I went to the library to find some books on how females are represented in Mythology.

The librarian helped me out and gave me two fiction tales; The Silence of the Girls – Pat Barker and The Merry Spinster – Daniel Mallory Ortberg.
She also navigated me toward an online PDF; Containing the Kalon Kakon: The Portrayal of Women in Ancient Greek Mythology. 

I decided to read the pdf first and it really helped me gather ideas on the male dominance and patriarchal society of the ancient Greek’s real lives and in the myths/legends they created.

From what I learnt here, I decided that I shouldn’t just focus on the ‘Monsters’ of Greek Mythology but females as a whole. The female characters and figures in the myths and legends we read today were only valued in the stories to make males feel powerful and elite. The females are just ‘tools’ in the novel to make the men feel good about themselves. I want to reverse this narrative and make the women the main character.

After drawing from artefacts as references, I decided to look at how the characters I had researched so far were portrayed in historical art.

I found this historical painting by Hans Thoma from 1886, portraying the Sirens of Greek Mythology.
For me this piece really stood out, the women are depicted nude with bird legs and although that sounds strange, the way Thoma has painted makes it very realistic that these bird legs belong to these women.

Here is my interpretations of the Siren, inspired by Hans Thoma.
I went online and found an archive of nude model poses and references which I used for the torso.  I used a black fine liner and some water on a paint brush to paint with the ink and add the nice shadows.

I also tried to use the nude reference photographs to present an idea of Echidna, Mother of monsters. I used the same ink and wash technique as above.

I also tried to do a similar style using oil pastels, which I don’t enjoy as much to look at but they still look like the Sirens.

I sketched one of the clay vases from the British Museum that depicted Medusa on the front of it. This took roughly 10 minutes and I used black fine liners in the sizes 1mm and 0.1mm.

For this sketch, I used another Vase image but focused entirely on the figure in the centre rather than the vase itself and the other figures on it.  I used the same 0.1mm and 1mm fineliner. I found the  snakes unravelling from the face rather difficult to draw and get the dimensions correct, but used cross hatching to add shading and texture.

Then on some tanned paper, I sketched the clay figurine of the Siren using a simple HB pencil and my finger to smudge and shade. This style of artifact is very traditional of Greek sculptures. I really like how this sketch turned out and looks compared to the original artifact.

This is another sketch I did using a vase as the reference photograph. I used a graphite pencil which was darker and thicker. The vase depicts a Siren drawing on the front of it. I do not necessarily like how this sketch appears as the drawing on it is not my style, but I think it looks very similar to the reference photograph.

In this piece, I used pro create to create a more modern version of the reference. I used the photograph of the metal medusa head with visible snakes appearing as hair. I used cool tones such as blues and purples as well as clay coloured skin. This took roughly an hour, I really struggled with the snakes, especially their heads and the dimensions as well as the shading around them.

Using the artifacts, especially the clay vases and pots, I decided to try some pottery.
I have only ever done clay work once, in secondary school so this was a new technique and media for me.

I used red, air dry clay to give a more authentic appearance. The Medusa figure in the clay is extremely androgynous as that’s how the first sightings of medusa in history where seen.

After having a tutorial with my tutor, I was given the idea to visit some museums and draw from the greek artifacts. Unfortunately due to Covid, The museums are not open so I used the online libraries of some museums such as the British Museum and Britannica.

On the internet, I researched some of the most well known ‘monsters’ that were female in Greek Mythology.

Here is the information I found

For this self directed project, I had a rough idea that I wanted to do something on folklore or mythical creatures. I created a Pinterest board to gather some images and ideas. As my researching of artwork and photography expanded I realised I wanted to focus my attention on female mythical creatures, especially those from the Ancient Greek era.

I created a mind map of some information I had accumulated from the internet about mythical creatures as a whole and female mythical creatures.

I found out there was a book of myths called D’Aulaires book of Greek Myths written by Ingri and Edgar Parin d’Aulaire and also a book called  Women and Other Monsters: Building a New Mythology by Jess Zimmerman.

I researched slightly about these books and their representation on female mythical creatures and decided to go to the library to search for these books for extra information.

Here is the final version of my graphic novel, I wanted to showcase as much techniques and media in the novel as possible. Through colours and body language shows the progression from a good relationship to a bad, toxic one.

I decided to create a few more oil pastel sketches that I could digitally collage into something for the finale comic.

I used warm tones such as yellow and pink, which represent happiness and romance. The figures are genderless, and holding each other caringly.

I didn’t want my comic to look stereotypically like a comic, I wanted something more like a abstract Graphic novel.

I explored different layouts and cutting out of my previous sketches to create  a very abstract story that the reader has to create for themselves.

I yet again altered the colours of the coffee paintings and I decided to experiment with the layouts on how to make them an interesting.

At first, I edited it the same as my previous coffee paintings, in the rectangular boxes with black backgrounds but they didn’t feel emotional enough or creative.

I then decided to cut out areas of the paintings and create a somewhat collage of individual pieces. Here, I amplified the hands and duplicated them, to create the idea and sense of being small and overpowered/controlled. I really like the layout of this as it is much more fluid and more abstract which works well with the paintings as they are purposefully messy.

I then decided that I wanted to develop this collage piece and wanted to alter the colours.

I used red this time as the hands were appearing to me as malevolent and controlling, red suggests the idea of evil and danger yet also love and passion. Which is the two very conflicting feelings which are present in an abusive relationship.

Because I enjoyed the process and outcome of the coffee paintings, I decided to do more where I could portray different emotions.

I did paintings that did not include a couple this time but instead an isolated figure, alone. The body language and situations present this idea of loneliness. In my previous research, being in an abusive relationship will make you feel an excessive amount of emotions, good and bad, I wanted to showcase as much of these as possible.

Being trapped, Feeling belittled and small are all key ideas focused on abusive relationships. In these coffee paintings I have created figures holding themselves into a ball, protecting themselves. I’ve also created a figure that appears to be trapped with their hands on what is trapping them, as a viewer we have to perceive that for ourselves. I a