The Tale of the Pirate and the Prince (Part 1)

For some time now, I have been working on a series of paintings revolving around two original characters. It is a romantic adventure based on a story that a friend and I created about a year and a half ago called "The Tale of the Pirate and the Prince" I have already mentioned briefly in a previous post the tale of a pirate known as Captain Memoria, the pirate who has lived for three centuries, whose life-force is protected by the Stone of Eternity. He is one of my most frequent reoccurring characters because I always found his story to special to me. It was always my intention to expand his character further in the realm of my art, but little did I know when it all began just where this wayward pirate would travel.

The tale of the pirate and the prince is scattered in a chaotic order within my paintings, mostly because certain aspects of the story appealed more to me at certain times. The story was being written, and continues to amend itself to this day leaving room for expansion. In some ways it is an endless mystery, a story that reveals itself piece by piece in no particular order... with each piece, we get to know the characters and their relationship a little more.

Introduction of the Elvin Prince--

It all began in a painting called "Guardians of the Woodland Realm"

It features two traveling elves standing guard over a woodland territory. One is an Elvin Archer, protecting the forest and his traveling companion. He is called Mikirodor Dwinnedelf and his story, at this point, really goes no further than this picture. The other elf, bearing a jewel broached cape and a staff, is known as Tolmlithine Eplithon. Tolmlithine would become lucky enough travel beyond the bounds of this painting, and into a more epic tale...

Tolmlithine Eplithon is no simple elf in this vast woodland realm. He comes from a line of royal blood, and is one of several princes in the Eplithon Dynasty. Bearing his wooden staff, he is of a rare class of Mage Elves (elves who possess magical abilities.) Some of these abilities include; communication with animals and the ability influence water and the growth of plants.

Though all elves share a love for the forest most of royal blood have primary interests in political and ceremonial values. Such is not the case with Tolmlithine, he is far more solitary and independent in nature bearing a curiosity for the world around him, and the world that lies beyond the borders of the forest. His interests are far less ideological and more geared toward the preservation of unity of nature. Relatively young in age in comparison to many of his kind, Tolmlithine is also described as having an old soul quality about him that many other elves no longer possess. He is deeply connected to the forest and oddly drawn to the sea... a connection that comes possibly from the ancient ancestral tie of Elves and Merfolk.




One day, while wandering long forgotten territories of the forest realm, to Tolmlithine's surprise, he encountered a creature that was only thought to exist in rumors and legends. He first mistook the creature as an ancient forest dryad, but she looked upon him with loving eyes and said "No young prince, I am no dryad. I have existed far longer than the thoughts of trees, for I am mother to the forest. I am humbly your friend, The Forest Queen."



Tolmlithine was shocked to be greeted by such a host, as it had not been recorded for centuries that any had laid eyes upon the rumored Fairy Queen of the Forest Realms.
She had appeared to the young prince for he possessed special qualities she had not felt within elf kind for many centuries, and there within the flowery groves of the forest glade she bore to him a special gift, The Light of Life and Love.

"This enchantment will live within you forever, and can be guided by your heart and by your staff. Its light will shine brightest in the company of the one whose heart you will hold, for it is powered by love itself"

One could wander the earth for a lifetime seeking true love, but a treasure such as this cannot be marked on any map. Those who seek love in its purest form rarely find it, but this is not to say that a kindred soul can never be found. Quite the opposite in fact, for it is in moments when love is furthest from our minds that such a treasure appears... sometimes in the most unlikely places, and sometimes in the most unlikely people...

(To Be continued...)

What Will Always Be Mine

The idea for this picture actually came to me a few months ago, and at that time I wasn't really sure about it. Much of the idea behind it was scattered and rough, and very much unpolished. I had been doing some study of Japanese Yaoi and wanted to take some of the influences of that style and add them to my own work. Yaoi tends to focus very much on the deeply romantic side of emotion and I have been wanting to explore a little more of that side of emotion within my own work. Many ideas came to my mind while brainstorming on ideas for my own piece... but I didn't want to go down any stereotypical rout of the genre, and I wanted it to still feel like my own work.

After doing a few sketches of romantically involved individuals, my mind began to wander down its typical darker path. I thought to myself, what if I created an image that appealed to more than just the heart warming emotion of love? What if I created an image that was both romantic and tragic in its own way? That was when the idea of "What Will Always Be Mine" started to take shape in my mind.

I set up the idea as two pirates who had fallen in love... and love, though being a beautiful thing, can be a painful bond as well. Ergo the tragedy of love... The two lovers could not be, and one utterly lost his heart to the other... and though they could not be, a bound between hearts is not easily broken. One pirate would steal the heart of the other as a reminder of what would always belong to him.



Though liking the idea to a degree, I didn't think it really set right in my mind. So it would remain as little more than a sketch for a good two and half months... when chance would have it that the idea was reinvented in my mind through a dream. A dream of a ghost...

I resketched the image with the new element of a ghost and was soon to be reinspired to create the image now completely in my own style.



The new idea behind the picture involved the two lovers now separated by death. The idea of the other lover being no more now than a ghost made the entire image feel more emotional in my mind. That one would have to go about life separated from his love now lost forever seemed bitterly tragic. The image is now of a ghost holding the still beating heart of his lover... but is it really that simple?



In my mind, symbolically, the ghost is not necessarily an actual ghost, but the ghost of love. If one pays close attention to the image, one will notice that the ghostly mist originates from the man's chest... meaning it could be a ghost, or it could also be a figment of the imagination... one of the heart's little pains reminding us of what we lost. It comes directly from the heart, as if the heart is projecting the pain.

Though the image is of a painful display... a ghost ripping out his still beating heart. The image is also sad and somewhat tender... The ghost is not really an antagonist... I wanted it to be a sad, yet touching display... as the one may note, the ghost is holding the man's hand, as if to comfort him though the pain.

The true antagonist of the picture is neither the man nor the ghost, but the heart... For it is the heart brings about the feelings... In the end, the ghost has come to take the heart that still belongs to him, to keep it for his own? or to help ease the pain the heart has caused him?

The Surfacing Face of the Artist

I've been asked recently why it is that my own face appears within some of my paintings, there are actually a couple reasons for this...

The first and most simple reason is that from time to time i put my own face on a character within my realm just to see if anyone notices, which obviously now people have, so it would appear that my experiment has worked.



The most common place my own face will appear within the realm of my art is within paintings portraying the tales of my favorite original pirate character, Captain Memoria. Why does this pirate look so much like me? Simple explanation yet again...

It began in 2007 with the creation of the character in a little movie my cousin and I made called "The Island Curse" I played the part of Captain Arcanus Memoria, a pirate who came into possession of a stone that made him immortal. In order to maintain a sense of continuity, I decided to continue to base the character's appearance on myself... The realm of my art, after all seemed to be the perfect place to explore and expand upon the character I had come to know so well in my mind.





Also, some small detail I tend to add to the paintings when I am creating my pirate character... I have given my Pirate the very same ring I wear... it is a small detail few notice, but at least I know its in there... Only Captain Memoria possesses the Green Ring in my paintings...



On occasion my face has turned up in paintings without conscious intention. Sometimes I use source photos to study how light and shadow fall upon a face or object. Sometimes if the source photo is of myself then my face will appear without direct intent.



Another explanation for an artist's face to appear without intention within the realm of their own art may be a bit strange but at the same time makes sense... it is common for an artist to inadvertently paint their own features on characters of their same sex, possibly because what face does a person know more than their own? When one spends a lifetime looking at their own face in the mirror it makes sense that in some way their own face might appear in their finished piece simply because, to an artist, it is what a face is suppose to look like...

But on top of all of this, sometimes it only makes sense that I would appear within my own works seeing how my art is mostly based on my own emotional journeys... I will sometimes appear within my own realm within...

A Pirate and a Black Stone

As it would seem one of the reoccurring themes within my paintings is the use of pirate characters as well as a small black stone. Some have asked me what the characters are holding in some pictures, and its really not easy to explain its entire significance in the comments where asked.

My realm of fantasy contains pirates for two reasons. The first and most simple reason is the fact that I just love pirates. I love the pirate style and the stories they tend to fill. They are historic mysterious and distant characters which seems to make them fit in perfectly within a realm of fantasy. The second reason they have made their way into my realm of fantasy is the romantic idea of pirates. They are adventurers bent on finding treasure, they are sneaky yet honorable, they are wanderers, nomadic characters that take their homes with them... for home is only in their hearts and home is being as free as the wind within the sails of their ships.

Within most of these pirate images I am following one specific pirate character I've created. These images are a glimpse into his story. But what makes his story more interesting from my other pirate characters is a small black stone he came into possession of many years ago...



The Black Stone is also known as "The Stone of Eternity" and it was born from a powerful wizard's selfish desire to keep an ancient king alive to rule the lands for Eternity. However, before the wizard was able to give it to the king, the king was killed in battle and the stone passed into legend, and secretly into the hands of the wizard's dark apprentice.

The Stone of Eternity was designed to protect its bearer from the effects of time, allowing this person to live for eternity. When the wizard was unable to give it to the king, he cast his final spell. Whoever would find the stone would be its keeper, and from that day forth, no person could claim it as their own... It could only be gifted to others.

The Wizard's apprentice held the stone for several centuries and it extended his life as he awaited the moment his own secret spell would steal the wizard's powers. When the first signs of the success of his spell had surfaced, the apprentice began traveling with a young pirate named Captain Memoria. The apprentice judged the pirate's character accordingly, and then decided to lead the pirate to an island that could only be found by those who knew where it was... upon this island, the apprentice gifted the stone to the pirate and then parted from the pirate's company.



For at least three centuries the pirate held The Stone of Eternity, and at this point his story still continues...





The Story of Captain Memoria is one I love very much. He is a pirate who was gifted an eternal life; a pirate who has lived far longer than he should have. Most everyone he's ever known has walked in and out of the pages of his story. He has loved and he has lost, and he has learned that the cost of living for eternity is a heavy price. An eternal life is a lonely life, but the only life for a pirate such as he. The wizard's apprentice knew this... and though the pirate knows that at any point he could gift the stone to another and let time take its course on him, he must bear it's lonely curse. Eternity is not a gift in the end, and his own sense of honor binds him to the stone so that no others fall into its empty clutches.



Timeless is a creature who is wise... and the timeless is a prisoner left in disguise.

The Story of Captain Memoria is one I am very found of, and many of my paintings and stories have revolved around his character... In the very near future I will go more into his story, discuss some other paintings that revolve around him... And I am sure that future paintings will continue to tell his story.

SketchBlog#1

I've not been posting as much as I had hoped I would be, but I've been pretty busy the past few weeks so the blog has started out a bit slower than it should have. However, I am making a goal that from now on I will update at least once a week discussing a painting of mine or some theme relating to my work, that and update with current projects.

Despite the fact that I've not been working on any paintings since "Follow Me" I've not been artistically dormant... I've been doing a lot of little sketches here and there and have been refining ideas for upcoming paintings. I am not sure where the sudden flow of inspiration has come from, but the ideas have really been flooding in lately.

Though I will not be discussing some of these projects just yet, as I would like to keep them more under wraps until they are close to being finished, I would like to share with you some of my recent random odd and end sketches that I've done in the past couple weeks.















Feel free to comment and let me know your feedback. It is always much appreciated!!

Is there anything in specific anyone would like for me to post about? Let me know in the comments!!

Follow Me

This is just a quick photoshop painting I decided to do today based on my Shadow/Nightmare cerise... No, this is not the Easter bunny, and the fact that I posted this Easter weekend is coincidence only. This is the Soul Stealer, also known as The Stirrer of Shadows in her most frequent form from a reoccurring dream... The Black Rabbit.



The Black Rabbit with the glowing eyes seems to haunt my nightmares from time to time. She always wants me to follow her, but I cannot shake the sinister feeling when I see her. Where does she want me to go, and what will I find when I get there? It is not exactly a question that I want answered.

Stirrer of Shadows

This is a project that only took me about 45 minutes to finish, it was just a bit of practice for another piece that I am planning to do... but I ended up liking it so much I felt like I needed to post it!



She is the Stirrer of Shadows and she sometimes haunts my dreams...
The first time she appeared in one of my dreams, she took the shape of a black rabbit with glowing white eyes and three very long pointed teeth... Later in the dream the teeth became a hand and she took the form of a shadowy woman, also with glowing eyes... if you pay close attention to the upper left corner of the image one can almost see the shape of a black rabbit in the stirring shadows....

She first appeared in an image I did about a year ago called "The Soul Stealer" which I will discuss at another time.