The Ascension of Polychrome by Kevenn T. Smith

This illustration, The Ascension of Polychrome, was made for the 2012 Winkie Convention Program Book.  This year, the Winkie Convention is celebrating the 100th year anniversary of L. Frank Baum's 1912 book, Sky Island, the follow-up to his 1911 book, The Sea Fairies. 

In the book, the young heroine, Trot, and her companion, Cap'n Bill, meet a young boy named Button Bright (who first appeared in Baum's 5th Oz book, The Road to Oz), and the three end up flying with a magical umbrella to an island high in the sky known as "Sky Island."  They first land in the Blue country, where everything is blue and the people are none too friendly.  They manage to escape through the fog bank separating the blue country from the neighboring Pink Country, where the people are more pleasant, but they're still not welcome to stay.  The law leads them the Pinkies to believe that Trot and her companions must be thrown over the edge of the island to their deaths.  Fortunately, Polychrome, the Rainbow's daughter, (who also appeared with Button Bright in Baum's 5th Oz book, The Road to Oz)arrives and stops the execution, and finds a loophole in the Pinkies' Book of Laws to not only save Trot, Capn' Bill, and Button Bright, but to declare Trot their leader.  The Rainbow returns, and Polychrome ascends into it to return to her sisters and her father, which is the scene I wanted to depict here.

When creating this piece, I one of my goals was to capture the feeling of the many paintings depicting Christ's ascension into Heaven.  I felt that in the book, Polychrome was a kind of divine savior figure, descending from on high and reversing the fortunes of Trot and her companions, as well as bringing an abundance of color into a monochromatic world.  Like the Greek Goddess of the rainbow, Iris, she brings color and knowledge with her, which in turn brings growth and change.

The Ascension of Polychrome by Kevenn T. Smith ©Kevenn T. Smith 2012Polychrome Detail ©Kevenn T. Smith 2012Violet Sister Detail ©Kevenn T. Smith 2012Red Sister Detail ©Kevenn T. Smith 2012Pencil, ink, Photoshop
@Kevenn T. Smith 2012

This piece also gave me the opportunity to use a live model for my Polychrome.  The last time I depicted Polychrome, a friend of mine said that she looked like the actress, Elizabeth Mitchell, who appeared in the movie Gia, with Angellina Jolie, and the ABC television shows LOST and V.  I thought about trying to search for pictures of Elizabeth Mitchell at the angles I wanted to draw the figures for the piece in as reference material, but that would have taken too much time and may not have yielded the results I was hoping for. 

Then, I remembered that my friend, the superbly talented and beautiful Cleveland actress, Emily Pucell, often reminded me of Elizabeth Mitchell.  Luckily, Emily was kind enough to pose for me to use not only as Polychrome, but as her two sisters as well.  This was the first time Emily has ever modelled for a drawing or painting, but she said she would definitely consider doing it again.  Emily graduated in 2005 with B.A. degrees in Theater and History from Miami University.  She performed in her first play at the age of 12, but has been working professionally as an actor since her graduation in 2005.  Emily will next be seen onstage in the forth-coming show by Cleveland's Theater Ninjas this fall.