Why this tittle?
This is my depiction of Kara the Swan, for the norse myth contest on =abstractsilence. She was a valkyrie and they were said to turn into swans. Legend goes even further with Kara.
LE: won 3rd place, yay!

She fell in love with a mortal, Helgi. While in swan-form, Kara flew over the battlefield where Helgi was waging war and sang such a beautiful song that the enemies stopped fighting and surrendered. Read more on the web you lazies!

Technique

Well, I pretty much used the classic enhancing methods, from noise + smart blur to dodge on the eyes and bla bla, you know those by heart, I'm sure.

However, I did have an ace up my sleeve, that helped me gain some contrast and make her stand out. This is an old technique that painters use:

You see, when all you have is a bunch of tempera colors, a horse hair brush and a canvas, you can't slap on a filter for more contrast. That's why when you paint and have the need for contrast you go and burn shadows and dodge highlights and to do that, you add a bit of white or black to the color on the canvas.

This is exactly what I did, I got a brush with around 3-4% opacity and started painting with white or black in the lighter/darker areas. So that was the big secret. Oh, noes!

Composition and details:

Well, as you can plainly see, the composition is a pretty standard portrait one, however, I did pay attention to a bunch of minor details.

Take a look at the background, the right part, we have a skull in the top side. Never have an element that is very close to the edge "look" outside the image - this fits the rule...

Also, as you can see, the skull is balanced by the swordsman and here comes the smart part about the composition - notice that the imaginary line that splits the face (key element in here) in half, also splits this distance (between the skull and the man) in half. Also, this line intersects the field of interest in the left, the one suggested by the highlights on the belt and sword pommel.

As for lighting and details, well, the light on her comes from the front and the right, so I felt like the right side of the background should be brighter and show a bit more detail than the left. That's why the knight in the left, even tough it's bigger than other elements is a bit blurry and not very bright. Further more, at his size, if I would have made him bigger he would have grasped far more attention, fact which I didn't deem necessary, since I want you focused on Kara.

Many thanks to:

~Cobweb-stock =TwiggXstock ~coldhunter #resurgere ~bloodlust-stock

My clubs have my permission to publish this in their galleries.