Behold the goddess now gracing my desktop with her presence. Her name is Ama-no-uzume, and she's a Japanese deity of the dawn. I kind of doubt she wielded a sword in the traditional myths, but who am I to complain?
What with one thing and another, I spent a lot of time this past weekend looking for new Luis Royo art and better versions of the pieces I collected before. The site I called the Royo motherlode is still there, and I still recommend it highly. However, I found some even better sources on my second go-around.
This site, for instance, has the biggest, best scans of images from most of Royo's book collections. It doesn't cover all his books, though; you'll have to go back to the "motherlode" site for that. But while the motherlode only samples each book, this new site gives you every. single. freaking. image. from that book. Plus, it gives you the names of the pictures in most cases. That's how I learned that the lovely lady above was a goddess.
Here's another good site that samples most (but not all) of Royo's books; and this site and this site offer Royo wallpapers. The problem with the wallpapers, though, is that the folks who made them basically just took a cookie cutter to Royo's paintings, trimming away all the bits that didn't fit within the borders of a computer monitor. Comparing their "desktops" with Royo's original, squarer images is like comparing a movie that's been reformatted for a TV screen with the original you saw on the big screen. I don't recommend it, and you'd better believe that when I made my desktop image of Ama-no-uzume, I didn't take a cookie cutter to her. Nope, I made sidebars from washed-out copies of the clouds in the painting. It took a little longer, but IMO it was totally worth the effort.
The three images above are from Dead Moon, Royo's retelling of the Romeo and Juliet story with a change of setting and a few interestting twists. For instance, I really doubt Friar Lawrence would have a legitimate reason to get Juliet naked before giving her the sleeping potion. And if the scans were in the right order and the right-hand picture above is near the end of the book, then Dead Moon might possibly end with its lovers not dead. But that's just a guess; I haven't read the book. I am insanely curious about it, though.
Now, is it just me, or does the model in the left-hand picture above look like Apnea? And does the woman in the right-hand picture above look like Nicotine? And the belly-tattooed gal on the left just below Ama-no-uzume - does she look like Meluxine? I'm curious to know whom Royo uses as his models. One of the scans I saw showed Liv Tyler and Steven Tyler posing for this painting, so I know Royo uses celebrities from time to time. And I'm sure he must use professional models almost all the time, so anything is possible. I'm curious. If anyone knows where I can find out more about the real people behind these pictures, drop me a comment or an e-mail.
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