Stained Glass Zelda

Stained Glass Zelda ~ (The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess)

What says "you're awesome" more than being immortalized in a work of stained glass? Lots of things! But this does OK, too.


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About the Piece:

Over a year ago in Nov 2013, I made the original Faux-Paint Zelda portrait piece that some of you might remember, which was then followed up but a revised + framed version in March 2014, Framed Faux-Paint Zelda. Along with the similar Midna and Fi portraits that are all some of my personal favorites works, I received absolutely incredible feedback on the pieces from you guys and I wanted to see what else I could potentially do with them. Portraits are versatile and since the originals were rather plain, I wanted to challenge myself to work the portraits into some different styles while still following the classical feel the original pieces had. My solution? Stained glass. Everyone is familiar with the Wind Waker stained glass pieces from the game and made by other fans, so I knew people would potentially be drawn to this piece from already having seen LOZ images in such a style. Obviously, though, this final piece is not based on the cartoony styling of Wind Waker and is meant to resemble realistic stained glass portraiture. Twilight Princess is a very serious game, so the whimsical, childlike styling of Wind Waker would just never cut it for this portrait. To accomplish as much realism as possible, I chose to do this piece with mixed media: vector portrait/detailing + photography. The portrait and additional detailing are my own work, but the actual glass is a Creative Commons photograph of the "Tree of Jesse" window located in the Notre-Dame de Reims cathedral, France. It was designed in 13th-century styling by L. Steiheil, painted by glass painter and restorer Nicolas Coffetier in 1861 [more info here]. I modified the coloring and some structure of the original window to fit the portrait of Zelda as I wanted, as well as added her title/name to the lower portion. I also added a bit of highlighting/shadow to give it a kind of backlit, glowing effect. I'm really happy with how this dramatic piece turned out and I look forward to doing additional ones for Midna and Fi, too. I hope all of you guys enjoy this newest rendition of the portrait!