HOME | DD
Starsong-Studio — Earthsea: Tombs of Atuan 1
Published: 2009-01-12 07:41:14 +0000 UTC; Views: 14219; Favourites: 161; Downloads: 3
Redirect to original
Description
... "a light under the hill"My first completed illustration for Ursula Le Guin's "Earthsea" cycle. Let me know what you think!
This is the scene where Tenar and Ged first meet, from "The Tombs of Atuan". Read the books, I don't want to give you spoilers!
Earthsea, and the characters, names and places therein are owned and operated by Ursula Le Guin. [link]
oil on canvas
After trying out several other media, I think that is really what I like best.
EDIT: Since a few of you have commented that, alas, they don't know the story at all, I've written up a summary in my journal, have a look here: [link]
But be warned, it is one big spoiler if you were intending to read "Tombs of Atuan" at some stage!
Related content
Comments: 99
Love this so much. The overall image looks like a monster's eye. It's like evil has them in it's sight and they are so much closer to danger than they even realize.
I wish so much there was half as much Le Guin fan art as there is for Harry Potter.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
I created an account just to say so, is how impressed I am.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
I also have a website btw, though the illustration section is on the list of *really needs to be updated* - which I hope to do over the next few weeks. [link]
This was the first image in the series I painted - it started quite spontaneously, and although I had already planned to do some Earthsea images, and drawn up a good many thumbnails, I had no intention to paint this picture when I started it - but it turned out just right! And you are right about the symbolism: dragon's eye, gaping mouth, and you might also read it as a yin and yang sort of thing.
I wish images always fell into place like that -- but I guess that is a bit too much to wish for.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Reall great picture, I love the moist, almost flesh-like walls of the Labyrinth, makes it really creepy and connect it to the Nameless Ones nicely. Only one weird thing: didn't Tenar first see Ged in the Undertomb, which is a huge, open cavern, rather than the narrow passages in your painting?
👍: 1 ⏩: 1
There is a cave to your left. >duuuude<
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
I absolutely love the Earthsea books and it is wonderful to see someone creating artwork informed by those amazing novels.
Your use of shadow and light really captures these scene in the book. I especially think that your use of painterly strokes and mark-making work in the piece.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Yes! It's so rare to find pictures of these awesome stories. You did a great job!
👍: 0 ⏩: 2
Oh btw, I've just started an Ursula Le Guin group - please join or watch us, if you're interested! There are a few people here on DA who have been illustrating Earthsea.
#UrsulaLeGuin
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
ok, I submitted a request
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
you rendered the light source and its effects very well.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Beautful illustration! I love the Earthsea books and your picture fits the scene very well!
👍: 1 ⏩: 1
I like this piece. When I saw the thumbnail though, I thought it was a picture of a big dragon eye. XD that's what it looks like from a distance... Great use of color btw
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
I'm pretty much in love with your paintings. They all look so "dense" in a sense that there's so much to look in them. All the different shades and the marvellous play of light...
I've read all the Earthsea books btw, but several years ago, so I don't remember much. Tehanu was probably my favourite too. I was so thrilled by that book that I couldn't stop reading it in my math class and my teacher confiscated it
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Awww thank you, thank you!
Yup the light worked out well in this one, didn't it? Sometimes it seems more fortunate accident than planning, though I suppose years of photography and lately, sketching from life a lot, are finally beginning to tell!
I've been painting for as long as I can think, really, carried right on from childhood, but I never bothered much about technique until fairly recently. I think with these Earthsea paintings I've reached some sort of watershed for myself... where I feel I can confidently step up and say yes, this is professional level work and not just some - however talented, perhaps - amateur stuff.
If the fave count here on DA is any indication, at least.
I never thought I'd ever get there -- seeing that I decided to focus on music instead when I was younger -- but hey, it's never too late to have a second artistic career! (perhaps)
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
You're welcome
I sometimes feel the same way, that all my drawings that look nice enough for me to upload them are actually a fortunate accident. You have painted for as long as you can remember and I have drawn from the moment I could hold a pencil. I went to an art school for nine years and got a reasonable amount of teaching, but I can't really focus on the "right technics". I've always drawn the way I like and the way that fits me. So I'm not sure if I'm still an amateur or not
Well, but I can certainly see how much effort you have put into this painting and hell, yeah, of course the fave count is an indication! You sure have a reason to be proud of yourself.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Amazing piece! The overall style and the lighting are wonderful (good choice by the way -- awesome book)
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Beautiful piece, it looks like a dragoneye that focus on a girl... (I know, it is something different and there is the storry in the book, but i don't care, it look like a dragon eye! A beautifull dragon eye!)
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
thanks! You're right! I see it now!
Actually it's supposed to look more like some sort of maw with teeth, which is also not exactly in the book... but then the name of the girl is "The Eaten One" so I thought it would be fitting.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Ah xD maybe it eat with the eyes!
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Oil on canvas???! You are fantastic at art!
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
not joking, honest!
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Thank you!
It works....
But there will be some more Earthsea paintings in the future.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Great composition, Ged looks very luminous. Fitting since it's eternal darkness and all ^^.
Hmm I wish to do fanart too, but I have a doubt, Tenar has blonde hair or Black? hmm I can't recall, I always picture her with a light brown so..>_<;
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Thanks! I had fun painting the glittering lights around Ged.
Ursula Le Guin has described her as a brunette. She was "not fair to blondness" but had lighter hair than the black hair the Archipelagans would have.
I'm just working on my next image which will be the definitive answer on Tenar's hair colour 
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Alright! thanks for telling me :] I certainly like that from the books, there are mainly brunnettes or like Ged, toasted bunnetness, I hate when they put whim milky white, that's not right! D:
anyways, I'll watch you
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
You mean in that tv show? Ursula Le Guin was really upset about that casting, actually. And so were a whole lot of other people. I mean could they have found anyone looking LESS like Ged than that blonde blue eyed dude?
People from Gont are supposed to have dark reddish skin and black hair (the idea is, sort of like Native American people), and the Archepelagan's skin colour generally varies between shades of brown (Ged, Lebannen, Tehanu, and most of the other characters) and black (eg. Vetch and his sister, and the Master Herbal), as far as they are described. It is only the KARGISH people (like Tenar, and Ashver the Patterner, and Princess Seserakh) who have light skin and fair to blonde hair - and the people of Oskill are a mix between Archepelagans and Kargish people so they'd tend to have lighter brown skin (like Serret). And Tenar's children Apple and Spark, too, of course.
Why TV can't respect that, I really don't know...
I'm going to write something up about that in my journal sometime soon, anyways. It's pretty stink, as I see it.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
I meant two, that one and the japanese version in movie as well. I was actually quite angry/upset/bloody mad about the first one. I didn't know if I should laugh for the lameness or cry about it. The Gedo Senki movie about Earthsea is..fine, but there is nothing like the books. Besides.. they make Ged's scar look like a chalk scribble in his skin. [link]
Ursula said that it was "fine" but that she really didn't see her characters like they were on it. As if she was watching other fantasy movie. I must say that the music from the movie is gorgeous very very beautiful, and so are the dragons and sceneries(with an oriental touch tho) It's a good movie overall.
Nevermind that, do you know what Ursula did when she heard about the TV series? Like a public "I hate you Sci-fi" o something
(sorry for the late response, i hadn't checked my message box)
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
I kind of liked Gedo Senki but mostly because I thought they got the older Tenar just right. And I like how quite a bit of the plot is based on"Tehanu, rather than the more action-oriented books of the first series. But I agree it doesn't have a lot to do with the books, other than using some of the characters and places. And complain about Ged's scar... Tehanu just has a little red blotch over one of her (seeing) eyes, and is otherwise entirely cutesy. Admittedly, I haven't seen a lot of images of Tehanu that go anywhere near how disfigured she actually is...
I'm a bit scared of painting her myself, it will mean having to look at some really terrifying reference images.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Thank you!
Fine, finally I managed to paint something scary.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Wow. Oil is hard to work with, or so I heard. You have done a really great job capturing the deadly atmosphere of Atuan's caves.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
I don't think oil is any harder to work with than anything else, it's just being given that aura of exclusivity that everyone seems to say it's so difficult. It's a bit more expensive perhaps... at least if you want to buy good colours. But then good watercolours or acrylics aren't that cheap either.
Depends on what you want to achieve really - oils seem to suit my painting style. I find watercolours a lot harder to work with - in fact I can think of a number of mediums that it is actually much harder to achieve a good looking result with.
They do take time to dry, so generally it takes longer to finish a painting just because you have to wait a few days for one layer to dry until you can continue working on the next one, but that suits my working style - I mostly only get to paint in the weekends, so there is plenty of time for that! Also at the moment I am working on two paintings simultaneously.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Oh that's awesome!! I guess it's true that some media suit some people more than others. ;D I learned something new today!!
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
You should try it sometime.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
I'm pretty sure I will eventually! It is intriguing to me.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Thank you!
I love oils. I've tried various other things, but I do love oils.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
| Next =>