The Green Fairy (La Fee Verte) my Steampunk illustration, WIP and background story

This is my own drawing "La Fee Verte" just because it's Thursday Green and I usually do the #colorchallenge but this week I decided to for an art post instead. In this article you will find some background story about this drawing and also the pencil sketch and some close ups at the end. Most of you know me because of my music but I'm encouraged to share some of my artworks as illustrator as well.

So what is Steampunk?

Steampunk is an anachronic (alternative History) or retrofuturistic sci-fi/fantasy genre inspired in XIX industrial steam powered machines like those depicted in Jules Verne, or H.G. Wells (writers that I particularly love). Steampunk has become a fashion trend too among cosplayers (people who dress up in elaborate costumes) in fantasy conventions worldwide, featuring often victorian fashion, corsets, goggles and ornaments with gears mimicking pieces of machinery and gadgets.

Here a picture of me in Steampunk fashion with my rat Tuula both in "Steampunk fashion"

^{Me and my rat Tuula wearing mini goggle in Steampunk fashion. I made the fascinator inspired by my own drawing.}

La Fee Verte: What is Absinthe? A little background story... Myth, fantasy and reality!

La Fee Verte ( The Green Fairy) is often related with the mysterious highly alcoholic and green beverage Absinthe, that was very popular in XIX century. The liqueur was made of anise, and several culinary and medicinal herbs including fennel and flowers and leaves of Artemisia absinthium (grand wormwood).
Of course I would not have tried it (I do not drink alcohol) but I like fairies and it seems a very popular Steampunk reference nowadays.

Absinthe was in fact banned from many countries as a powerful hallucinogenic. It was rather cheap and lower classes abused the green coloured liquor which colour was enhanced with copper sulfate and antimony trichloride which could cause copper toxicity and antimony poisoning, and thus cause hallucinations (and green fairies of course, who were reported to be seen during to those hallucinations, to inspire you or as a luring you to grab your soul).

^{Above: Promotional Poster by Privat Livement (1896). Public Domain.}

So as you see the concoction was kind of dangerous back then as lots of psychoactive substances and toxic chemicals were added to it, in fact it could even trigger epilepsy.

The current (and legal) Absinthe has little to do to the poisonous mixture that drove so many tormented poet and artists a little bit crazy... pursuing the "green fairy" to achieve inspiration.

Said this I take the chance to say... you don't need such tricks to be inspired anyway ;-) but I find the story fascinating... So I stick to the fantasy element of the fairy itself :)

I must say I don' t usually make drawings based in this sub-genre of fantasy. I am more into more Nature inspired work, but I have many friends that love and even organize conventions and thus I felt challenged to try and I made a couple of illustrations.

Some details of my drawing

Here is the pencil sketch, some corrections were made to fix the proportion as I wanted to change her proportions a bit as if she were more childish or "smaller" at least, and redo the staff or walking stick and shoes. The rest remained more or less the same. I didn't intend her to be "realistic" but more like a cartoon character.

The drawing was painted digitally on the computer but I did not have a monitor tablet back then, so it was quite changeling. I usually paint with watercolours, colour pencils and acrylics but this one was coloured with the computer.

And a detail of the face. I loved making the freckles and and add a vivid green colour to her eyes. I designed the garments as something I would do to cosplay myself and in fact I built a replica of the feathered fascinator hair piece after I made this drawing which is the one you can see in the portrait of me and my rat above in this article.

Here another detail of the clothing... I love dragonflies so I include them often... for any reason lots of Steampunk fashion includes dragonfly motifs too.. so double match.

^{This illustration is (c) to me Priscilla Hernandez (yidneth.com). All Rights Reserved.}