Shiv and Carlot - Falling Down LARP Commission

Another commission for the player who plays Carlot, of her character and Shiv. 

This one is rife with flower language; normally the flowers are a less literal part of the image, or only represent a part of the framing devices. In this case, we decided to go for the trees as framing device, mainly for their meaning - Spindle Trees mean 'Your charms are engraved upon my heart.' Which works particularly well for this pair. 

Carlot's flower's are Blue Violet, for love and faithfulness; Peppermint, for warmth and cordiality; Spearmint for warmth of sentiment; Cabbage Rose for ambassador of love. In her arms is a bouquet of Passion flowers (for faith and belief), Honeysuckle (Generous and devoted affection), and Pink Convovulus (Worth sustained by tender affection). Braided into her hair are white rosebuds, for love. (While white roses generally mean mourning, the buds are still love, and in this case I feel the artistic meaning of white - purity, unsullied - works very well with the other means and with the character.) The idea you should be getting about Carlot is that she is a very loving and devoted person, who fills the world around her with warmth and kindness. 

Shiv's flowers are Birdsfoot Trefoil, for revenge; Fuller's Teasel for Misanthropy; Tamarisk for crime; Solomon's Seal for secrets and secrecy (but also discretion); Thorn Apple for deceitful charms; and Thyme for activity. His flower crown is meant to be daisies and chamomile - daisies for innocence and chamomile for energy in adversity. Shiv's flowers should be shouting at you that this guy... might be a bit dodgy. But he still loves Carlot dearly and deep down, does hold those things she embodies quite dear. 

The client got me to do a little chart to go with this, to keep track of what flower means what: sta.sh/029lngn6scx2

I think my favourite part of this to work on was some of the weirdly small details - the patterning on Shiv's trouser-skirt-thing was hell on my hands, but came out way better than I expected it to (not quite an accurate copy of the actual thing, but it works as is, I think) and the embroidery on Carlot's waistcoat. You can barely see it, but I made some serious efforts to ensure that when you zoom in as much as I am when I'm working on these that it does look like stitching. (At least, I think it does. I hope it does.) It was fun anyway. 

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