite, but I really like the bottom two. The clouds and moon in the bottom right is beautiful, and for some reason I really like the floor in the bottom left--it's so reflective and pretty. Plus seeing the ballroom and all the people in the background in their masquerade outfits, as well as Arthur and Merlin in theirs, I feel a bit fascinated by the majestic sort of setting.
The details are great, there's so much to look at. I have a question about the bit with the sun and moon-themed dragons. Is that a design from the show or something, or did you make that up yourself?
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It's nice of you to say, but there was a lot of really lovely fan art in the contest.
I'm glad you liked the different scenes, I found the ballroom scene quite hard, as I haven't really tried painting figures in the distance before, so I wasn't quite sure how to go about it.
As to the sun and moon themed dragons, no it's not in ths show, I made that up myself. I knew I wanted a sun and moon theme in the painting, and of course Arthur has a golden dragon on his shield, so it made sense for Merlin, (as a dragonlord), to have a silver one.
Then I thought of them as two halves of the same coin...and Yin and Yang...and thought that the moon and sun could be the "dots" in the middle...and then added the dragons around them.
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Oh that's neat, the explanation behind the yin and yang-themed dragons. How creative and fitting.
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Thank you.
Yeah, I like the idea of Arthur and Merlin as completely different but complimentary to each other. Like the two halves of the same coing thing.
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this is amazing. it tells such a lovely story and is so beautifully done.
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Thank you so much, I'm really glad you liked it.
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And once again... I'M SPEECHLESS! 
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Thank you so much, I'm so pleased that you liked it.
Yeah, it was a lot of work, probably the biggest project I've done. Good fun though.
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Aw, you're really welcome!!! Your works are so worth to look closer! And I can SEE the effort it must've been. You must be a very patient artist... I don't think that I have the patience for such a huge projekt! Keep it on!
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Oh my god this is beautiful and I love you for it. By the by, I found you on devart after lurking your livejournal for a bit. If you remember me.
Either way, I'm happy to see you're still making M/A art and it's a lot easier for me to keep tabs on your art here than livejournal so...
But I love this to bits. Arthur's surprised face, the two dark and gold dragons entwined, looking at each other and how M/A are holding hands looking at each other (intentional or otherwise it's a nice relationship). AND THE KISS! Oh god. *fans self*
And you just know after seeing Merlin in all that finery that Arthur's going to be utterly obsessed with dressing him up now. Especially since he'll be conditioned to think "Merlin in nice clothes = make-out times". Lol. Merlin, I think you're going to turn into's Arthur's personal dress-up doll (but it's okay because the bedtimes will make it worth it).
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Thank you very much! Oh yes, of course I still remember you on LJ. You seemed to drift away from it a while ago and I didn't see you posting anymore. Lovely to see you again, hope everything is going okay with you.
So glad you liked the painting. Oh yes, I do love your idea that Arthur will now want to dress Merlin up all the time.
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I'm good but yes I haven't been posting. School came to kick my ass so most of my projects dwindled and a longstanding case of writer's block came to nip me. I plan this summer to rewatch all of Merlin and a couple other shows to hopefully get some more ideas in my poor abused brain. I've been sketching quite a bit, and a few bigger pieces for an art class I needed for a credit, but not writing. I've been mostly writing song lyrics and with good reason! I graduate from my 3-year bachelor of voice in a couple weeks and getting my 4-year honours next year so it should be an interesting experience. I'm going to an entirely new school, but a friend of mine is coming with me, so yay!
And seriously, who wouldn't? It started with dressing him in the silly hat for lols and eventually will skyball into finery and riches the second he realizes exactly how *good* Merlin looks in it all.
And yes, of course it would be Arthur who wants to see him dressed up, not us. Of course.
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That's really great about the bachelor of voice and the 4-year honours, well done you!
Yeah, sometimes you can go off the boil with fanart/writing, and you just don't really feel the need to do it. Especially when real life is really busy.
Hope you have fun rewatching Merlin, (how could you not?!
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I's excited for it.
Yeah, real life came to knock me on my ass. I love it in some ways, but I do miss writing. I should get something churned out this summer though and hopefully it'll get me started up again.
Merlin Merlin Merlin! Super-psyched for that.
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