Gilles Rainville illustration

The creation of life is a miracle every creature experiences. From plants, to insects, to animals, to us, this cycle is inevitable and beautiful. Embryo is a representation of the interconnectivity and interdependance of life within nature.  This design was inspired by my previous work In Utero  https://gillesrainville.blogspot.com/2017/05/cycle-in-utero.html Enjoy! The term Mama Bear, for me, has always meant a mother at her most caring, protective and fearsome. That's why I chose grizzly bears as my subject. The roots were chosen as a symbol for the interconnectivety of life that surrounds us all.   I started by doing a quick sketch of my idea. Here are the photos I referenced for this piece. After choosing my references, my design changed. I probably should have drawn a new sketch but instead I dove right into the piece. I started by gesturing in the basic forms, making sure that I had the right ...

"Mother Nature is the  personification  of  nature  that focuses on the life-giving and nurturing aspects of nature by embodying it, in the form of the  mother .", Wikipedia. Mother Nature, Earth-Mother, Gaia, Mama Pacha were all symbols of the connection human culture has had with nature. As a reminder of this connection, I wanted to show human anatomy made of our natural world. Mother's Anatomy is meant to remind us of how much we must also care and nurture nature to reciprocate everything it gives us. Finding reference material of every element in the composition is an important step. Without reference, I could not possibly know every small realistic detail that I wish to include to give each piece the quality it deserves. Here are the images I used for reference. Looking at these photos, I decided to draw some rough sketches to plan out my composition. I am sorry to say that I do not ha...

"The concept of a  tree of life  is a widespread archetype  in the world's m ythologies , related to the concept of s acred tree  more generally,  and hence in religious  and p hilisophical  tradition." Wikipedia, 2017 You can find a myth or belief of a great tree serving as a symbol of the cycle of life everywhere: Yggdrasil in Norse mythology, the Persian myth of the Gaokerena world tree from ancient Iran, the acacia tree of Iusaaset from ancient Egypt, the Etz Chaim in Judaism, the Bodhi tree from the Buddhist tradition, the tree of life from Christian faith. The World on the Turtle's Back from the Iroquois tradition was created by planting bark from the tree of life.  I had started an ambitious drawing representing this idea eight years ago. At the time I was not ready to accomplish something of that magnitude. And so, it was started but never finished. Stored in the closet, moving from home to home but never thrown out....