Angel; Ideas?
Right. So I’m drawing this picture, and I’m having trouble coming up with an aspect of it. Want to help me out?
So, it’s this naked chick with a mohawk. She’s carrying a pole. There is something (or “things”) hanging from it. What are they?
When I originally started sketching her I had this vague idea of an angel with some kind of weapon, like a pike or a halberd or something. But as she progressed she changed into something much more neutral. Now she’s this lady with a mohawk, which I really like the idea of. Mohawks are usually associated with very strong stereotypes of alternative, or punk rocker types, which have their own sets of personalities and behaviours and characteristics attached to them. But here, you can’t see her studded leather wrist bands, her crazy ripped denim and fishnet arm socks. I like the idea of going to the basics, behind the stereotype, to show you that it means nothing. Just because she cut her hair a certain way, she is inundated with these stereotypes, and I wanted to convey the idea that she can, and is, anything. I really liked the calm, neutral overtones from her pose, like she really is an angelic being, but defying her own labels.
Maybe I’m thinking way too much about it, haha. But anyway, I need the pole to be something other than just a pole. Not a weapon, though. I came up with a couple ideas; one, a lantern of some sort, but I’m not sure if that conveys enough meaning. The other was maybe having some sort of semi-precious stones hanging from the ends of the poles; stones too are given arbitrary meanings and characteristics, but they too are very neutral and can be meaningful or meaningless, depending on how you use them. But now I can’t decide on the stones I want to use, so I’m all conflicted there…
Any other ideas out there? Anything would be helpful, even if it’s silly. =) I would like to work on this more, but right now I’m stumped!
August 6th, 2009 at 9:23 am
You could hang two contradictory or extreme things from the two ends, with her balanced in the middle (and having the power to tip the pole, no less).
You could hang something meaningful but cryptic from each end. What would, say, a bottle full of sand hanging from one end and a broken alarm clock hanging from the other mean?
Some things that people can and would read meaning into, but wouldn’t have obvious answers (except maybe in your own head), might be interesting.
If I were drawing it, I’d hang a fire from one chain, and have the other chain all rimed over and suspending a chunk of ice. But then, that imagery suits my head.