She was touched by the sun.
Her heart was happiest on the clearest of days. So she could admire the resplendent light without a single obstruction. Those days when the clear blue sky would be stretched before her. Allowing her eyes to trace behind the sun as it slowly crossed the sky. With the coming of each new dawn, each day rose with joy. The earth was illuminated and with it, so was her soul.
Clytie, the young nymph, had fallen in love with the god of the sun. There are a few variations in regards to how the original story is told. Some versions indicate that they were once lovers. Others imply she was just a doe-eyed girl with a crush. Regardless of how she came to love Apollo or if anything had transpired between them, all versions conclude the same way.
Apollo was diligent with his task of moving Helios, the sun, from the East to the West. Every day he could be observed charging across the sky in his magnificent sun chariot. Every day Clytie would sit. Her head slowly turning as her eyes followed him across the sky. As this went on, she had become delicate and thin from neglecting to eat and drink. The gods had taken notice of this change in her and her plight. Feeling sorrow and pity for her combined with the knowledge that she was an immortal being, they decided to show young Clytie mercy. They changed her physical form, manifesting her into a sunflower. For Clytie, this was a true gift, allowing her to continue to watch Apollo traverse the sky forever.
Sad story for such a beautiful flower! To me, sunflowers have always been a boon of joy and positivity.
On that note, if you like Greek myths you should check out a show called, Great Greek Myths on Amazon Prime. While you won't find the story of Clytie in this mix. You get some great stories that focus on some of the more prominent gods of Mount Olympus. It also has a visually appealing art style.
Let's go ahead and get to the watercolors!
This painting is not that of a true sunflower which I am sure you noticed. I was inspired by the red and gold variants that exist even if they are not naturally found in the wild. A few sunflowers are smaller in overall size but have longer petals. So it's like a fun little pretend hybrid. Sunflowers are such happy flowers. Almost every year I try my hand at growing them. With a 0% success rate of making it past the seedling stage. (Sorry, little sunflower homies- I didn't mean to be a bad plant parent.)
Starting with the stem, then progressing upwards through the leaves, and up to the part of the flower that will eventually hold some big ole petals! Using the same color I hit some key spots again to give it that darker shaded appearance and hopefully provide the illusion of some leafy veins.
It's "petal" to the metal time! I wanted to capture the sun! So I started with this lovely yellow. Then once that was slightly dry I slap some red onto the page and crossed my fingers for a smooth gradient.
Historically, I have really bad luck with using red. It tends to body slam my paintings. So I was initially nervous. As a result, I made sure to take my time. Spreading the red pigment slowly across each petal. Then I doubled back to hit the background petals with a second dose of color.
This water brush has a surprisingly fine tip, so you can get some lovely defining lines done. I used more red to add some fine lines to help distinguish each petal since I intentionally did not shade the yellow very much.
Chugging along painting the heart-shaped...thing?..fractal? Crystal? Yeah, that is how I feel about it too. It was supposed to be an unpolished crystal. I can't say that I'm too happy with how this was turning out. I feel like I got *kinda * close to what I was going for...but didn't quite hit the mark. The shape itself is a little off as well, something I should have caught in the initial sketch.
I wonder if I would have received a better result if I would have washed the whole heart with a light shade before I started detailing each facet. I did weigh this option at the time of painting but due to my lack of success with that route in similar pieces- I opted for the “tried and true”. Something I will have to keep in mind for next time. Maybe I can find a way for the heart to have a little bit more natural-looking shape as well. Like a polished gemstone instead.
As far as flowers go, I am really happy with how it turned out. I can't say that I feel the same about the crystal. I can't help but feel like the gemstone subtracts from the piece overall, but I just see that as a challenge for a later date. I have a few ideas on how to get more synergy between the two on the page. We shall see!
Doodler Tools:
-Pentel WaterBrush
-ShinHan Water Color
-Staedtler 2H Led
Painted with love for my Grandmother. She isn't a forlorn lover. To her perfection is glorious summer days. ☀️
The gem is a hard one to pull off as it would need some parts with a lot of volume. Interesting story on the Greek myth, I had read a collection of Greek myths but haven't encountered Clytie's tale.
I am sure there are more stories I have missed as I only read a comprehensive summary of their archive.
!discovery 25
That is a most excellent point! It doesn't feel like a uniform piece to me. It's all fragmented. Which I supposed might be more fitting for the story.
It's incredible how many stories exist. I'm sure I have only stumbled upon a quarter of what is available. Especially in regards to some of the lesser immortals. Magical and benevolent explanations for why certain things happen in the world around them.
PS: Thank you so much for the discovery ping! I'm glad you found the piece worthy!
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Fractals/Mosaics are super tough to do by hand.
It's a discipline that requires great patience!
The Gemstone is a tricky one as there is no context for its existence.
I think you Grandma would've enjoyed this "Heartlily"
Great Job!
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Thank you for da za!
You are so right! That is definitely something this piece taught me, haha. It will be quite a few more rounds of practice I think before I "nail it" in watercolors.
Haha! Definitely- just as much that awesome play on words!
Those Greek tragedies man XD though I guess they gave "good enough" explanations for stuff at the time XD
There's something about flowers growing out of rocks/crystals XP the flower is beautiful, looks very much like a watercolour XD The crystal looks pretty cool too but a bit uncertain about its identity, like it doesn't know whether it wants to be a mosaic or a crystal or something that's fragmenting. Given that faceted crystals are a pain in the system to do at the best of times I'm really impressed that you tried with freaking watercolours of all things.
Damn straight you should be happy about how the piece turned out, including the confused crystal :)
Right?! The blend of the unknown with magic as a way to cope with things they observed in the world. But almost all of them involve drama of some sort. Gotta make it "juicy" I guess, haha.
This. You hit the nail on the head.
Thank you so much! I love watercolors. I wanna "git gud" at them so baldy! I shall display my confused crystal with pride, haha.
I don't know if that was a meme or a typo but either way it was great XD
Haha! Oh noooo XD! That is definitely a typo! 🤣
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