SciFi and Fantasy Art: Grey Eyed Athene

Interesting - it lacks a little detail, but then as you say you were having problems with oil - perhaps making it bigger would help with that? The colours are _very_ nice, however the whole picture is a little 'foggy'. As for the wings, well Athena Nike (a fusion of Athena - the goddess of wisdom and war and Nike - the winged goddess of victory) did (there was/is a temple of her at (or near) the Parthenon). Normally Pallas Athena would be portrayed without wings - however Athena 'was' most definitely a shape-shifter [or at least could shape-shift - I guess to some there is no difference between the two, somehow I see shape-shifters as a sort of cross-breed race] (assumes many shapes in Homers Iliad/Odyssey) so it could be argued that she could be winged if she wanted to... (she assumed the shape of herself, a man and an owl [at the very least])

nb. the sword is interesting - is it supposed to be some sort of flame sword? It looks pretty cool, however it doesn't fit to the classic portrayal of Athena with a helmet, spear (and perhaps shield). I can see Athena with a sword, shield and helmet no problem, however this picture seems to remind me more of some kind of angel of fury (and not because of the wings but more because of the sword... though the wings do obviously help).

How's that for a first comment?

Sword - don't worry - I can see Athena with a machine gun. Well that's in 2004 at least

no, i dont think Athene had wings, but shes very beautiful just like imagined

Oils take time---you’ll find they’ll work better for you if you layer them and don’t expect them to react the same as other kinds of paints. LAYER LAYER LAYER. The best things about oils is the amount of depth and vividness you can achieve through color. Don’t give up on oils, but please try to understand how they work before disregarding them. Underpaint, then slowly build up detail, and I think you’ll be very satisfied with your results.