originally I wanted each issue to be in a different style, but I started feeling that Persephone's sections should stay in gouache on black paper. something about the design & how rough & vibrant it is. So for the section that's a continuation of where we last saw her in issue #1, I continued that style. For some reason I didn't know that narcissus were daffodils... the story of Narcissus & Echo is one I knew, but I didn't know about the flower's association as a grave-flower. (Symbolism of plants: examples from European-Mediterranean culture presented with biology and history of art: FEBRUARY: Sea-daffodil and narcissus by Riklef Kandeler & Wolfram R. Ullrich). Drawing a botanical illustration was a lot of fun. There's many kinds of daffodils, but N. poeticus (Narcissus poeticus) is one of the oldest, sometimes thought to be the narcissus. As it has a "poetic" name, and is quite beautifully unique, I decided to draw that one.
Oh, of course! That gives so much more symbolic weight to the moment in The Rape of Persephone when she is standing in a field of narcissus right before she's taken into the underworld.
but, drawing from the flower's association with egotism, I also wanted to convey Persephone seeing herself in the flower. There's a kind of complication in the associations here that I find fascinating.
Kore is one of Persephone's names. It means maiden, & it's the name used for her in association with Demeter & the Eleusinian Mysteries.
time to draw with a random pencil! Oh yes. So I meant to draw all of Persephone's parts on black paper but you should have seen the utter horror my first attempt was. It just didn't work for her flashbacks, where I wanted to convey "Kore" and her existence as a maiden, with the sense of springtime and youth. So white paper, sketchy pencil, and gouche—but this time mixed with water to get a smoother, more dreamy feel. I think it turned out well. She is, as in the old stories, garlanded with violets.