Okay, here I'll talk about some information which didn't fit on the page it's associated with. I'll try to go in an order which reflects the order in which you experienced these things on your visit to the site.

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Homepage

The homepage was, of course, the first page I made on this website. It started out with quite a bit of information on it, as I initially put Madonna's bio there as well as the two sections which are there now. This is why it has such an elaborate introduction. The top of the page took about half a day to do, consisting of two separate image layers (one parallax, the other scrolling with the page) on the "scene" part and another image with silhouettes of leaves to transition out of the scene. It's not too impressive but it's something I'd wanted to work on for a while before starting this project.

The three sections originally read "WHO AM I?" "WHAT IS THIS?" and "WHO

IS SHE?", but I moved Madonna's section to her own page.

The background of the entire site was also made by me, and it's based on the GIF found on Madonna's page.

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Introduction

It may seem a little out-of-place that, in a study on religion, I put a piece by Alphonse Mucha - a heavily commercial artist. I actually did a project on Mucha recently (he's one of my favourite artists) and found that he had quite a complex sense of spirituality. Like many Czech people of the time, he was born Catholic. However, later in life, he developed an interest in the occult. This showed up in his work, particularly with his famous zodiac lady. Mucha is far more modern than the other artists and movements studied in this project but I can't recommend his work enough. I'd also like to give an "honourable mention" of sorts to Katsushika Hokusai, Edo-period ukiyo-e artist who is famed for creating The Great Wave off Kanagawa. His work was often based in Shinto - in fact, The Great Wave itself is part of a commissioned series, Thirty-Six Views of Mt. Fuji, which was entirely focused on the sacred mountain. Hokusai had a good mix of religious and secular work, taking inspiration from Europe and their art as he developed his unique (and honestly revolutionary) style.

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Madonna

This page contains both the first and last pieces for this project; the small headshots either side of the song lyrics are the very last piece I made, while the GIF was what kicked off the whole thing. I'm not very good at animation so eyes don't close quite the way real ones do but, because of the entirely incompetent way I made it, I can't fix this issue. This page was a pain to do as I haven't written a character bio in years. I tried using a template but found that it simply didn't work, so I ended up just writing my own by referencing a number of character bios I found by

searching by "hot" on toyhou.se.

The song "Food for Thought" by UB40 was the one I chose to put on the bio (it's a song which I've known since I was a child, as I effectively inherited my mother's taste in music), but there are a number of songs which I feel could fit Madonna, including:

Senses Working Overtime by XTC - a song about medieval

peasants trying to understand the world around them
The Great Curve by Talking Heads - makes references to a divine female figure, "moving to describe the world" and loving all the people in it

Eurus by The Oh Hellos - a song inspired by Greek religion and beliefs.

The Moss by Cosmo Sheldrake - as an alchemist living in the forest, Madonna would be very strongly connected to nature. On a deeper level, this song mentions a number of folk tales, which is obviously tied to this project (which is meant to represent Madonna's interests).

Come Along by Cosmo Sheldrake - this guy writes a lot of references to folk tales and Celts, which was the origin of this project. This song uses some old English - a language which I certainly picture Madonna using, as she talks with the "royal we" in my comic - and talks of escapism, running away from normal life and living life to the fullest.

Pull up the Roots by Talking Heads - another Talking Heads song (they're my favourite band), but this time the lyrics are much more apt. They apparently represent the lack of knowledge and significance we humans have in the grand scheme of things, which is a notion I don't doubt Madonna would come across very often,

what with her background.

O Magnum Mysterium - I think it may have been mentioned by another entrant, but this is a song from Catholic liturgy. You wouldn't think it, but it was actually written by an American composer in 1994. It's composed to mimic the choir music of Gregorian times, but I find that it is somewhat more refined and has fantastic dynamics when compared to some other choral pieces. I can imagine this playing over a travel montage of Madonna walking between cultures, learning their stories and moving on.

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The Cultures

I was originally going to simply have the cultures listed in the menu at the top of each page, but thanks to the menu style and the amount of pages I ended up with, they literally couldn't fit there. So, I elected to make a "hub" of sorts to compile all of the different religions and link to their pages. This also allowed me to write a little about the religions themselves, which I strangely didn't get much of a chance to do in the main entries for each culture. I put a "click here!" sign (hand-written in my own awful chicken-scratch) above the Druidry header to hopefully make it more obvious that there are full pages behind each entry; I found that the links were too subtle, with no visual indication that there was a link there at all unless you hover your mouse over the header. The entry on Druidry is far longer than any of the others. This is because I spent so much time researching Druidry (nearly two weeks out of a month-long project) that, by the time I wrote the paragraph on the hub page, I just couldn't hold in all of my respect for this ancient and enigmatic culture. I care about the others, of course, but I learned more about Druidry than any other religion during this project and it was honestly some of the most enjoyable research I've ever done.

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Druidry

Okay, I said a lot in this page but I need to properly explain why it's such a mess, and why it took so much research to accumulate such little information. For one, I had absolutely no prior knowledge of Celtic Paganism before I started my research. This means I had no opinions on anything, so I was writing entirely objectively. While I can write like this, it's nowhere near as enjoyable, easy or interesting to read as my opinionated pieces. I also struggled because Druids were pretty much entirely vocal in their worship, so the only writings about them come from outside sources - ironically, the most reliable of which is a piece of propaganda by Julius Caesar where he was studying Gaul and the Gallic War. A lot of the resources I used came from a friend of mine who is training to become a Druid. She was utterly invaluable in this project as, without guidance, I would've had no information on Druidic triads or anything of the sort. She pointed me to websites such as druidry.org, website of the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids, which contains many resources for research on Celtic Paganism. There were also articles and posters regarding the core values of Druids, which helped me to better understand them as people and how their religion affects them.

Near the end of the page, I announce my plans to visit Avebury and the Uffington White Horse (also known as White Horse Hill). A few days before I was set to visit, both of these places announced their closure to the public due to the pandemic and the UK lockdown. I've checked every few days since and, while the Uffington White Horse now has an open car park, Avebury is still shut and I can't justify travelling 2 hours just for the Horse. It's a real shame because Avebury has several museums and open spaces which reflect Neolithic life. I found it while looking for stone circles near me - Avebury has a particularly interesting set of standing stones; not a circle but a winding path from the town to a place called the Sanctuary. This is thought to have been the home of a religious leader (perhaps a Druid) due to the numerous offerings and sets of human remains found inside the Sanctuary. I'm very disappointed that I wasn't able to go as it would have really taken my research to the next level, but I

suppose nothing can be done.

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Catholicism

I feel that I didn't adequately explain why I studied Roman Catholicism after Druidry instead of another Pagan religion like Maya or Norse Paganism. Not too long before the year 0, Britain - home of many Celts and Druids - was invaded by Roman armies. They "civilised" the country, erasing a lot of Celtic Pagan culture from our island and instead making it just like a watered-down version of Rome. The few Celts who survived would then be heavily influenced by Catholicism, when it came about, as it naturally fed through the Romans into Britain. This is why Celtic crosses are so common. They had the last laugh, though, as much of Catholic culture today has very strong roots in Celtic Paganism (and other types of Paganism). Such influences include East-facing graves, a tradition based in sun worship, wedding rings and the celebration

of Easter, which was based on the Spring equinox.

I spoke more about the artists and their work than the religion itself in this page. This is because I belong to another Christian denomination, and the discomfort of trying to write about a religion which follows the same Bible as me but takes such different things from it is near impossible to get past. To avoid being offensive to any Catholic readers, I avoided the topic entirely and decided instead to speak of my opinions on some famous Catholic artists. They weren't originally going to follow the names of the Ninja Turtles as I've never actually watched the show, but by the time I'd done da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael, I figured that there was no harm

in writing a little about Donatello, too.

The piece for this page took about 20 hours, with 3 sketch/linework passes and around 5 hours of colouring/rendering. If I were to pay myself minimum wage,

this would set the value at exactly £123. Nice.

My ramblings on Michelangelo may seem overdramatic but they are, in fact, my genuine emotions. I'm pretty sure letting you hear my voice isn't against cs rules (if it is, just ignore this, I suppose) so here's a half-hour black-screen video

of me crying over the creation of David.