Artist (allegedly)

Songs I listened whilst drawing this that are somewhat related

References used:

Romantic goth fashion

Gothic lolita fashion

Mold under a microscope pictures

Additional inspirations:

The aesthetic of the ugly

The poem "flori de mucigai" (mold flowers) by Tudor Arghezi (Romanian modernist poet)

The tumblr mushroom post

My thought process:

Since she is a sentient mold person I kinda went with the zombie concept at first then came up with the mushroom post thing and then decided to do a "dead but not really" stance. Cicada mentioned in her artfight description that the shoulder wound is a Canon part of the character so ofc, already going with the dead girl concept I decided it was appropriate to draw an open wound in such a context.

There is blood underneath the words "kill" "Can't" and "matters" for emphasis but also like. You might imagine that's also from her wound so she was maybe dragged or whatever. Her pose is supposed to be midway between the classic dead pose (burial) and a sitting up from the floor pose. She is not so much winking as opening the eye exposed to the light first, as if just having woken up. The point of her entire stance is to taunt the killer or death itself like "you thought you could kill me, sike, think again".

The background features wilted rose petals because of the goth aesthetic and also yeah to enhance the funeral like pose. The background is mostly made out of black mold and white mold. Each word is circled differently to suggest a certain intonation etc. Also to mimic both mold and lace/ stitches

I tried to add as many details as possible but not all are very visible. She is supposed to be holding onto a cross necklace but it's covered by her hands hence why I drew her cross earrings

Whatever other details, I can discuss if you have questions