13 days ago

Perhaps the definite iteration of my art. This is the owl-only version, from two alternative versions of the same art project. This version features a Subarctic Great Horned Owl (essentially a Great Horned Owl but with pale gray plumage, pale yellow eyes, more gothic-like appearance), with subtle anthropomorphic traits (including womanly eyelashes and red painted claws), depicted mid-flight. She's staring at the viewer and grabbing a heart-shaped claw tablet carved with three cuneiforms for the name of Ereshkigal (eresh, ki, gal, specifically as seen in Neo-Assyrian records) while two symmetrical pairs of pale gray hognose snakes emerge from behind her, one of the pairs emerging from below her wings towards the viewer, and the other pair spiralling counterclockwise around each other above her head, also towards the viewer. A large crescent Moon is seen behind, slightly above the owl's head as if crowning her. The background is solid dark gray because it's originally transparent background (meant for printing).

Screenshot of Sketchbook app featuring one of the behind-the-scenes for this latest iteration, this specific version having everything described in the earlier picture alt-text, plus Lilith-as-woman (fair-skinned woman with long fiery hair, large crimson horns, subtle vampire fangs and snake tongue, multi-glowing eyes with green tapetum lucidum inside the pupils and fiery orange at the irises, staring at the viewer with her arms in W-like pose while she's wearing a long red dress which opens in an upside-down V-shape below the pelvic area, revealing uncanny owl-like legs and talons) between the owl and the moon slightly higher in the sky (crowning Lilith-as-woman). Part of the layers used in the drawing are visible, including reference photos from actual Mesopotamian tablets, hidden from the final iteration.

Another screenshot of Sketchbook app, this one being a close-up on the owl and the heart-shaped claw tablet she's carrying.

Another screenshot of Sketchbook also closing on the owl, but now one of the reference photos are visible, with the reference cuneiforms overlaying the drawing and positioned exactly along the heart's inner arc.

Another screenshot of Sketchbook, this time revealing yet another reference picture, which is itself a collage with several different fragments across Mesopotamian tablets and archaeological Lineart with the cuneiforms seen in those fragments, with all the fragments having been photoshopped and cut to the the same sequence of cuneiforms across them all, eresh + ki + gal.

Hopefully the definitive edition of this art.

To recapitulate: I've spent days doing this (the evolution of the entire project can be seen in previous posts of mine) inspired on a Samhain illustration. Then I decided to add the snakes and the clay tablet with Ereshkigal's name. I dug through ORACC ePSD2 (electronic Pennsylvania Sumerian Dictionary) seeking to learn, in the most precise manner, how to write the name of Ereshkigal in a clay tablet (modern representation of cuneiforms significantly differ from their carving, and a same cuneiform appears differently across different Mesopotamian periods). I dug through taxonomic classification of snake species trying to identify if there's a better fitting snake species for this drawing (thought of using a Dendroaspis polylepis AKA Black Mamba due to her famous dangerousness, but this juvenile hognose snake specimen I saw from a Bilibili video seemed better). My Nokia smartphone struggled with the insane resolution I used for the canvas (4200 x 4800px).

Feedback is appreciated...

#occultart #arsritualistemplii #drawtober