My approach can be described as a clash of two, almost opposing art forms; classical portrait painting in oil and modern, fantasy comic illustration. My goal is to explore how these two art forms can meet and together, tell a story. I am a self-taught painter and I've been gripped with both portrait painting and comic drawing for as long as I can remember. So the natural progression was the marrying of these two art forms. But it was important for me to do so without them morphing so completely into one that they would become indistinguishable. The contrast is deliberate, hopefully; uncomfortably so. About the artwork; For me, this work speaks to the role of femininity, at least in my life and through my view. As the perfect subject for my painting, I was inspired by both Eugene de Blaas and Charles Sillem Lidderdale's works and the women they painted. I chose to do a partial reproduction of the woman in the painting titled 'The Fern Gatherer' by Lidderdale for this piece. Ultimately, I seek to explore the relationship between two realms (physical and spiritual), using symbolism to suggest how each realm is directly affected by the other.