Fantasy female - The Huntress

Oh well, I thought my next blog was going to showcase my first really big battalion for the Waterloo project, but 138 figures is taking longer than I expected, and just to keep my readers interested I thought I'd show you a painting I did back in the Summer.

OK, she's not "military", but she does have weapons, so that's my excuse

Here is "The Huntress - Powerful yet Vulnerable"

During one of our photoshoots, when the Hussarette garb had hit the floor, my model sportingly took up some poses in her thong with the carbine and sabre.  Reviewing them later this one struck me as ideal for the kind of classic fantasy female made popular by the likes of Boris Vallejo and Julie Bell. Another famous artist of this genre is Frank Frazetta, and his Tarzan comic book paintings often had eery jungle with tangled draping foliage.  While in no position to think I can match these great artists it wouldn't stop me having  a go. So I substituted the carbine for a powerful looking bow, added a quiver of arrows and a large hunting knife, played around with the thong and bra to give them a bit more substance, and invented some henna style tattoos for an additional sense of the mysterious.

Looking back through my photo reference library I came across some scenes from Gloucestershire's very own Puzzle Wood in the nearby Forest of Dean, which already had that quality of moss covered rocks and clinging dark foliage. Just changing the perspective a little gave me a good setting for my Huntress to be crouching, examining tracks of her prey, some kind of bear is what I had in mind, then hearing a threatening sound in the woods and looking sideways, warily.

I hope I've created the mood for the viewer of a woman very much in charge, and confident, yet in this environment she is still vulnerable to some hidden being or force.......

Female viewers might say "I'd feel vulnerable dressed like that wherever......." :-)

Fans of Legatus and his wargames ladies might think she could be at home with Professor Challenger, helping to populate his Lost World

Unlike all my Hussarettes this lady doesn't have a name, so readers are invited to give polite suggestions

The painting is oil on gessoed, stretched canvas and is 20" x 16" . I stuck to a colour harmony using only 

Cadmium Yellow hue

Naples Yellow

Cadmium red hue

Viridian

Burnt Umber

Prussian Blue

Titanium white

The Huntress is for sale, at a mere £95. If you are interested, or fancy commissioning something in the same vein please contact me by email Chris Gregg or if you are not familiar with my other work you can see many of them on my website and its links (though it needs updating with more work since the Summer) Chris Gregg military art page