SF&F Picture 6 out of 56 by Shelz Keast.

SciFi and Fantasy Art: Benu

An amalgamation of various Egyptian creation myths. The heron, Benu, is acociated with creation and the sun. The solar disc on his head (should have a cobra ureaus instead it's based on a brown tree snake) belongs to Re-Horakty and various other deities that come under the heading 'Eye of Re'. Benu's fishing out an ank, symbol of life, from the waters of creation. In some of the creation myths a god or lotus flower emerges from the water to bring light and order to the world. It's common in myths in that part of the world to begin with the world as a dark watery chaos. One last note; the heron's stance, with the left leg forward, is standard in Egyptian art and iconagraphy.

A3 paper with 2b,4b and 6b pencils (though the 4b was actually darker than the 6b for some strange reason).


	Categories: [Dream Imagery] [Landscape, Nature, Panoramic] [Magic and Sorcery, Spells, etc.] [Normal Animals (Cats, horses, fish, etc)] [African Traditions, Mythology] Techniques: [Pencil/Graphite Pen]

Date	Name	Comment
7 Feb 2008	Dave Cripps	Loading... Nice bit of graphite! Very lively. I get the feeling that the Nile has a lot to do with Egyptian stories of creation. Shelz Keast replies: "Yup the Nile’s pretty important, without it there’d be no Egypt. The Nile deity is called Happy by the way."
7 Feb 2008	Danko Ostojič	Loading... That doesn’t look as water at all. Shelz Keast replies: "You’re kinda right."
7 Feb 2008	Gabe Ender Davis	Loading... Wow. Very nice shading! Congrats on the mods! Shelz Keast replies: "Thank you."
7 Feb 2008	Gwenivere Stephan	Loading... Hm, very interesting. I didn’t know about the creation myths starting in a watery place... that’s interesting to me... but anyway... the water part of the picture could use some work, in my opinion. The "horizon" of the water is not clear and I was very confused about the ripples for a second. It almost looks as if the water is sticking like mud to the end of the ank and being lifted upward... do you see what I mean? It’s strange looking especially against the beauty of the heron. The heron IS very nicely done, very realistic and all.I love the way the snake is curled around it’s neck. With some work to the water and the ank this’d be a really fantastic picture. Nice work, keep it up! Congrats on the Mod’s! Shelz Keast replies: "I agree the water isn’t perfect. Originally I was going to have some reeds in the background, but I was told not to have anything (not even the darkness) in the background by certain peoples. I got to compromise though. So the water’s horizon was meant to be higher up. There is mud/water clinging to the ankh, again that was in the initial design of the picture."
7 Feb 2008	Gwenivere Stephan	Loading... Oh, one other thing I forgot! I love the Egyptian eye on the heron! Very neat and very subtle, great detail! Shelz Keast replies: "Thanks, glad someone noticed the detail."
7 Feb 2008	Katarina V. Baralić	Loading... It’s interesting... Shelz Keast replies: "I know what you mean..."
16 Feb 2008	Yasa Nihari	Loading... Cool! I love the shading, and the unwateriness of the waters of life. Why should they be normal? ^____^
19 Mar 2008	Stephanie S. K. Marbach	Loading... i really like the way the snake wraps itself around the bird’s neck. the shading looks good, too! my congrats for your star!!! Shelz Keast replies: "I used a couple of reference pictures to get the look of the snake right. "
25 Mar 2008	Sam Adams	Loading... 0_0 Incredible! Awesome! Sooooo beautiful and mysterious!
11 May 2008	Catherine Brodie	Loading... Beautifully drawn!!!
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'Benu'

SciFi and Fantasy Art: Benu