The Lady of the Lake

I made this illustration as part of a course I took early in the year. I still have to finish all the illustrations I've to make for it.

In the course they told me I have to choose a popular story/tale, preferably a fantasy one. I could give it my own touch, change the gender of the characters, etc. So I choose King Arthur, and I decided to make a historical version of the tale, with Arthur as a romano-british chieftain, and Excalibur as a migration era sword.

Probably most of you are thinking on the 2004 movie (with an amazing soundtrack composed by Hans Zimmer), where Arthur is called Lucius Artorius Castus. While the name sounds really awesome, that guy wasn't from the time of the fall of the Empire, was from the late 2nd century, and in reality he has nearly nothing to do with the history of the British isles. The man we are looking for as the historical king Arthur is called Ambrosius Aurelianus, who probably lived in the time of the eastern emperor Zenon, and probably led the romano-british at mount Badon against the Saxons (and won).

Talking about the background, I made the lake as a very dense swamp, full of trees, vegetation and invaded by nature. I think it gave it a more mystic look