Irish Mythology: Finn and Sadv

So in December and January I picked up an old book on Irish myths and Legends, so old it was missing its cover and its pages were sandy in colour and musty in smell. I remember reading it ages ago and it set my mind alight with vivid images that gripped my imagination, so I decided to try and illustrate these, so there is more to come from this.

One of the stories was about Finn captain of the Fianna, an elite group of guards that served the High King and defended the shores of Ireland before Christian times. Finn as his name means was fair haired and handsome, he and the rest of Fianna would often go hunting game with their wolf hounds. On one occasion Finn's hounds chased a deer into some old enchanted woods, he  followed and soon found them at an opening, sitting and guarding the deer, as Finn approached the deer transformed into a beautiful woman, her name was Sadv, the Deer Goddess. Sadv had originally been trapped in deer form by a dark magician of the old age but the spell had broken in the presence of her true love, Finn.

After the painting was complete I was compelled to paint what Finn looked like and the expression on his face, partially to add more of a storytelling element and emotional aspect but also because I had the idea of doing a banner or background scene for a Facebook page which would have an accompanying profile image related to the scene.

In later Posts I will share the process of my digital painting progression to show how I ended with these results and to hopefully get tips, suggestions, ideas, feedback and critique by breaking down the stages. Again I will return to Irish Mythology as a theme/source for illustrative paintings, so stay tuned by following.