My Watercolor Pencil Obsession

So I’ve really been into watercolor pencils lately. I did another post about them a while ago when I was going through my Zootopia obsession….not that I’m not still obsessed with Zootopia because let’s be honest, that movie is literally perfect.

But anyway, I got a new set of watercolor pencils for my birthday a few weeks ago. They’re a really great set of pencils by Staedtler. I don’t recall using this brand before, but they’re actually amazing quality. I highly recommend these. As you can see they’re extremely out of order but that’s what happens when you use these for several drawings in a row.

I also have a watercolor sketchbook that I got a few months ago. Before I got it I was doing watercolor paintings on either regular sketch paper or on canvas. Watercolor works really well on canvas, but naturally I have more sketchbook paper than canvas so most of the time I end up using that. But regular sketchbook paper really isn’t made for watercolor. When paper hits water it gets all crinkled up and with watercolor paint it’s really annoying when that happens. So when I came across a book of watercolor paper on sale, I had to get it. Since then, I haven’t been disappointed.

Not to mention watercolor pencils work so much better on actual watercolor paper. It’s just so much smoother and when you add water the colors are so much more vibrant.

With my last couple of paintings, I used every last drop of my watercolor paint. It was really sad. With the last one I did, I actually ran out of watercolor paint and ended up having to finish it with acrylic. It literally almost killed me to have to do that. I’m very neurotic with my art, if I don’t intend to use two different mediums, then I’m not going to unless I absolutely have to.

The hardest part of using watercolor pencils is the actual drawing. As you know you have to draw as you would a regular drawing and the water is added after that. But the most exciting part of using the watercolor pencils is the actual water so in anticipation of that, the drawing is really tedious. I actually have to force myself to finish the drawing when I’m doing these things. Believe it or not, I almost stopped half way through these because I was just so tired of drawing. That never happens in any other type of art. When I started adding the water though, it was fun. I felt like a kid with some new crayons.

The first drawing I did was my man, my favorite person, my king, Michael Jackson. I had thought about doing a charcoal drawing of MJ at first. I haven’t drawn him in a while and I wanted to give him the proper love that he deserves. However, as I was deciding what to actually do with these pencils, I figured why not do a watercolor and a charcoal drawing?

I really didn’t know what I was doing with the background of this drawing. It’s one of those things where I was just going along with it. It’s interesting how the way you feel about a drawing changes over the course of doing it. The full drawing actually has a separate pair of eyes coming in from the background and they’re colored in and everything. In the end I thought it was weird and wished I hadn’t done it. In theory I could have gone over it with the blue and green and purple I used for the background colors but at that point I was kind of over the whole thing. I might go back over it another time when I feel like displaying the drawing on a wall somewhere.

As for this Ariel one, this was also a spur of the moment decision to paint her. I just knew I wanted to do something more with the pencils, I just wasn’t sure what. But as soon as I decided on Ariel, I just kind of went for it. I knew exactly what I wanted to do for the background, I wanted to make it look like she was under water…although I wish it had turned out a little less green. And as for that hand…we’re going to pretend that it actually looks like a hand. Again, I’ll probably going back in and fix it before it hang it up somewhere.

I was so inspired I did this as soon as I finished the Michael Jackson one. That never happens, usually when I finish a painting or drawing I’m so burnt out and ready to move onto something else like food or a book or memes. It’s one of those things where the artistic mood was really strong that day. Those times are the best and I never know when they’re going to happen, they just kind of happen out of no where.

Bohemian Rhapsody

Anyone who knows me knows that I absolutely LOVE Queen. I’ve been a huge fan for years. Every time I hear their music I get this sudden urge to break out into a dance and start singing. And Freddie Mercury is just literally perfect.

One of my favorite songs is Bohemian Rhapsody (among many others). It was the first Queen song I ever heard. It’s so dynamic and let’s be honest, just doing all of the different voices in the different parts is what’s most fun about it. The opening sequence with the silhouette as they’re going “Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?” is SO iconic! Every time I see it I just get excited and happy.

I’ve wanted to do a dedication to Queen for a really long time…of course the problem is just figuring out what to do. At first I was going to do a stand alone portrait of Freddie Mercury (which I’m still going to do eventually!) but I was playing this song on the piano one day and was just inspired to do a painting of one of my favorite music videos in the entire world. Plus I had just gotten some new canvases on sale at A.C. Moore. Sure enough, those canvases have been getting beat up in the past few weeks.

So I set out to paint Bohemian Rhapsody . Nothing is ever that simple for me though. I wanted to add a creative edge to it though and since I’ve been into the colorful painting this lately like with my last post of my Mickey Mouse painting.  That’s what I decided to do here.

I took red, orange, and yellow watercolor paint and blended them together in a similar way that I did my Mickey Mouse painting and then used a blue and green for the hair and shadows. I wanted there to be a definite contrast between them. And once that I done I went in with my black paint and filled in the rest of the empty space. The only downside to this was that the canvas was pretty big, about 16×20, and I used up almost all of my black paint.

But overall I’m REALLY satisfied with how this turned out. This is definitely going to be something that’s going to hang up in my house for a long time.

Zootopia in Watercolor Pencils

I’ve always found watercolor pencils to be a little bit tricky. Trying to figure out what to do with watercolors and colored pencils was always kinda weird to me. But practice makes perfect, you’ll never know if you don’t try.

Whenever I’m stuck on how to do something, I always consult some tutorials for a little bit of guidance. I’ve found Pinterest to be a good resource for finding the tips I’m looking for. I found these tutorials from WikiHow and Live Love DIY to be very useful.

I used this set of pencils to get started. It’s a set of 50 different types of pencils that I got a long time ago. I’m not particularly fond of the charcoal pencils but all of the other ones are great.

The next issue of what to draw didn’t take long. Let me start by saying I absolutely LOVE Zootopia. I saw it for the first time not even three weeks ago and I’ve already seen it five times. Kinda sad, I know but I just love the movie SO much! The commentary on real social issues makes for an interesting story and the movie is just funny anyway. Not to mention Judy and Nick are literally perfect. I ship them hard.

Anyway, it seemed like a no brainer to draw them. This was the first time I had ever drawn them and I’ll be honest, when I started I was going to give up because they looked weird. I didn’t want to draw them if I wasn’t going to do them justice. But then I reminded myself that I spent the better part of my childhood drawing Looney Tunes characters and when you think about it, they’re literally the same base. Start with a circular head, draw some ears, a muzzle, and that’s more or less it. Just some different facial features. Whenever you’re stuck think of something familiar that you already know how to do, it works!

There are several ways to do watercolor pencils:

1. Do the whole drawing as you would a regular colored pencil drawing. This means your base layers, deep contour and highlights, shadows, and minor details.Once all of that is done, take a paint brush, doesn’t matter the size. I used a small brush and a thick one. Dip the brush in water and begin to go over the entire drawing in water. More water will make the colors blend together and less will have the opposite effect.

This was the drawing before adding water:

And this is after adding water:

2. The second way of doing watercolor pencils is to dip the pencil itself into water and begin coloring as if you were using colored pencil. I used this method as well. I did it with a red pencil for the background and I used it to touch up the shadows on the drawing a little bit. You can achieve either a smooth or a rough effect with it. On the ends of their ears, eyes and face details, and in the darker parts of their clothes I used this method which seems to turn out a little bit deeper than just putting water over the already existing color.

A water color pencil drawing is going to look a lot more vibrant than just regular colored pencils. As you can see above, there is a very stark contrast between the two before and after drawings. I think it’s really cool and I’ve mastered another art form.

Tie-Dye Watercolor

I really like doing colorful paintings. Every now and then I just get the urge to put a bunch of colors together in some kind of vortex of color. A few years ago I did a bunch of them such as “Colors of Beauty“, “Red Hot Tiger“, and “Lady Gaga.” Much more recently I did “Gothic Princess: A Watercolor Experiment.”

I just find it to be such a freeing and effortless style of painting. It’s relaxing really. You pick whatever color you want and paint it in almost an abstract type of way yet it actually looks like something unique and beautiful. That’s what I did with my most recent painting.

There’s something magical about Mickey Mouse. He’s the front character of an entire era, a symbol of charm, innocence, and magic. I wanted to capture that in this painting. There are the common images of Mickey Mouse standing in a similar pose looking all joyful and inviting. I took a different spin on it.

For the color choice I wanted him to be much brighter than the background so I used mainly red, orange, and yellow. However, a good contrast color is always good too so I used a little bit of green and blue. I places the colors randomly and made sure to make it took like they were melting into each other, much like a tie-dye shirt.

It’s interesting how ideas change as the painting goes alone. At one point I was going to do the buttons on the front of his pants but I decided that would be weird. I was also going to make the background black but I thought that would take away from the magic of it. At the last second I decided to add little “stars” in the background to make it look even more magical.

It was a fairly easy painting. But it was fun. I liked the relaxation aspect of it and I absolutely adore how it turned out.

A Series Of Unfortunate Events (Tim Burton Style)

A Series Of Unfortunate Events premiered on Netflix last week. This was the greatest moment of my life!!!!

I have absolutely LOVED this series since I was in elementary school. A teacher read the first book to the class when I was in 1st or 2nd grade. Ever since then the love began. I own most of the books. I’ve read every single one of them. In elementary school I would spend my recess in the library reading these books (among many others).

Imagine how elated I was when I found out they were making a Netflix series. As a serious fan of these books, I have my share of nitpicks with the show. Mr. Poe’s wife is now a pushy journalist that reminds me of Rita Skeeter. There’s a side story that wasn’t part of the books that I feel is unnecessary. I wish that it had as much of a dark atmosphere as the movie (one of the few things I liked about the movie). It gives me Edward Scissorhands vibes where it’s all bright and cheery until it gets of Count Olaf’s house.

Other than that I thoroughly enjoyed watching it. There are things that I would change but I took those with a grain of salt and enjoyed it for what it is, because honestly aside from my  complaints, it is VERY faithful to the book which I really do appreciate.

On another note, I’ve always really liked Tim Burton’s style of characters. They’re dark and creepy, yet romantic and interesting.

I’ve wanted to draw some characters in the style of Tim Burton for quite some time, it was all just a matter of deciding what characters to draw. After watching A Series of Unfortunate Events, I saw it as a perfect opportunity to draw some of my favorite book characters in one of my favorite art styles.

Think about it, the series is very dark, despite what the show will have you believe. It fits perfectly into the Tim Burton style. Honestly, if this show were to ever be made into a cartoon, I think it would be really cool if it was done in this style.

I ended up being very please with how this turned out. I tried to emphasize the sunken cheek bones, sunken and shadowy eye sockets, and thin stick like bodies. I hope I’ve achieved a somewhat Tim Burton-ish style here.

Colored Pencil Makeup Tutorial

I think of makeup as another form of art. Although I don’t do it on myself very often, I like to think of myself as a makeup artist when I’m drawing people. That’s essentially what it is when you’re drawing faces: you layer on the foundation, highlight, contour, and makeup colors and it all comes together to look like a face.

That’s what I did here with this random person who will be our model for today. All of these steps can be applied to any medium like charcoal or paint. I chose colored pencil because of the interest of time but these are the steps I typically take when I’m drawing anyone’s face.

The Sketch

As with any drawing we’re going to start with a sketch. Make sure you’re drawing very light, the colored pencil needs to be able to completely cover your sketch lines. Try to erase any stray lines the best you can, it will make things a lot easier in the long run.

The Foundation

With any makeup look on a real person you’re going to start with foundation. I start with this no matter what drawing I’m doing. It makes things a lot neater and easier as we get further into it. It also makes it easier to layer. The most important thing is to make sure you BLEND!!! You don’t want any harsh lines or it will look unnatural.

You want to highlight all the areas where the light is going to naturally hit the skin. This is usually the high points of the face. In a real makeup look the highlight comes later but here we’ll do it first because it’s easier to add color than to take away color.

Next is your base color. This is the true skin color without all of the light and shadows. Fill in any space that doesn’t have a highlight color.

We’ve got color but it looks a little flat. Add a darker color to the low points of the face: the sides of the forehead, sides of the nose, cheek bones, under eyes, etc.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Contouring is the best way to add dimension to a face.

The Makeup

This is the fun part where we get to add color to an otherwise plain and slightly creepy looking face.

I filled in the eyebrows and the eyes color first because that’s really going to set where to put the makeup. I LIGHTLY outlined the eye so I can see where to put everything but I’m going to add the eye shadow colors before I do anything to harsh.

I decided to go for a purple eye shadow look. There are usually 3 steps to eye shadow on a real face:

1.) The highlight color. This is the lightest color in the palette and goes under the brow bone. I used a really light pink color and also put it in the inner corner of the eye.

2.) The lid color is the second brightest and the main color. I used a lilac purple.

3.) The outer corner is where the darkest color goes. I just used a darker purple. A lot of times this color can go in the crease but I actually used a dark brown there to give the eye some more dimension.

Bonus.) I’m a really big fan of color under the eye as well so I faded it out from inner corner as the lightest color, the lilac in the middle, and the dark purple on the outer third. This is NOT eyeliner though!

Lashes and eyeliner is always fun. So I start with the eyeliner. The line will be thin towards the inner corner and thick towards the outside, otherwise she’ll look like a raccoon. Try not to cover up the under eye shadow. For the lashes put as many as you want and as thick as you want. I tend to do really long over exaggerated lashes but that’s really just my style.

Lips are really easy. The light will typically hit the lips right in the center so make sure you leave those places lighter than the rest. It’s very easy to forget. If you want a more glossy finish add a lot more highlight.

As far as the color of the lips I just used a light pink. Add dimension to the lips by adding a little shadow around the edges and where the lips meet.

 

The Hair

Hair is always my favorite part of any drawing. There is so much you can do with it, the possibilities are endless. Here I just went for kind of a simple windswept look.

With hair you can do whatever you want. The only real technical thing is to make sure that you’re highlighting the hair where the light is hitting the face. Here the light is coming from the left and striking the center of the face. Therefore, the light has to hit the hair from the left. It would be weird if the light hit the face from the left but the hair from the right.

All that’s left to do is fill in the rest of the hair color. I used a black pencil to add a bit of shadow to it and I put a little shadow in the lowest points of the skin as well.

 

And you’re done!

I hope this helped and you learned something from this. This technique can be applied to any form of drawing. It’s super easy and I find it’s the best technique to follow to get the most realistic looking drawings (apart from my super unrealistic style of drawing but you get the idea).

Silent Heroes

This is a creative essay I wrote for a class this semester. It really means a lot to me, I wrote it all from personal experience. During the time that these events happened I was at my lowest point and these people who came and left have had such a tremendous impact on my life that you can’t even imagine.

It’s interesting to think of the people who have a profound impact on your life. I’m not talking about your best friend who you see every day, or your mom who has always been there. I mean the people who are only there for a fleeting moment but leave lasting memories and impressions on how you see the world and yourself and who in some way, shape, or form, made you into the person that you are.

There have been many people like that in my life who I only knew for a short period of time and who I have virtually no chance of ever seeing again. Yet in the small moment that I knew them, they left such a lasting impression on me that helped build me into the person I am today. The way I think, feel, act, and love would not have been shaped into how I am today if I had never met them. If I ever saw them again, all I would want is a moment to thank them for coming into my life and helping to shape my mindset into what it is today.

My grandma lives in an apartment for elderly people. It’s not a nursing home, but a place for independent older people who want a quiet life. For as long as I can remember she’s been my “baby sitter” so to speak. After school, up until high school, I would be dropped off at her house until my parents got home from work. I knew a lot of people in the building well. They’d watched me grow up since I was a baby, and they’d always be around with a smile. But there was one person in the building who I had yet to meet and although I didn’t know it at the time, would come to hold a special place in my heart.

When I was about 14 my grandma said to me one day, “Jessica, I want you to meet my friend Mr. Nelson. I’ve shown him your art and he thinks you’re really good. He wants to meet you.”

So we went to Mr. Nelson’s door and I brought my sketchbook with me to show him. The old man wearing the black baseball cap greeted me warmly and let us inside. Like most people in the building he was about 70 or 80 yet something about him radiated youth. When I stepped through the door I was immediately struck by the paintings and drawing decorating the small apartment. They were incredible! There were even vines drawn on the walls in sharpie. I asked him if he had done all of that and he said he did. When he found out I was an artist and saw the things my grandma had put up on the walls in her apartment he became interested. So I showed him the drawings in my sketchbook which were widely improved beyond the drawings my grandma kept that were done when I was much younger. He told me that I was incredibly talented and told me about when he had gone to Duke Ellington to study art. Before we left he gave me a new sketchbook, Prisma colored pencils, and a pencil sharpener and told me to never stop drawing.

I would see him almost every time I went to my grandma’s house for years after that. Most of the time I had my sketchbook with me just to show him my latest drawings and how much I was improving. Every time I saw him he greeted me with a warm smile and a hug. It had to have been almost four years later that my grandma told me that Mr. Nelson had moved out to the building to be closer to his daughter so he can be better taken care of. I never realized how much I looked forward to seeing him until that moment and I never saw him again after that. But I went on from there with an eagerness to nourish my love for art.

Art was an escape from the depression and feelings of inadequacy I dealt with for most of my adolescence. It started with my parents separation and manifested itself from there. I can pinpoint the moment where it started to control me back to when I was in seventh grade and I came to school crying. It only got worse from there. Some times were much worse than others, but no matter how long I could forget about it, it always came back and I wasn’t able to let it go for a long time.

It all came crashing down when I was a senior in high school. I remember the day as if it were yesterday. It was in April of that year. I was staying after school for a dress rehearsal of our spring dance concert. I had been holding a lot of things in for a long time. That’s what I’ve always tended to do. I never want to burden anyone else with my problems so I keep them locked up inside to try to deal with them on my own. That day however, was when I hit my breaking point. After being yelled at by a very emotionally abusive boyfriend at the time in front of a group of people, I couldn’t stop crying and I could feel the beginnings of a mental breakdown coming on. It was like someone had pushed me over the edge of a cliff and I was bracing for the impact at the end.

That’s when my friend Z’ane pulled me aside and asked if I wanted to talk about what was going on. She was also a dancer in the spring concert. We would often laugh and talk backstage and had one on one tutoring sessions in the dance studio almost that entire year. Despite how often we had hung out, she had never seen me like this. In fact no one had. We made our way to a private place, the empty stage in the gym and I told her everything from how my parents split had started it all and it continually got worse and worse until I ended up where we were that day.

“Do you know what you’re worth?” she had asked me.

“I…I don’t know,” I replied.

She told me that I was worth more than this. I was worth more than what I was being put through and what I was putting myself through; I just needed to realize it. After that we needed to go get ready to dance, but I took what she told me to heart and decided to take the long and winding road to recovery.

I found out not long ago that Z’ane had committed suicide. My best friend from high school called me and told me the news. I hadn’t really spoken to Z’ane since graduation but I was friends with her on social media and I thought about her often. She seemed fine, she seemed happy. No one had any reason to suspect that anything was wrong. But that’s how it is. I bottled up my problems too and pretended to be happy in front of everyone. If she hadn’t spoken to me that day in high school, this could possibly have been me. But I also wish it hadn’t been her. I wish I had been able to help her in the same way she helped me and tell her that she was worth her weight in gold. Maybe then she could have been saved.

That road to recovery wasn’t an easy one. Well into summer break I had gone shopping with my dad, brother, and sister. We had gone to the dollar store to get a birthday card for his wife. On the outside we had seemed like a normal family just out doing some errands and joking around. Maybe on the outside I had seemed happy. But on the inside I had been trying for months to pull myself out of the inner turmoil that had plagued me for years and had finally threatened to break all that I was mentally and physically just months earlier. I had made a conscious decision to change my emotional state and be the positive person that I saw in everyone I looked up to. Yet every second of the day was a constant struggle to put on a smile and pretend that everything was okay. I wanted to change. I wanted to be more than I had allowed myself to live as for so long. The only problem was that after such a long time of holding grudges, feeling less than, and allowed myself to be walked over by everyone, I didn’t know how.

My dad eventually picked out the card he wanted to buy and we went up to the register. The person ahead of us was a woman who looked to be in her early 20s with curly natural hair and colorfully patterned clothes. As the man behind the counter, the same age but substantially less enthusiastic, started to ring up her items, she asked, “How are you doing today?”

“Not that great,” the man replied, clearly very upset about something.

“Don’t worry, it’ll get better,” she said in a gentle tone full of sunshine.

Then she looked at my family, gave us all a bright smile, looked at my dad and said, “Beautiful family.”

She collected her bags and then walked off as I watched her in awe.

I never saw that girl again. I don’t know her name, where she lives, what her past was like. But that is a moment I have thought about every day since then. Back then I asked myself how was it possible that this girl could be so happy and radiate such positive vibes that they even lifted my mood. She was everything that I wanted to be. I used this unknown woman, who I at the same time felt so close to after that moment, to model my own life after. Since then I strived to be that happy, inspiring, and to give off such positive vibes to brighten anyone’s day. I doubt she knew how much she influenced me that day.

People come and go in our lives and leave a lasting impact on us that changes us forever. When I first met Mr. Nelson, I never would have thought he would become a close friend and inspire me to pursue my dreams. I never would have imagined that one thirty minute conversation with Z’ane would change my life. And I never would have expected a random girl in the grocery store would be the catalyst to becoming the positive and inspiring person I strive to be every day. I’m sure they never would have expected it either.

Honestly, we don’t know what lasting impact we’ll have on someone. We don’t know what anyone is going through and what our words and actions can mean to them. Because of these people I wake up every day motivating myself to be the best person that I can be. I walk through each day with a smile for everyone. I want to be the Mr. Nelson to an aspiring artist and encourage them to keep going. I want to be someone’s Z’ane and save them from the thoughts that threaten to destroy them. And I want to be the stranger who brightens someone’s day, or even their whole life, through my words and actions.

College Life: Me vs. Most 20-Somethings

I’ve come to the realization that I’m literally a 50 year old in a 20 year old body. Let me explain…

I’ve been in college for 3 years and I’ve got a pretty good idea of what most 20 something college students are into: drinking, partying, bars, clubs, sex, etc. I see it every weekend (not even just the weekend honestly) from a large part of the population and I just can’t relate to it.

Maybe I’m just weird or something, But I would rather be at home during a Friday night with a good book/movie and my boyfriend next to me. We tried going to a club one time and it was just not our thing, we ended up leaving shortly after we got there.

I don’t know what it is but I really just cannot relate to most people my age on that aspect. I find it much more appealing to go get donuts or watch a movie and talk with friends on the weekend.

Oh well, here’s to everyone who’s not really being normal and does their own thing.

College Life: Do You Sell Tea at TEAvana??

While I was at work the other day I came to the realization that a lot of weird stuff happens to me. People say and do tons of weird stuff around me and it should be a crime to not tell these interesting stories to the world.

And thus my idea for the comic series “College Life” was born! Not only can I show all the crazy stuff that happens around me, it’s also an excuse to doodle constantly which I absolutely love doing.

The first in the series is based off of something that happened at work the other day so it’s story time.

I work at Teavana. For those of you who don’t know what it is, it’s a tea store owned by Starbucks. There are a gazillion different teas there, teapots, etc. Not knowing this, just the name Teavana should give it away, right? Wrong!

Part of the job is to hand out complimentary tea samples in attempt to entice mall goers to want to come inside and try tea. The sample cart even says “Complimentary Tea Tasting” on top of it.

So this particular day, I’m at the sample cart doing the usual “Hi, how are you? Would you like to try some tea?” thing.

This person comes up and goes “Do you sell tea here?”

There comes a time where I think I’ve seen everything, but I’m always proven wrong. In my mind I’m thinking of a million snarky comebacks to throw at this person. But like the good employee I am I go, “Yes of course. Would you like to try some?”

People are definitely interesting.

Gothic Princess: A Watercolor Experiment

A while ago I did a series of colorful water color paintings (click here to see one those). I liked the concept of it all so I decided to bring it back in a way.

I’ve really been into conceptual and kinda of abstract types of paintings these days. I just find it really cool to have a solid idea and yet be a little ambiguous about it. As I sat around today pondering what the heck I could possibly draw I decided I wanted to draw kind of a dark, gothic type of person. But I didn’t want to be so black and white about it (no pun intended). Lots of times it’s fun to go for the obvious type of painting or a simple dark charcoal drawing but I wanted more today. I wanted to extend my creative reach into territory that I don’t usually go in.

It started out with a sketch. Then splashed of red, yellow, and brown paint for the skin thrown in random places. I wanted the hair to be darker so I went for a dark green and blue mixed with black. The top is literally random colors thrown together (a little red, yellow, white, and blue to give it texture).

All of the colors are water color and that’s what I found the most fun about this painting. You can do a lot with watercolor. The painting can be solid, or be very abstract and everything in between. After painting on the colors, I dipped the brush in water and just blended it all together. Not so much that it looked muddy and gross, but just a enough so that it looked as if it were almost melting together.

The painting wasn’t meant to be neat in any way. If it had been neat it probably wouldn’t have the dark effect I was going for. Everything is very melty, like a gradient almost. My favorite part is the hair, I feel like that’s where the concept really shows.

This was mainly a painting of darkness but I added some warm colors in there. The contrast between the dark hair and the brightly colored skin is another thing that I think really makes the painting. I always think that’s it’s important to have a mix of warm and cool colors. It tends to make the art a lot more dynamic and visually pleasing.

And why gothic you say? Because I like dark, goth type styles and wanted an excuse to draw it. It just looks really cool.

My challenge to everyone is step outside your comfort zone and do something different. We all have our go to style, but every now and then it’s fun to experiment and try out new things. You never know how ti will turn out.