The online art of the Deadly Sins... (1)
When I first got into the Internet, one of the first things I explored was the seven deadly sins. As I said before, it is a motif that is one obsession of mine. And this obsession was partially grown out of the Internet of the time as a whole, which also seemed to love this motif very much.
DeviantArt especially, back in its Golden Age, before it was flooded with kids and AI, was a treasure mine for depictions and interpretations of the sins. I want here to pay homage to these artists that now the short-lived Internauts probably forgot, or that got buried with ages of Google Images.
Starting with THE most famous series of all, THE classic set of pictures that created an entire artistic sub-genre on the Internet, what used to be the top of the researches back in the days - I am speaking of dahlig's Seven Deadly Sins Ladies. (2004-2006) Marta Dahlig is one of the unsung heroines of Internet aesthetic.
VANITY
..Or if you prefer: Pride - Mother of all sins. First one of the, duh, Seven Deadly Sins serie. "Vanity is an excessive belief in one's own abilities, that interferes with the individual's recognition of the grace of God. It has been called the sin from which all others arise." symbolism? It's all pretty obvious but I will explain some stuff which inspired me, to sound cool, mind you. :P As you can read up, vanity is linked with the color violet, so here you go the color theme. Peacocks remind me of vanity as well, therefore I have used a peacock feather as an inspiration for the "frame". You can see the background being desertish (plus the dead tree)… Vain people usually never see any beauty in the world, but only in themselves… That is why everything around them, sooner or later, dies - and that is what I have tried to depicture. techy info: lady's props based on my (pencil) sketch based on a couple o' refs, refs for textures. you can see some art nouveau inspirations in the frame - my tribute to A. Mucha, as he is my idol:)
ENVY
The theme: Second of the Seven Deadly Sins serie. "Envy is the desire for others' traits, status, abilities, or situation" Personally I think envy means much more than just a wish to have something someone else has. To me, it means also ACTING AGAINST that person, "revenging" in a way, trying to take the "object of our desire" away from them, or backstabbing them in some way etc. That is why myself I consider envy the "heaviest" sin of all seven. symbolism: snake - as I mentioned, envy, to me, is connected with cunning and doing something behind one's back :) poison ivy leaf in the frame (and the column)- maybe just a word play, but I always connected ivy with destruction of some sort… Growing using a different object as a "support"… Something like that ;] color green - i guess it needs no comment :P Techy info: During the last few weeks I have been going through a small "artistic breakdown", noticing how many mistakes I make etc… So I decided to try to work harder on my pieces from now on and develop my style… So here you go, something more painty than before :] I hope you like it, cause I'm pretty satisfied for now :]
GLUTTONY
GLUTTONY is an inordinate desire to consume more than that which one requires. Why didn't I draw anything disgusting? Well, I wanted to prove myself I can keep to the original "idea" of a glutton, WHILE making the character aesthetic, pretty and (in her way) attractive. I wanted to prove the modern "pretty=thin to the bone" standard wrong. ;) Some symbolic explanations: Abundance of textiles - I treat this sin not only as eating and drinking, but consuming in it's wider meaning, such as buying and gathering useless things etc Grapes - "luxury" goods, connected with lavish parties (in ancient times) etc The pink colour theme - reminds me of grapes, sweets etc :)
