Now that the final version is "done," I thought I'd upload both to see which one people like better.
So I think I like the first version better, although they are both great. I love the rose in the second one and the glass case but the first one does tell the story much better.
So there's an interesting questions about the blood and the hand. I think you're right that 'correctly' the blood belongs there, or does it. It depends on what sort of fairy tail render you are trying to do. If it's a dark and gritty 'realistic' one then you need a lot more blood. But if you are going for something more traditional the blood may not belong at all. For that sort of render, I think the snow covering the flowers is a much better metaphor, and the blood just makes her hand vanish in the second render.
This is a question I spent a lot of time thinking about because several years ago I played The Bride in a play,
Blood Wedding by Federico García Lorca, and at the end of the play she enters after her lover has been stabbed and killed, carrying in the knife. We spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to do the blood.
One of the big things we decided, was the on the hand that pulled the knife out, blood would mostly be on the back of the hand, while the other hand would have blood on the palm where she would have put it on his chest while she was pulling the knife out. We also decided with the blood spatter she might have wiped her forehead, and that's were the big blood smear comes in. (And interesting note for those of us who spend time on writing, in Lorca's stage directions for the final scene, the set is supposed to be totally white, with no shadows. Not really sure how he wanted us to do that, but you know . . . )
But here's the thing. . . this was all great for that play because, well it's called Blood Wedding, and it's sort of poetic horror. Here are the last lines of the play:
Bride:
And this is the knife,
A little knife.
So small it barely fits the hand.
Fish without scales or river.
But one fine day between two and three,
With this knife,
Two strong men were quenched,
Their lips turning yellow.
Mother:
And it scarcely sits in the hand.
But penetrates, chill,
Through the startled flesh
Where trembles enmeshed,
The dark root of a scream.
All that being said, I really like both of them. And thanks for sharing both, I'm sure we all know how much renders progress and change. It's nice seeing both points on the spectrum and having a chance to compare.
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