Mega

All characters presented in this image are fictional, 18 years and older, and the acts depicted in this image are consensual to the individuals involved.

man. i don't even know where to begin with this one. From concept, i honestly didn't think i'd be committed to painting it since the background involved a lot of elements i never tackled very well such as water and lilypads/foliage, as well as atmospheric lighting, perspective, etc. In fact, i originally thought i had to make shortcuts for making this, such as just reimagining it as water shimmers with different lights. However when that time came to making the background, especially the shortcut one, i felt awful about it.

it looked unprofessional, weak, and cheap in just effort. I scrapped the entirety of it and had to commit in making the original plan and i thought it's time to put in more effort than before. I feel i'm starting to sound obnoxiously sanctimonious about this but i really tried diving in to what could make this better. so i went and asked everyone i could at the top of my head on what i couldve done to improve this image to what the original idea was as well as gather critique on elements i was concerned of. This is going to be absolutely cheesy of me but i seriously like to thank a couple people for this.

Calm, ttrop, Menoziriath, Demorgan, TheGoldenSmurf, Shadman, and much more (apologies if i haven't been able to list you here, it's hard to remember everyones name at this moment). Gathered an array of critique from ambient light, framing the composition, lighting dimensions and value, color theory, painting backgrounds, it was like an actual goldmine of critique. there were very minor uncertain objectives of appeal here and there of course as well as critiques that rivaled in contrast with others but not to the point of silly quarrels, but understandable preference and perspectives as well as in depth considerations with comprehensive reasons to why. Keep in mind of course that i do indeed take considerations of critique that you guys message me very seriously and i don't want to overglorify and eclipse the communities critique, but this was one of the few times that i had it in the middle of productions where i was desperately struggling rather than after production. Most of you know that a lot of what i do is very intuitive and minimal analytics.

being an artist trying to balance the two is quite a difficult challenge and i just wanted to share my appreciation to the people i've mentioned on helping me on that path. Personally i'm quite proud of this one. maybe not in content, or scenario, or idea, but the fact that i feel this one started from lost to vicarious construction, i was happy to experience in personal growth as an artist.