A friend of mine gave me some BEAUTIFUL presents recently and I know she's moving house soon, so I'm making something of a goody bag of home-warming gifts as a thank you. I was considering making a painting/drawing/artwork for her new home, something gothy and I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions.

I would like it to be an appropriate gift for a new home- something homely and nice like "Home Sweet Home" "Bless this mess" or (my favourite XD) "This Mess is a Place" only instead of using slightly predictable themes, I wanted to make it very gothy (as she is a goth herself).

She likes faeries and cats, devils and pentacles, ankhs and pretty much anything gothic and gorgeous. I think she may have a liking for pagan culture, and I thought perhaps an artwork that might invite good fortune in the home would be good? Any ideas?

Hmmm...

I would suggest looking at a bunch of Pagan sites if that sort of thing captures her interest, also plagues done by Amy Brown and the like.

I know I have THIS hanging in my house and it is my greatest wall hanging.

If you cannot find anything in your price range or find something you think she'd like- what are the chances you could make it yourself?

Thats what I meant, I was going to paint something from scratch so it'd be one of a kind

Ah, okay. Forgive me for being a bit slow...

Do you know how to draw Gargoyles? Gargoyles are meant to bring luck and good fortune because they were thought to protect and keep evil spirits out, mostly because of how evil they looked.

I do not really have any major suggestions, no doubt others can think of some much better. You might get some inspiration by visiting the Gothic Symbolism Thread? If you want to incorporate pagan themes into any type of Gothic work, it really shouldn't be that hard.

What sort of style do you paint in? Acurate and lifelike/abstract/cartoon?
Its difficult without seeing any previous work.

Thanks Midi, that actually gave me a good idea.

I roughed up a design of the edge of castle, with a dragon gargoyle with water trickling from its mouth. There are a couple of towers and on the tallest, a faerie with red wings lounges, holding a glaive, and watching serenely. On the lower tower is a black cat, also watching. Climbing up the towers and past a gothi stained glass window are ivy and rose vines. I'm going to nickname is "Protecting The Castle" There's a bit of Amy Brown influence to it, but thats mainly because I would never have learned to paint if it weren't for Amy Brown Its all drawn up and ready to paint, just need to practice a teeny bit on some scrap, haven't painted in a couple of years.

Sienne, I do have a DA page but I haven't updated in a year because there is a malware add stuck on the gallery, and DA don't claim responsibility for that shit, so I don't even view any DA pages anymore. I do a mix but it depends on the materials...I do comic book, manga and fantasy styles but my real fortee is analytical drawing/shading.

i did a sketch a couple of years back that was a pentacle, with the lines redone concentrically.

I did a bunch of similar drawings with a lot of different power symbols

am working on designing a crochet pentacle

Do you have a picture of this? I'd love to see the finished work. It sounds absolutely gorgeous.