Elan Vital

Acrylic on canvas.

In Europe I was impressed by Caravagio's use of light. I also need to master the female form (I have guys covered). So expect more of these.

I fell in love with this girl's figure and hence had to use it as a basis for a painting. I did this over the span of about a day, perhaps a little more.

The main theme is how fantasy is just a shadow of what we can see and experience as real. The figures body (reality) is much more warm and natural. I tried to make it come out at you and pleasing to the eye. In contrast to the warm coloring of reality the 'fantasy', embodied by the wings is done only in an outline and in a very faint blue. In essence, one could argue that this painting is a comment on how fiction is much less fullfilling compared to reality. (Notice how the beauty of the figure takes presidence over the lack of detail on the wings - which are usually very intricate and glorious in their own right, but not here, not in this context).

The scanned image does not do the work any justice. The original is much better. I've played with my scanner quite a bit and this is the best I can come up with. Oh well, I tried.

The figure is based off of the very sexy photo "Breathe" by
'glassyeyed' on DA, [link] She was nice enough to let me use her jaw dropping self for this piece, so stop by and look at her stuff.