This illustration is a depiction of the Morrígan, a figure from Celtic and Irish lore typically associated with fate. It was created for an introductory Illustration course at the Savannah College of Art and Design, where the assignment was to illustrate something from myth, whether it be a deity or a specific story, and turn it into a visual narrative. 

I chose the Morrígan because what little lore we have about her is fascinating; she has the ability to turn into a crow and her presence in visions and dreams was widely regarded to be a harbinger of doom or death, particularly focusing on battles and war. While there aren't many surviving legends specifically about her, in many stories she will appear in a vision to warriors marching into battle, washing their armor in a stream. In these tales, the soldier she appears in visions to will die on the battlefield. The Morrígan was also believed to fly over battlefields in the form of a crow; as such, she would decide which of the two opposing sides she wanted to be defeated, and the other would emerge in victory.

For this particular illustration, I wanted to show the Morrígan in the process of transforming into her crow form. My primary goal was for the finished artwork to feel very dark and bitter while also retaining all the details I wanted to include (such as the individual feathers on the wings and the texture on the bare branches). Overall, the final illustration took around 14 hours, not including the time I put into creating thumbnails, rough and tight sketches, and value studies, shown further below.