PAINTING ELVES AFTER FINISHED THE SERIES MANIFEST.

 Hello everyone!

I have been enjoying a relaxing week but also taking care of my creativity. After the Terranaut I had a short brake to watch Manifest and to do a paint study.

But let's break it into parts...

About Manifest...

I think I never had seen TV for so many hours! I watched 62 episodes (the whole series) in less than 7 days for 2 reasons: I was so immersed to the story and because my streaming service was ready to expire. 😂 

I loved the story, it's about impossible things, time travel, chances to change the future, solving problems through clues and all of this thanks to very different and complex characters but my favorite was the one who cries the most: Zeke and his big heart played by Matt Long, his story was my favorite. ❤️ 

After feeling like part of the show due several hours attached mentally plus how as a HSP this of course affects me, I'm glad also I had the time for creating and work a portrait.

Sometimes when I finish a big project like was Terranauta, I like to keep creating but maybe in a less compromised or planed way, I think it's more to keep me fresh artistically and creatively.

I have many bucket list ideas to paint but what I took randomly first was a male portrait, I don't do many male figures but I enjoy them too.

So I started a sketch on linen paper and I was pleased with it, then I thought to turn him into an Elf to give him a specific personality.

Then I started with oils and I wanted a classical style as I always have been in love with classic, romantic - Pre-Raphaelite styles, but I was not very sure about the result.

At the beginning was ok, but it was turning very different from what I had visualized, and I just remembered how different it's to work with oils where a very small dot can change everything specially if you work all at once instead by dry layers. I think the struggle was to paint when I did't wanted and with very bad light, plus I had a lot of pain on my hand.

 Why I painted if I didn’t wanted? well, because my daughter wanted to paint and she never wants to paint with me so I had to take the chance while she was starting a Timothée Chalamet.

Valentina's Timotheè painting in progress

I was not pleased with my Elf and I was not sure if I wanted to start another one as he was almost ready...how to throw away something that has already some life? Im pro art 😂 .

I was kind of lazy to start again all over, but my nonconformity was bigger so I decided to start a second one and keep this one too till finish.

Here the second one:

It looks more like I imagined with more warm colors and more blended details instead vivid brushstrokes, but in some way I like also very much the first one, the expressions are more vivid, he looks with a more raw feeling...I know it sound weird but I can't explain. Seems like According to this post I like the ones with a hard life uh? 😂 

In the end, I love them both and they are special, each in their own way, and now the background...

I wanted something simple but with a soft and dreamy atmosphere for the backgrounds. 

I have added golden frames as part of them and I really loved the vintage design.

FIRST ELF: Here the first elf you can see the colors and more details from the face. He has a neoclassical look but with more expressive brushstrokes.

The slightly furrowed brow, parted lips, and the distant, reflective eyes suggest he's grappling with some inner struggle or longing. This emotional nuance reminds the ability to convey psychological tension through subtle facial details (more than my second elf even when they are inspired in the same model). I wanted to turn his upper lip with more volume as I have been contemplating sculptures, and he reminds me in some way to a sculpture.

SECOND ELF: He has also the neoclassical and Pre-Raphaelite look with warmer colors, carefully blended, he looks more refined and soft, the eyes are smaller but also expressive like asking for something. 

Both elves are depicted recalls the Renaissance or Neoclassical portrait style in terms of lighting, composition, and expression. The elves looks complete with the golden laurel and robe-like garment bridges fantasy with classical mythology. Both appears noble, almost divine, yet humanly uncertain, which deepens the narrative. I see both like victorious as the bay leaves from the wreath represents victory.

Both figures are calm, evoking a sense of divinity and introspection, much like the saints or mythological figures painted by Raphael or Ingres and I love that. The golden laurel crown and draped garment further support this classical feel.

 • Romantic Sky and Mood: The softly blended, expressive sky with hues of blue, pink, and gray adds emotional depth. It evokes the Romantic era's fascination with mood and nature, this time with pastels where the environment mirrors the inner world of the subject.

 • Subtle Fantasy Element: While the composition and technique are grounded in academic tradition (this was my goal), the elves pointed ears and ethereal expressions lend a quiet fantastical quality—it’s not overtly magical, but it feels otherworldly and not just a simple portrait.

 • Painterly Brushwork: Especially in the sky and clothing, retain a loose, textured quality that balances realism with expressive freedom, more notorious in the first one. That gives it a slight Impressionist edge in the background, while the face remains smooth and highly rendered for the second one.

I just love Romantic classicism and subtle fantasy portraiture. The elves appears noble, perhaps touched by destiny, caught in a moment of awe or foreboding—a timeless characters placed between myth, magic and memory.

The Elves "Granted victory for an Elf" are available on my ETSY  sold separately.

TO QUOTE: I am still reading "Thus Spoke Zarathustra" so here what I liked:

-Oh heaven above me, your pure, deep abyss of light! When I contemplate you, I tremble with divine desires.

-Throw me to your heights, that is my depth! Shelter me in your purity, that is my innocence!

-Together we learned everything, together we learned to rise above ourselves and to smile clearly.-\

-There is little male here, that is why their women are masculinized, because only he who is sufficiently male will redeem women.

-For them, virtue is what makes one modest and meek; in this way they have made the wolf a dog and man himself the best domestic animal for man.

-Always love your neighbors, but please be those who love themselves first.

TO LISTEN: "One Day" by The Verve, I always loved this band since I was teenager, the sounds and the lyrics are beautiful, Richard Ashcroft the singer and composer writes very beautiful songs, but this week I was listening repeatedly this one.