The Thorn and the Bloom

My entry for the Bring Your Vision to Life Contest

Line art: [link]
Side by side view: [link]

Though told to children to warn them of life's mysteries, the fairy tales of old honed in on the conflict between good and evil within all of us. This rings especially true in the story of Rapunzel.

Through her power The Witch's garden allows Rapunzel to be brought into the world. When the child comes of age, she hides her away in a Tower hoping to spare her from the corruptive forces of the outside world. She strips Rapunzel of her golden locks and banishes her from the Tower only out of a sense of betrayal at finding Rapunzel pregnant by an unworthy Prince.

Everything she ever did for the ungrateful child was out of love, and in the end, she was repaid with a parent's suffering for a child that has failed her.

Rapunzel is born into innocence, longing for an outside world she cannot touch, taste, or see. She loves The Witch, her Mother Gothel, and yet her curiosity and longing lead her to fall for the Prince's seductions. Did she really love this man she had only just met? Or was he simply a way out? She spends years in exile learning that ignorance is not bliss.

Together, they represent two sides of the same face, one overbearing and tired of the world, the other innocent, naive, and deceitful in the most innocent of ways. Each neither completely good nor completely evil.

_{8x13 Inches, Pen & Ink, Photoshop.
Many thanks to *kidchan's for her digital watercolor tutorial}


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