Nymphs are one of those subjects I always try to avoid as much as possible.
‘thing is, pretty much any illustrator with a predilection for Fantasy has drawn nymphs at some point.
And has likely saved them in a “Things Everybody Does” folder together with elves and driads.

I am not saying there isn’t any nice artwork for them on the Internet. It’s just difficult to come up with something original with so many nymphs around.
However, there is an art challenge going on at the always awesome Art Order blog, and I thought I’d give it a go.
The challenge, if you haven’t guessed yet, is about nymphs.

Now, first of all the brief is pretty interesting, and it makes the old subject actually quite appealing.
Second – and this is the reason why I changed my mind about the poor nymphs – one of the judges is no less than Tony DiTerlizzi himself, and I thought that the chance of being rejected by one of my all-time heroes was priceless.

You see, back in the nineties I bought ALL the Planescape Box Sets just because of his artwork inside. I remember I started browsing a few pages in a comics shop I used to go in Genova, and was captivated, stunned and amazed by his beautiful drawings. I didn’t know, back then, that the game would have entertained me and sparked my imagination for years and years to come. Planescape became a beautiful journey, and DiTerlizzi one of my favourite illustrators since.
The idea of he himself looking at my artwork and thinking “gosh this is crap” is just too good.

So, I don’t know yet whether I’ll have the time to finish everything in time, but here are the first sketches I made.

In lore, nymphs are always quite attractive. However, I tried to imagine what I would think if I met a group of them while walking (for reasons unknown to me) in a swamp.
You are making your way though quicksand and mosquitoes, you part a bunch of tall grass leaves and suddenly there they are, half naked girls just hanging out, looking at you in surprise.
Wouldn’t a certain feeling of, umm, uneasiness, mix with the welcome discovery of various naked girls in a swamp?

I thought nymphs should be at least a bit disturbing. I drew them with eyes slightly apart, and with an unusual shape. Their fingers would be long and dangerous, developed to catch fish (what else would a water-dweller eat?).
The fact that one of them is chewing on a raw fish should add to the slight unpleasantness.

I don’t think my wife would appreciate my hiring three models to pose nude in my study. Also, my floor is a Lego bricks minefield and I would need to pay for health insurance cover if they were to walk barefoot anywhere in my house. So I grabbed some images from this awesome website, which is stuffed with reference.
Anyway, I’ll try to colour these sketches in during this weekend. We’ll see.

by Paolo Puggioni

One Response

1. maffa says:

   January 7, 2013 at 12:58

   cant see why your wife shouldnt enjoy the sight of three young attractive-yet-slightly-disturbing-raw-fish-eating girls, except you’d have to pay them for the job. That would be unenjoyable.

   Reply