Medusa the Gorgon

I've always had an interest in the Greek myths, none more so than that of Medusa. Originally she was incredibly beautiful, but Poseidon raped her and so in a jealous rage Athena cursed Medusa to be a repulsive Gorgon. With serpents for hair and a gaze that would turn any man to stone Athena ensured that no man would ever again look upon Medusa with anything but mortal terror. Medusa had two Gorgon sisters, Sthenno and Euryale. She was also the mother of Pegasus and Chrysaor. Perseus beheaded her but used her still-active gaze to defeat the Kraken. Eventually he gave the head to Athena who attached it to her shield. In Dante's Inferno the poet comes across Medusa during his descent into Hell.

I often speak of my talent for Portraits and Wildlife; this image fuses the two together. At roughly 22 hours this is by far the most demanding piece that I have ever created (my previous record was 14 hours, my average is 7 hours). Medusa's is the first face that I have drawn in over seven years because I lost my confidence in my abilities. Whilst her face took a mere four-five hours to sketch, the serpents were a lot more complicated, requiring a multitude of textures and a lot of trial and error. The closest that I came previously to sketching Medusa was my GCSE Art project on Nagas (mythical half human half serpent creatures - see the final image), but this was a lot more challenging.

Inspired by my love of the Greek myths, the image itself is based on a sculpture by someone known as "Veronese". You can check out the original here and it is available on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/Veronese-Medusa-Snakes-Gothic-Plaque/dp/B078VT54LX/ref=sr_1_39?dchild=1&keywords=medusa&qid=1591448860&sr=8-39

I really wanted to record a time-lapse video of my sketching Medusa but became too entrenched in finishing the work. You can see in the images below some of the stages of its creation, compared to a photograph of the original sculpture. Images 4-8 have been created using an app called PRISMA, which I love to use to change the impact of my work (and to check if my shading and textures have landed in the right places!). I'm particularly pleased with images 5 and 6, which look a great deal like Veronese's original. Image 7 makes me think of how Medusa might actually be represented in a book on the Greek Myths. Medusa is absolutely one of my finest works; I think I even surprised myself with its completion. After finishing the piece my thumb was numb for almost a week - I guess she turned a little piece of me to stone!