Art: Demetrius of Alexandria [Eagle of the Ninth]

[motetus]

Art for the first round of the ninth_eagle fanmedia challenge! This is bookverse Marcus art, and if there is anything I've learnt from this, it's that I'm an idiot for not drawing more book!Marcus and thus avoiding all the temper tantrums I've thrown in the past two years over Channing Tatum's frustratingly thumb-like face and his squinty little eyes.

I started off intending to make this just an illustration of Marcus in his oculist disguise after being inspired by the oculist's seal prompt, but then I came across some lovely Roman funerary paintings and had to see if I could mimic that style (not that Marcus is supposed to be dead! He just wanted a reminder of how awesome he looked in his Phrygian cap and beard!). There's also a little bit of the BBC miniseries Marcus (who is adorable) in this, but I wanted to avoid fussing too much about likenesses (as I always do!) and focus more on the style of those Roman paintings.

Comments

[isiscolo.livejournal.com]

I LOVE THAT CAP! And also the beard, and the long curls of his hair peeking out, and the way you've done the shading on his neck.

[motetus.livejournal.com]

Phrygian caps totally need to come back into fashion! Though now I am squinting at it and thinking it should have been MORE RAKISH.

[forza-del-d.livejournal.com]

Absolutely brilliant and beautiful! I love the way you did the Phrygian cap, and yes, the style is very much in sync with what we see in Roman funerary paintings. Gorgeous!

[motetus.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much! :) I'm so glad you think it I've got the style right - it took lots of playing around with textured brushes!

(also, hiii! It's nice to see you still around - makes me realise I really should get back a bit more into what's left of Eagle fandom)

[riventhorn.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I love your book!verse Marcus! And I LOVE this style. It totally looks like something an archaeologist discovered from ancient Rome. I must admit that I never bothered to research what a Phrygian cap actually looked like--LOL, it's so cute! And his scraggly little beard is perfect, too. :)

Congratulations on passing the first test (although I'm afraid Placidus will not be well pleased. ;)

[motetus.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much! Do I have a possible career making historical forgeries? ;)

Placidus is so adorable when he sulks.

[sineala.livejournal.com]

OH MY GOD THIS IS BEAUTIFUL. And it looks just like all that funerary art, too, with the colors and the big eyes.

A+ on the Phrygian cap, too. I always thought they looked kind of like Santa hats in those reliefs. :)

[motetus.livejournal.com]

Yay, thank you! I *love* the big shapely eyes those paintings have. Everyone looks so soulful!

[lemondilemma.livejournal.com]

He has such beautiful eyes! A good advertisement for an occulist, i guess. "Use my salves and you too can have swoonsome eyes". Love it :)

[motetus.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Heh, yes, his lovely eyes is all down to the invincible anodyne of Demetrius of Alexandria!

[the-little-owl.livejournal.com]

Wow, that's great! It looks like an ancient Roman painting, and it's beautiful in itself. Great job! I hope to see more paintings by you in this style.
(As for my comment to the fanmedia challenge, well, I'd love to draw the beard-combing Briton, the pot-hurling first lady of his tribe, but I have no idea for Marcus and Esca :>/

[motetus.livejournal.com]

Thanks very much! I don't know if I'll do more in this style, but I've been wanting to try other historical styles for a while now - maybe something similar to Byzantine art (could be for Shining Company?), although I suspect I'm going to find that tricky!

Yes yes yes, you should totally draw the pot-hurling lady! You don't even need to stick in Marcus and Esca, just have the target of the lady's wrath be Placidus? :D I don't know how you'd work in one of the prompts though... uh, just stick lots of wildflowers in the background? Maybe Placidus has unwittingly trampled all over her lovely garden?

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

That's beautiful! It really looks just like a funerary painting - the shape of the painting, the big eyes... Do Cottia and Esca like him all scruffy like that? It's pretty cute.

[motetus.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

Cottia and Esca think Marcus looks much better, but still needs a GIANT HANDLEBAR MOUSTACHE.

[seascribe.livejournal.com]

Oh, this looks absolutely fantastic, with his big eyes and the tones and everything--it could practically be a replication of one of those funerary paintings. I love his facial hair and his nose and the really very silly looking Phrygian cap. Work it, Marcus. This is great.

[motetus.livejournal.com]

Ahaha, I spent at least an hour before I started fretting that there was no way I could put in that Phrygian cap and have it not look slightly daft. And then I decided to stop fussing about it, because Marcus thinks he looks fantastic in it. :D

Thank you very much!

[bunn.livejournal.com]

What everyone said! I love this so much!

[motetus.livejournal.com]

Hooray! Glad you like it!

[alby-mangroves.livejournal.com]

He's beautiful. His eyes are absolutely alive and sparkling. What a wonderful painting and fantastic rendition of book canon Marcus! I'm in awe. <3

[motetus.livejournal.com]

Thanks very much! I have been meaning to draw book Marcus for a while - I hope I can use one of the next prompts as an excuse to try book Esca. Of course he's going to be sporting a magnificent authentic Celt moustache...

[surexit.livejournal.com]

Oh my God, that's gorgeous. I lovelovelove that style of Roman funerary painting, and this captures it amazingly.

[motetus.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much! Yeah, those paintings are gorgeous - some of them are so life-like and look like they've captured a lot of the personality.

[carmarthen.livejournal.com]

Ahhhhh ohmygosh this is BEAUTIFUL you've nailed the historical style perfectly and YES PLEASE MORE BOOKVERSE MARCUS FOREVER.

[motetus.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I want to rewatch the BBC miniseries again and draw the Marcus from that, because he is such a pretty thing, and sort of similar to how I picture book Marcus (well, a hell of a lot more than Channing Tatum!).

[tracy7307.livejournal.com]

I LOVED OCULIST!MARCUS. I CANNOT EVEN. The cap! His attempt at a beard! The big eyes! I have hearts in my eyes. Ahh. Beautifully done.

[motetus.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much! I read all the oculist bits before starting this and oh, Marcus. He so enjoys his disguise and sales patter, and is so adorable when he's bragging about the great Demetrius' fame.

[ideserveyou.livejournal.com]

This is absolutely wonderful - you've captured book!Marcus perfectly, looking 'rather young, despite the beard' and with that slight air of vulnerability showing through his new disguise. Which is perfect in every detail. This is how I always imagined he'd look at the beginning of their adventure. I'm sure both the beard and the cap will get more rakish with time and confidence. And I look forward very much to your book!Esca too.

Now I'd better go and get started on my own offering, also inspired by the same prompt... and now further inspired by your painting!

[motetus.livejournal.com]

Oh gosh, thank you so much for your lovely comment! I will do my best to find an excuse to draw book Esca for this challenge, I promise - I'm a bit less sure of what he looks like (he's very vague in my head!), but it will be fun to draw all of his lovely tattoos.

Ooh, more oculist Marcus! I'm glad more people are picking the oculist prompt, and I can't wait to see what you come up with! :D

[ladytiferet.livejournal.com]

I can't stop staring at the shading/light on his face and neck trying to see how exactly did you do it, it's so incredibly well done!

[motetus.livejournal.com]

Textured brush! I have a custom one I've edited from one of the default PS ones which has rough edges and a texture setting on it that makes light brushstrokes very chalk-like and hard to blend, which forces me to think a lot more about what colours I'm putting down (lots of greens and reds worked into the skin, like the original paintings have) and not overdo the colour blending. I've been slightly less harsh versions of this brush for a lot of things now, because I love the effect it has, and how it stops me from over-detailing like I usually tend to do.

...sorry, I just REALLY like talking about the process and tend to get carried away!

[fififolle]

That is amazing! I can just imagine it on the wall of a villa or something! (Or whatever they did with paintings.)
BBC miniseries? Oh wow. I need to get hold of that... Was it audio?
Marcus just looks so kind and lovely xxx

[motetus.livejournal.com]

Thanks very much!

The 1977 BBC miniseries is well worth a viewing - sure, it's dated and the video quality isn't great and Esca has a bit of a receding hairline, but it's so charming and a lot more faithful to the book, and the guy who plays Marcus is delightful. And there's Cub! And Cottia! Official versions don't exist, but isiscolo has copies here that you can download.

(I think there was also a radio play, but I don't have a copy of that. You might be able to find it by digging around old posts on ninth_eagle?)

[bassino.livejournal.com]

Gorgeous!!
I LOVE your bookMarcus :D. There's something North African/Arabic about him. Really wonderfully done!

[motetus.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much! And heh, I can totally see what you mean now you've pointed it out - it's that combination of his dark features which are from the book, and the large, almond-shaped eyes which are from the painting style which give him that slightly Arabic look, I think.

[archaeologist-d.livejournal.com]

Wow, great job on this.

[motetus.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much! :)

[wanderlust48.livejournal.com]

The eyes and the colours on this are complete amazing!
And I agree with the comments that there's very stong Arabic look about it, or is it Middle Eastern? ( not that I know those cultures all that well, although I'm Asian, it's the yellow-skinned side of things)

[motetus.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much for your comment! I must admit that the Arabic look to it was completely unintentional, but certainly not one I'm disappointed about - I figure Romans (especially ones that are described as olive-skinned, wiry and dark!) would have that slight resemblance.

[jamies-belle.livejournal.com]

Wow, this is so different from anything else I've seen you do, its wonderful, you're super talented :-)

[motetus.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much, it was a lot of fun to try something new! Now if only Roman-style funerary portraits could come back into fashion, I could have an exciting change of career...