Lady Of The Lake

The Lady of the Lake painting is finally finished. I used Painter IX, the only program on the market that can simulate what traditional painting mediums can do.

First I used a customized pencil to draw the woman and sword with scabbard. Then I created a new layer and began laying in color, working on this layer allowed me to preserve my original sketch. Once I liked what I saw, I then flattened the image and began painting directly onto the original canvas.

At this point using customized soft charcoal, pastel, and oil brushes, I painted the woman and background. Then I finished the piece by adding detail and highlights

This painting took me somewhere between 20 to 35 hours to complete.

Lady of the Lake – Combined Media – 11 X 14 inches

Lady of the Lake’s Sword with Scabbard

The lady of the lake is an archetypal figure in the Arthurian legend, and known as Vivian, Nimue, Niniane, and sometimes as Morgan le Fay. She was also Merlin’s lover and rival and was credited with bewitching him.

The lady of the lake is best known for gifting the sword Excalibur to Arthur. Excalibur’s scabbard was said to have magical powers of it’s own, and was stolen by Morgan le Fay and thrown into a lake, never to be found again.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson, described the sword in his poem “Morte d’Arthur”, later written as “The Passing of Arthur”, one of the Idylls of the king.

“There drew he forth the brand Excalibur,

And o’er him, drawing it, the winter moon,

Brightening the skirts of a long cloud, ran forth

And sparkled keen with frost against the hilt:

For all the haft twinkled with diamond sparks,

Myriads of topaz-lights, and jacinth-work

Of subtlest jewelry.”