La Sola - Arturia's Dream

*Spoiler for the ending of Fate|Stay Night*

Mortally wounded by Mordred at the Battle of Camlann, Arturia Pendragon reflected on her personal failures, wishing that someone more suitable could have ruled in her stead. In the seconds before her last breath, she had a dream - a dream in which she became a Heroic Spirit in a quest for the Holy Grail. Awakening from this dream, she commands the despairing Sir Bedevere to return Excalibur to the Lady of the Lake. The visions of the future as she wafted between life and death gave her peace in knowledge that in the end, her Camelot would be a dream forever remembered and to be aspired to. Britain and civilization will live on long through the ages.

Drawing her last breath, Arturia warns Sir Bedevere that her sleep may be a long one. As the autumn sunlight casts its heavy shadows through the forest and whispers through the gentle wind, King Arthur passes on to the next life.

"Do you see it, King Arthur, the continuation of your dream?"

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Saber from Fate|Stay Night
Done in Photoshop CS2/CS3

This painting has been shelved for over a year and has a lot of personal meaning to me. From the time I started to the time it was finally resumed and completed, I had lost two friends to death. Seeing dead faces preserved in sleep was very disturbing, and painting this death scene troubled me many times. How is one supposed to balance the peace of one in death with the impact that it has on those whom you have loved?

It is also saddening for Sir Bedivere, I would imagine, that he is one of the last of the Knights of the Round, few that there were before, to keep King Arthur's dream alive for all to remember. Truly, it is in memory that one person and his/her ideals become immortal.