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Description
For `TouchedVenus 's Goddess of Spring contest: [link]

WIPs: [link]
Featured: [link] [link]

Oh, and since this is an OC contest I should probably include here that this is my character Cheryl. I've used her in a few other pieces before. She's a lot of fun to paint (though I promise I'll paint something else next time, haha).

Some of the species here are made up, some are based off of existing ones. There's a common kingfisher, orange luna moth, scarab beetle, dogwood, and magnolia. The dragonfly is modeled off an existing species but I couldn't identify exactly which. I chose each of the animals for a particular symbolic reason.
And I chose the flowers because they were pretty.

My first instinct for the prompt was to do something bright and cheery with flowers and butterflies and robins, but in the end I decided on something subtler: darker earthy tones instead of bright ones, and symbols of spring that were less, well, generic. I didn't want it to be all about life and sunshine, either--moths and scarabs carry connotations of death, which is as much a part of nature and spring as is the renewal of life.

Sorry for the re-upload! This is the final cleaned-up version. Let me know if this shows up too dark on anybody's monitor.

Texture from Lost and Taken .

Description
For `TouchedVenus 's Goddess of Spring contest: [link]

WIPs: [link]
Featured: [link] [link]

Oh, and since this is an OC contest I should probably include here that this is my character Cheryl. I've used her in a few other pieces before. She's a lot of fun to paint (though I promise I'll paint something else next time, haha).

Some of the species here are made up, some are based off of existing ones. There's a common kingfisher, orange luna moth, scarab beetle, dogwood, and magnolia. The dragonfly is modeled off an existing species but I couldn't identify exactly which. I chose each of the animals for a particular symbolic reason.
And I chose the flowers because they were pretty.

My first instinct for the prompt was to do something bright and cheery with flowers and butterflies and robins, but in the end I decided on something subtler: darker earthy tones instead of bright ones, and symbols of spring that were less, well, generic. I didn't want it to be all about life and sunshine, either--moths and scarabs carry connotations of death, which is as much a part of nature and spring as is the renewal of life.

Sorry for the re-upload! This is the final cleaned-up version. Let me know if this shows up too dark on anybody's monitor.

Texture from Lost and Taken .