A crimson gown for a golden witch

[bunn]

In which Rowena and Flavia choose thread for the new crimson gown they will weave for Rowena, while Saxons busily work on building Hengest's new settlement at Tanatus, a thrall carries water and a small boy runs past an old dog...


A pity the crimson of the thread has not really come out in the photo, it's redder in the actual painting. I'm not entirely sure about the clothes. Flavia's shoulder-brooch is right for the very early invasion era, but my reference for Rowena's green gown is a couple of hundred years later. Although I have to wonder if anyone really *knows* exactly what invasion-era Saxons wore with any degree of real accuracy. This seems like the kind of thing that would be hard to reconstruct from archaeology.

I tried to make Flavia smile, but I've not quite got it right. Maybe that will be version 3...

I tried to paint this before in watercolour pencil and it went horribly wrong. This is draft 2. I painted it first just in burnt sienna, then added the colours afterwards, which gave it a bit of a glow although perhaps it has come out a little orangy. This was the 'before colouring' version.