Narcissus & Echo
Click the picture to open the full 5463x4045px resolution, with an almost lossless jpg file compression (95%) suitable for printing.
Update 2022:
- Switched license from CC-By-Nc-Nd to CC-By, I'm tired of tracking royalties and editing permission for this artwork very popular among scholar, thesis, books about mythology. I hope you'll enjoy this permission, consider sending a donation if you can, I need that to continue to produce artworks.
- Upgraded resolution thanks to an upscale DCCI algorythm of Gmic and manual post correction for sharpness. Original 2732x2023px, new version: 5463x4045px. Computer of 2006 couldn't really handle such a resolution, at least mine of that time. 15 years later Krita on my Linux workstation perform x10 time better if not more.
- Fixed things that bothered me with the original painting: mainly the face of Echo and Narcissus, minor anatomy corrections, and replacing the huge iPod with a thin modern generic smartphone (just a rectangle with rounded edges and a glossy black glass). I couldn't fix too deep issues, but I hope I enhanced part that were slightly disturbing before.
Original post:
This picture represent a modern view of the myth of Narcissus & Echo from the Metamorphoses of Ovid. ( I can’t write you a fast resume cause the story is so much interesting that I 'll miss all important parts, you can go on "Wikipedia source" to know more about and read the text ).
So, I made a modern view of it, adapting some points and working more on describing the psychology of characters : - Narcissus is here a traveler, he observe with passion his reflect on the metro's glass. A beautiful boy ,mysterious. - Echo is one of those thousand girls with magazine/headphones from everyday that is suddenly interested by him, but didn’t know how to approach him. So, 2 world in confrontation, this kind of situation is may be not as dramatic as the original myth but I just wanted to put the same perfume in it and keep the relation. Myth are still alive for me, and are played every days.
This picture was realised for 3D station contest “greek mythology” , and receive the first prize award. Thanks to them.
10 comments
I love it, its amazing :D
@Andreé Montenegro : Thanks !
This was my wallpaper for almost two years in 2009. one of my favourite pieces of all times. I'm learning Blender at the moment, maybe one day, I'll attempt modeling it in Blender with David's permission, of course.
Keep up the good work David
Hi David! I am a student at Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana and am currently in a Greek Art and Mythology class. I have to write a final paper on a myth and decided on Echo and Narcissus. I am referencing this art piece in the paper because I love the modern twist you took on it. I was just wondering the correct way to site this piece of art? Thanks so much, you're an amazing artist!
@Rachel : Thank you!
You can link to the artwork here, or just mention the title and my name. Good luck for your paper!
Hi! I'm currently in a Mythology class studying Echo and Narcissus. I stumbled across this picture, and I find it absolutely beautiful. I really like his far-off expression and how you portrayed the reflection through the window instead of through a stream. The whole piece is interesting; it's a great modern take on an ancient myth :)
Thank you!
servus
David - I'm a high school English teacher in California. Some of my students are using your painting to write about a modern interpretation on the classic myth.
We have a question for you. Why did you choose the streak of light in the window to remove Narcissus' eyes? Is there anything to the graffiti in the window?
It's a wonderful piece and inspirational for our writing task. Thank you.
Hey, that's nice.
To be frank, I start to have faded memories about this piece as I made it in 2006 when I was 25 years old. That make me think I would like to repaint-it because I would totally keep the same symbolic, mood and expression (even camera view angle) but I would certainly fix anatomy and appealing of the character of the piece. The light on the windows is one of these neon bulb light on the wall of the metro. The speed of the metro shape them with motion blur. I probably positioned that over his eyes (in the reflection) to break a bit the relation between him and his reflection: adding eyes adds immediately new center of attention in an artwork; and it unbalances the relation between Echo and Narcissus if a third face was here (even if now thinking about it; it could be interesting.).
The graffiti were an attempt at simulating scratch, dust over the metro windows. A flower appears on the top right; but this one is obvious. The other paint stroke are random scribble as far as I remember; I think I had this airbrush smooth technique at that time that was a time sink; but it had a result of melted wax and I wanted to hide that with a overlay of scribble to make it look more spontaneous. It is funny to see that now xD. Do not hesitate if you have any other question!
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