The Rose of Battle

(This is for Que-Lastima for the holiday art trade. Happy New Year!)

"Rose of Battle" was originally a poem by William Yeats. As an Irishman, Yeats was referring to the nearly constant battles between the Irish and English. He personifies the rose, saying that it watches many go off to battle, but little to none return. The rose is symbolic of love.

In my drawing, the rose is-well, the rose. The harp is the "Harp of Erin," (Erin=Ireland, in Gaelic) a national symbol for Ireland. In the poem, there was this one woman who was supposed to represent Ireland, but I couldn't do her well, so I decided to do Erin's Harp.

As for the tools I used:
-#2 pencil for drawing and light shading
-Charcoal pencil for darker shading
-Art pen for very dark values, and final outlining

I hope you like it man! Sorry it took awhile to do. I had to think about what to draw-but I hope that this was worth the wait!