Whew–finished this literally last minute! Less than a day left until the deadline for VyrL‘s Arcea contest. Originally I’d planned something much more elaborate, but as the sketch progressed it kept changing, merging, and eventually settled into this, a symbolic painting of Vyrl’s haunting characters Elwen and Jollwin, cursed lovers from her Chronicles of Arcea storyline.

The only survivor of a shipwreck, Jollwin is unable to remember his past, and for a century knows nothing of the family he left behind, though he often dreams of a strange woman with golden eyes. These dreams and the mysterious tales of a bard will eventually compel him to search for her, even without knowing where to begin. And his lover, Elwen, though she is now blind and has long thought Jollwin to be lost, she has never stopped hoping. She is everything that makes him “real,” as it were; she holds his name, his past, his love and so much more, and he will find her whatever the cost or however long it takes.

Elwen was something of a wild child, raised in the forest by wolves, and always grounded in reality, so her side of the painting is vibrant and lush, even though her expression is distant and sad. I also hid a portion of Elwen’s tattoo in the foliage. Jollwin has lost his identity to the sea, haunted by glimpses of Elwen, and so his side of the painting is drab, vague, lacking substance except where she touches him. The rings in the painting once belonged to Jollwin, and are what ultimately separated the couple in a tragic misunderstanding. But love “looks on tempests and is never shaken” as Shakespeare once said. I believe that sums it up best. :)