Avvaiyaar is an old woman who has mastered the Tamil language through divine blessings and is quite proud of her mastery. One day, she’s wandering through forests/fields where she encounters a boy on a tree asking her if she’s hungry for some fresh Nagapazham (Acai Berries). After some witty wordplay with the boy, she realizes that there is still much more to accomplish and humbly asks the boy to disclose his true identity, whereupon he reveals himself as Karthikeya, the God of Warcraft and Speechcraft.
There are quite a few stories of Divine Intervention in Indian Mythological literature where the mortal in question is left awestruck by their encounter. I saw this scene in an old movie and found it quite amusing and decided to try recreating it.
The foreground has Karthikeya disguised as a goatherd on a Acai Berry tree with Avvaiyar standing below him blowing dust off the fallen berries.
The background has Karthikeya reveal his divine splendour to the old woman, mirroring his pose from the foreground. I did quite a few re-designs on his armour and his spear with a lot more detail from earlier versions of him. I also kept the character’s color scheme consistent between foreground/background to indicate that it’s the same guy.
In the movie the boy says he raises goats but there were none to be seen. I decided to remedy that by filling the pastures behind him with a pack of goats!