Banshee Painting

Long time no blog!

Just finished a painting this afternoon, so it seemed like a good time for an update!

Banshee, gouache 2015

This painting depicts the legend of the Banshee. There are several versions of the myth so I decided to combine a couple of the lesser-known variants instead of painting the typical "wailing hag."  In one story I read, the Banshee was a young woman who kindly ushered the dead to the other world, in another, she was an omen of death appearing as an old washer woman.  I thought these had interesting contrast (and would read together as Banshee-themed :)), so these are the two I decided on for this painting.

This is my first full gouache painting since taking a workshop on watercolor and gouache a couple years ago, and although it took some practice and tutorial videos, I'm happy to say gouache and I are no longer enemies!  I actually really like it, it doesn't require mediums or smelly "odorless" mineral spirits, it can be diluted like water color, it can be thick and opaque like oil or acrylic, and with some water, you can even adjust dried areas of the painting.  Overall, I think it's pretty fun to work with!

Thanks for reading, more paintings to come!