Banshees: Origins and End of Module Final Piece

Banshees

Banshees are mythical creatures that originate from Irish folklore and are said to appear having long hair, in a grey dress. They are believed to be an indicator of someone's impending doom.


Image result for banshee mythical creature Image result for banshee mythical creature

The banshee from the Irish mythology is more tame than those found in popular media. While the myth does explain that banshees are an omen of death, video games and media use these creatures as hostile entities that attack mortals when they get too close.

Dark Souls & Dead By Daylight

Dark Souls

Banshees often are enemy entities that hunt players in games. The appear as ghouls in Dark Souls and float above the ground and appear white and grey rags.

File:Christophe-young-thespirit-turnaround-censored.jpg
Dead By Daylight, The Spirit

Dead By Daylight interprets the banshee as a zombie-like character who is possessed with her body parts floating in place. Although known as "The Spirit" she does have a significant backstory when she was human, which indirectly adds to the faithfulness of Irish mythology.

One thing to note about both games is that the banshees' appearances are as undead. This is as accurate as it technically gets because of the fact banshees are essentially already dead and serve the purpose of warning about incoming demise. For video game's sake, the banshees are possessed and aim to kill the player at hand, which is very much obvious given certain visual aspects and dangerous looking colours and aesthetics.

Final Process
One thing to note about this process in particular is that I wanted to incorporate my preferred style when drawing characters. For the banshee, this fits in well as the style I predominantly use is often for human characters. It also allows me to add some expression to the banshee. With this said, I also tried to make a more personified backdrop rather than a natural landscape of environment to fit in better with the adaptation of the banshee. I decided to stay faithful to pop-culture and depict the banshee as a threatening killer.

  
Sketching and Lineart

 
Cel shading, spot colour, volumetric shading and depth shading.

 
Second character introduced with glowing effects, background features, reverse shading and multiply layers.


I've often come across banshees in media and video games that have the purpose of trying to kill the protagonist. This is why I opted to use a design that should appear disturbing and frightening. Also, if I had used a painterly technique or style, I feel the expression I want would have been lost making it less effective.

Using a stylistic approach to the banshee allowed me the play with the expression of the banshee to a huge degree. The sadistic looking expression with red was the best match in my opinion as it also is faithful to the violent nature of banshees in media. The addition of long nails, kill tally, and a hovering spirit should communicate better the fact that this banshee character is a ruthless killer and a spirit. I should also note that I intentionally attempted to illustrate the banshee as an entirely evil creature.

Sources:
Claddagh Design (2018), Ireland's Best Known Spirit - The Banshee. Available at: https://www.claddaghdesign.com/history/irelands-best-known-spirit-the-banshee/ [Accessed 7 May 2019]

Egalitaria (2016), Banshee, Mythical Creatures Guide. Available at: http://www.mythicalcreaturesguide.com/page/Banshee [Accessed 7 May 2019]

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Hydras, their features, and their similarities to Dragons

Image
Hydra, Dark Souls. [Video Game], From Software.   The hydra is a similar mythical creature to the dragon in terms of the general head structure. It originates from the myth in which a nine-headed serpent haunted the swamps of Lerna during ancient Greece, and was capable of spawning two more heads from those decapitated. Heracles was said to have destroyed the creature with help from Iolaus. When it comes to video games, most of the hydra's aspects are the same when it comes to textures, builds and body features. The differences are the number of heads that it has, the fact that it is never airborne, and that the head type can be slightly different. Typically, the features between hydras and dragons bear obvious similarities. The immediate difference is the structure of the creature - hydras have more heads than one, and also lack the wings. In many games, they are bound to the spot and found in water, so it is sometimes unclear as to what is beneath the creature. ...
Read more

Investigating the Japanese Kappa in illustration

Image
Suiko Koryaku, (1836) Koga Toan The Kappa of Japanese folklore are human-like water imp creatures that are said to have the same height as a child and are very proficient in sumo wrestling. They were also said to haunt inhabit rivers, ponds and lakes, and were also responsible for drowning horses and children. In supernatural mythology, they are categorised as one of many yokai spirits and are essentially a amphibious hybrid of human and turtle with webbed feet.  The Kappa in modern illustrated media Kappas are often illustrated as being a anthropomorphed fusion of a human and a turtle, having a shell on its back and a beak. Many companies or artists who illustrate the mythical creature often make a human-like, and sometimes cartoonistic impression of the kappa. Yokai Watch Faux Kappa, Yokai Watch. [Animated Series]   Level-5. Level-5 takes a cartoonistic approach tailored towards that of anime and manga audiences. The kappa is simplified to its basic...
Read more

Picturing the many parts of the Dragon

Image
The dragon's body parts are borrowed from many different animals in the world. As such, I found it best to focus on different segments at a time to understand the anatomy of the dragons.   Early sketches involved trying to recreate the correct anatomical build of the dragon, which included the upper body and the appendages. Drawing nodes is important, as it allows me to draw in the bulk of the body parts more easily. The main body of the dragon seems much harder to replicate.   The most complex areas were parts involving scaled patterns. These tend to have jagged shapes and are well crowded. These borrow from either turtle skin which is more pointy, or snakeskin which is flatter and glossier. Due to my experience with games and media, pointy dragon skin is far more familiar to me since it is more common, so my practices reflect textures that are derived from turtles. Pentadactyls, being the wings, are also a challenge to draw accurately. I found drawing the wire m...
Read more