I finished one more illustration based on a famous fairy tale: “The Little Mermaid” by Andersen.
The actual story is more dramatic than its Disney counterpart. There’s a religious undertone to it, something rather common in Andersen’s tales.
I personally don’t resonate with religious themes, they normally don’t inspire me to do anything of interest. However in this story I found an element that I liked, which is what I depicted.
The Little Mermaid’s martyrdom (represented through the story by her constant bleeding and initial sacrifice to enter the human world) well represents the condition of women (or better, the Yin energy) in our male dominated societies.
Earth itself (“Mother” Earth) is constantly being sacrificed by chauvinistic male imperialism, in the name of an illusory expansion with no end that only bring destruction.
On the contrary, the female side (or the divine Shakti if you like) is a creative force that now more than ever should be restored. Art itself is Shakti, because art is creation.
I realized that subconsciously this has been a topic I’ve always more or less represented in my illustrations, because I’ve always felt the effects of these unbalanced energies all around me, particularly in society.
It’s the story of the world, isn’t it? I guess we already have an idea of where it leads. It’s time to consider changing our points of view in life and rebuild ourselves and our perceptions.
Last illustration of the year. Experiment 14 started like all my experiments (a doodle), but I liked where it was going, so I decided to boost it to about 7000×4200 pixels and work on it as much as I wanted, to finish it.
The process has been incredibly smooth, which helped in delivering this semi-abstract composition, one aspect I recently thought I’d like to develop.
Sometimes I feel that excessively realistic and figurative representation of subjects become a constraint for the mood I intend to express. I’m glad I managed to stay away from these virtual “chains” of my mind.
In a way Experiment 14 is the culmination of all the previous experiments. If you notice, since Experiment 1 I’ve been trying to fade the figure into a background, playing with solidity and perception, real and unreal.
I consider this piece a little step ahead in my search for personal expression.
I’ll keep working this way as much as circumstances allow me to.
PS: I even made a new signature, something that doesn’t look as nasty as my actual handwriting.
Another fairy tale. This time it’s Andersen’s “The Red Shoes”.
This is the scene that struck me the most and I found being the most interesting twist in the story.
In addition, I changed the religious theme of the tale to something more pantheistic.
While working on it I decided to make a little video on how I paint foliage and plants. I suggest you to watch it in Youtube and enlarge it.
I’ve always liked aliens, Greys especially. Strangely, I seldom draw them.
Subject aside, with this Experiment I tried a couple of things I haven’t done so far: a white background with a strong light and skin texture.
I had a lot of fun painting skin, wrinkles and cheekbones. When I paint humans I tend not to go that far, firstly because I don’t zoom in that close, but even if I did I think I would end up making them too creepy if I added too many details. But I’ve never really tried, I’m just assuming.
For aliens it’s ok, their skin has to be slightly repugnant and unpleasant. I should do this again, I always enjoy painting organic things.
I’ve done another Experiment, that is quick random paintings I make without any reference nor preparation.
This time I also made a video of the process. I’ve never done it before, so at first I was rather conscious about it and I wonder whether it slowed me down a bit.
When I paint I always get into the “zone” several times through the work, that is a mental state where everything “disappears” except for me and the screen.
However, this time I was more alert because I knew that I was being recorded and that someone would eventually see what I was doing.
Nevertheless it was interesting to work this way and I’d like to do it again.
Here’s the finished image:
And here’s the video. Remember to check Part 2 as well.
