All I seem to be able to do lately is sketch, though that may be in part because I’m trying to do different things with my style. So to make up for the lack of updates as of late here’s some of my more recent sketches:
I’ve been seeing alot of criticism around the internets lately of the depiction of angels as "humans with wings", seeing as I’ve sort of become known for drawing just that it’s a topic of interest to me. These people do make a good point as, despite the fact they often appear in human form in the canonical scriptures of the Abrahamic religions, they sometimes don’t, and there are stranger descriptions still in books of apocrypha. There are angels with the head of a man, the head of a lion, the head of an ox and the head of an eagle with four wings. There are the Seraphim, six wings covering their bodies and one glance at them could incinerate you.
Angels have been described as having 70 wings, 100 eyes, 80 tongues, or with mouths all over their heads continuously chanting. They’ve been described as having eyes of fire, walking on fire, and spitting fire. Their skin has been described as being of the likeness of beryl and their feet like bronze. Considering all this, you could make angels into some really freaky, alien, menacing figures. So why do I decide to still depict them as "humans with wings"? Well there’s more of a reason than just the fact a ball of eyes, wings and tongues is a bit hard to draw…
As some people who follow my art may know I’ve been changing the direction of my angel concept a bit and updating the characters and their outfits. Here’s the results of my work on the characters Gabriel and Azrael!
As some of you out there may know, I’ve been working behind the scenes developing my angel characters in hopes of pitching a comic in the next year or two (I’m still not confident enough in my skills to render quality work at a fast pace, is one problem.) I’ve also put in alot of research into Abrahamic religious lore, from the Bible to the most obscure Jewish apocrypha, needless to say I’ve gotten alot of ideas. I’ve done alot of world building, I’ve got the history of the characters pretty much solidified. I’ve even got a good idea how I want it to end now, and plenty of ideas for the later story arcs. My goal right now is to write out an entire story linerally so I can then throw things out of chronology, easily show flashbacks, foreshadow, and extend, expand, and elongate plot points as I wish. Of course I don’t intend to give away the details.
But in all this, I’ve run into a problem. The first story arc. I’ve had a major block in my path in trying to adapt the dynamic of the original short comic to this growing beast of an idea in my mind. Basically I’ve been in a rut.
It should come as no surprise that I have heard many remarks over the years that my characterization of the Archangel Gabriel is extremely… girly. Where all of my angel characters are in fact androgynous (or well… at least were created that way) they’re referred to in the masculine and have, for the most part, masculine bodies. Despite this androgyny and the tendancy of having pretty faces, Gabriel in particular seems to delight, confuse, or outright scare people with his femininity.
But over the years people who have watched me on deviantART may have seen me defending his design, citing Classical and Rennaissance art as inspiration. And since no one seems to believe me and since I got a site where I can talk about anything I want with pretty visual aides I’m going to take some time to explore the sources behind Gabriel’s girltastic looks.