#delphinium

Here is a screenshot from procreate. This kinda got out of hand…..as so much of what I paint does. I’ve spent nearly 40 hours messing around with this so far and the more I paint the better I keep thinking I can make it. I’m having a freaking blast on the skull right now trying to refine the rendering and the colored lighting at the same time (I’ve never painted a skull before - or a rib cage or a heart for that matter). There is still a bit of work to do on the faces but overall I am pretty happy with them. The heart needs the most work - you can kinda see some red squiggles that I haven’t done much with yet over in the bottom right corner. I’m determined to find some more references and make it look good though.

I’ll probably work on this for at least the rest of the week. I’m excited to see how it turns out - I often don’t have a completely clear vision of what I’m doing until it is done lol. When I am finished with this one I will add a screenshot of my reference images too for anyone who is curious because I seriously used like 20.

The reason I paint so much fanart is because I think it is just a really good and rewarding way to improve my skills. So many of these have elements in them that I chose specifically to push myself to get better. Finding ways to tell the story I want within a single image by pushing myself to not be afraid of trying to render things I would normally stay away from has totally changed the way I “art”. About a year and a half ago I didn’t really paint anything but faces but through just buckling down and making myself practice with fanart - first my Yellowjackets series and then the Stranger Things series I have learned to paint hands and flowers and even backgrounds like the interior of Karen Wheeler’s kitchen or the outside of Starcourt Mall with the neon sign lit up. I have been so proud of the improvements in my skills over the past year and it has led me to just want to keep getting better by giving myself more difficult challenges!

Larkspur (Delphinium) circa 1750 by Madeleine Françoise Basseporte and her circle.

Watercolour on vellum.