Mythological (sort of) Couples: Daphnis and Chloe

Hi all!

So, we are talking about mythological couples, right?

Well, yes; this couple though, is not mythological, in the strict sense of the term. Fictional is more like it; “Daphnis and Chloe” is actually a novel (the only known work of the 2nd century AD Greek novelist Longus) and not a myth, but still, we are going to explore their story.

The story talks about a boy and a girl, Daphnis and Chloe; they are exposed at birth, but Lamon, a goatherd, finds Daphnis, and Dryas, a shepherd, finds Chloe, and decide to adopt them and raise them as their own.

Daphnis and Chloe grow up together, and eventually they fall in love, but, being young, they don’t understand what is happening to them. Philetas, a wise old cowherd, tells them all about Eros, explains to them what love is and reveals that the only cures for love "kissing, embracing and lying together in the nude.”

Eventually, they do try the first two of those “cures”, but, being naïve and inexperienced, they don’t exactly grasp the concept of the third “cure”; naturally, awkwardness ensues.

At some point, Daphnis is educated in love-making, by Lycaenion, a woman from the city, who tricks him into thinking she’s actually making them a favour. He can’t wait to share his newfound knowledge with Chloe at first, but decides against it, because Lycaenion tells Daphnis that Chloe "will scream and cry and lie bleeding heavily”. Yes, he was that naïve.

Because the course of true love never runs smoothly, they go through a series of trials throughout the book. Chloe is carried off by raiders of a nearby city but Pan saves her, two of her suitors attempt to abduct her, while Daphnis gets beaten up, is abducted by pirates, and nearly gets raped. In the end though, they are reunited with their birth parents, get married, have children and live happily ever after.

A bit predictable you say? And perhaps not our style exactly?

Quite possibly; but we both think the story is quite funny, adolescent love has a lot of potential, and we really wanted to see what sort of story/illustration we could come up for these two! :-p

Now, while we are tying up the loose ends in our story/illustration, in case you are interested, you can read the original story over here at Project Gutenberg (modern greek translation), or here at Internet Archive: Daphnis & Chloe (english translation) 

See you all next week!

Breaking down a sketch

Hello everyone!We're back!

I hope you all had a great holiday! I'm sure Myrto and I had!

We haven't been around much lately because our next mythological couple has proved to be more demanding than we originally thought. Its first part will surely be ready by the end of the week!

So for this week I thought I'd share the coloring process of Meleager and Atalanta. This is by no means a tutorial, just a step-by-step thing. Here it goes!

Step 1: After Myrto wrote the piece, I picked a scene that I thought that summed up this couple's relationship. (This is a first for us because usually we do things the other way around, first I draw the sketch and then Myrto writes!) After staging them, I had to pick the colors and decide where the light comes from.

Step 2: Finished Atalanta's coloring and started Meleager's. I also moved Atalanta a bit to decide where she should stand.

Step 3: Almost done with Meleager as well.

Step 4: First try on the surroundings. At first the road passed next to the rock where Meleager sits and there would be a stream on his left.

Step 5: The idea of a stream was abandoned. The road changed its direction. Now passing under Meleager's rock it leads to a dead end.

Step 6: Added more details to the forest.

Step 7: The background seemed to need a little color. I added a few flowers here and there.

Step 8: Final touches, a few more details and a bush in the front to add depth.

And that's about it. That's the way I usually work.

Until next time!