BANSHEE’S EMBRACE.

Continuing my interest within unique takes on Irish mythology, I made Banshee’s Embrace.

The Banshee is definitely one of Ireland’s more famous pieces of myth and how can she not be? She feels fitted for horror.

A continuously weeping alarm of death, who’s deafening wale is a sign of the end. Her hair streaming as though always caught within wind, though I’ve personally always imagined it more like how hair floats when underwater.

While there are a lot of frightening aspects of The Banshee being this crying and screaming sign of death, the fact she’s just a sign has always struck me as more helpful than anything. So I honed in on that depiction. I depicted The Banshee as an empathetic messenger, one who is of the quickest to mourn you.

Loving what will be lost.

For the design of this gentle take on The Banshee, I aimed to make it feel truly from another world.

The marks on her mask (Potentially face?), specifically above the eyes. Make this expression that is simultaneously as easy to read as angry as it is sad.

The marks running down the cheeks being easy to see as tears drive home a sense of grief when combined with the other markings. There is a sense of abstractly expressed devastation.

Her long streaming hair is kept from the more conventional depictions, though definitely exaggerated with some influence from Yoshitaka Amano’s character designs for the film Angel’s Egg.

Her arms appear as dark as her hair and clothing prompting multiple interpretations to be had.

Does she have a white face with a full body fabric making her arms appear as black? Does she have black skin with a white mask? What of her is what she’s wearing? What is she made of? How does she feel?

Under that hair and cloak, are her shoulders up high where her neck would realistically connect or is her neck impossibly long? Who knows.

The engravings on her jewelry are various forms of Celtic knots, spirals and triskeles. The prominence of the singular spiral in specific could speak to her ancient being, her presence extending out of Irish mythology and or the cycle of life and death.

Her long fingers and nails return from conventional depictions, though are now gold. Gold is a colour that conveys grandeur, from the status communicated through jewelry or the shine of a sunset, what better colour to be adorned by a being so beyond this realm.

The symbol seen in the background is a drawing of the tree of life that has been overlayed on itself from various angles. Turned the same colour as the background and then masked with screentones of the opposing values.

It creates a very whimsical effect.

Darkened variations.