Elisabeth Alba - 69 Love Songs

 I uh... don't listen to Magnetic Fields and had no idea what their 69 love songs were! So I looked through all the song titles and "Abigail, Belle of Kilronan" caught my eye, since it sounded like it could be historically based. The lyrics tell the tale of a young man off at war, imagining how his love, Abigail, will someday be the beauty of County Galway. I decided to paint Abigail, praying for her love to come home.

Tried something new... painted it all first with my favorite matte ink (Dr. Ph Martin's Black Star) then layered the color on top. So here is the black and white version... (scanned it in case the color didn't go well)

Elisabeth Alba - Fetish

I recently learned about Melissophilia, an arousal toward bees/wasps/hornets/etc. Melissa comes from the Greek name for 'honey bee.' There's all kinds of interesting things that can be read about bees in mythology here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melissa. Anyway somehow I decided I wanted to draw a girl with bees and it turned into this!

Elisabeth Alba - Favorite Love Story

I have always loved tales of Robin Hood and Maid Marian!

Elisabeth Alba - The #nofilter Valentine

Immediately what popped into my head was the idea of the anti-prince charming... that Beauty had to actually look past the terrifying/hideous exterior of the beast to find love... she actually got to know him first! This could also work with some versions of the princess and the frog. Sometimes love is not all about love at first sight or having to know first date that he or she is the one... I know it took me a few dates with my fiance to go from 'but I didn't want a boyfriend' to 'yup, want a boyfriend, this boyfriend.' (not that he's a terrifying hairy beast! well... actually...)

Also, did anyone else hate human-beast in Disney's version? I mean... why would you want to trade this for this??? Seriously...

2014 Artist Spotlight I

Elisabeth Alba
albaillustration.com

Amanda Atkins
http://amandaatkins.blogspot.com/

Wylie Beckert
http://www.wyliebeckert.com/

Eric Braddock
ericbraddock.blogspot.com

Kristina Carroll
http://www.kristinacarrollart.com/

Jason Cheesemen-Meyer
http://cheeseman-meyer.com/

Anna Christenson
http://www.annaeatspaint.com/

Taryn Cozzy
http://www.taryncozzy.com/

Michelle Dickens
http://www.dickensillustration.com/

Tim Durning
http://www.timdurning.com/

Narciso Espiritu Jr.
http://narcisoespiritu.com/

Daniel Fishel
http://www.o-fishel.com/

Sarah Gay
http://heysgay.com/