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Medium: Digital Posted: 2006-03-08 "This began as an entry for the Aphrodisia challenge, but of course I didn't finish on time - and meanwhile the challenge became more about translating all the nuances and magic of Robin Hobb's description than about the woman form. So here's an illustration of the Speck woman from Robin Hobb's great novel, Shaman's Crossing. Here's a bit of her text, because I can't stop from quoting it :) " She was no guardian warrior! (...) She was very old and very fat. She was someone's old granny, save tat I had never before seen a woman so corpulent. Her bright eyes were hooded with flesh and wrinkles. Dewara wanted me to battle with this? (...) Her flesh girdled her arms and doubled her chin. (...) Her fallen bosom was enormous and rested on the rolling swell of her belly. Her hair, long and streaky grey as a horse's mane, hung like a cloak over her shoulders and down her back. The persisten breeze toyed with its uneven ends. Hr robe looked as if it had been woven from greygreen lichen. It hung nearly to the ground, tenting her immense girth, and her thick ankles and plump feet showed beneath it. (...) My approach had become the cautious creep of the fascinated cat rather than the wary stalking of a warrior. Her face was still, her expression both serene and dignified. Now she seemed, not old, but ageless. Her face was lined but there were the kindly lines of a woman who smiled often and enjoyed life. In a woman of my own kind, I would have found her bulging flesh repulsive, but because she was a Speck, it seemed just another difference between us. (...) She seemed singularly unimpressed with my sabre. She leaned closer, and as she did so, I perceived that her loose hair was snagged on the tree's trunk, as if binding her to it. " Robin Hobb, Shaman's Crossing, p. 92-94 hardback edition And if this painting made you wish to read her whole story, then my task is done." This image copyright Hélène Bruneton © 2005.