Tuesday, August 24, 2010

A Modern Psychopomp

A psychopomp is the name for a mythological spirit guide that escorts souls to the after life.   Similar characters exist in many mythologies.  In the ancient Greek tradition Charon would accept coins placed in the mouths of the dead as fare to ferry their souls across the river Styx and Acheron.

Here I've depicted Charon as a bus driver.  I thought it might be funny to interpret the Purgatory as attempting to maintain an updated transit system (and failing at it).  As though it was good to keep every thing somewhat familiar to the dead souls it services.

The page is drawn with graphite on paper then digitally colored after it has been scanned.

For more on Psychopomps and Charon:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychopomp

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charon_%28mythology%29


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1 comment:

Jason Pruett said...

This looks really good all painted up. I like how you've communicated the idea that the coins are being taken by the driver.