2 Mini Paintings + Sketches

Hi peeps, 

Here are a few of the pieces I have been working on in the last few days!

The first image is a scan of the preliminary sketches for 2 of the 4 little paintings I have on the easel right now. 

[This might get confusing so here's a quick rundown : I planned 4 pieces to submit to Gallery Nucleus, painted 2 of them and failed 1, which I shared in a previous post. I had one sketch leftover that I didn't know what to do with, and it became one of the paintings in this posts. Since then, I prepared 3 more sketches, 1 of which I have now painted and is also in this post, and 2 or which are yet to be painted.]

You might recognise the first sketch as another take on a much rougher drawing from an old sketchbook of mine. This one :

I always liked the slight absurdity of that drawing so I am going to attempt to paint it.

I want it to include more detail, and will probably be adding gold jewellery to each hand, to play with the concept of vanity and superficiality.

That one is still a work in progress, but I did make a headway on 2 out of the 4 small pieces I have ongoing :

"Starstruck", on the left, was painted over the sketch of one of the 4 pieces I had initially intended on painting to submit to Gallery Nucleus (I have since prepared 3 more).
I haven't thought of a title for the piece on the right, and I am not entirely sure whether it is finished yet either, but I am happy with the result so far.
I will be sleeping on it and I will see how I feel in the morning.

I had to fight it a little as the paper surface seems to have sadly been damaged and is not responding to painting in diluted layers very well, so I am happier with it than I thought I would be initially. 

I find myself being slightly uncomfortable with painting with warmer tones these days, something doesn't resonate with me aesthetically when using them when they are the main colours in the piece. A part of me craves adding blues to this second piece, haha. It is a good exercise in getting out of my comfort zone though.

Finally, here's another sketchbook page :

This last sketch is based off of one of my daily doodles from June.

This one :

I am not sure if the piece represents the destructive nature of either secrets or lies, or perhaps the ways in which trauma and the damage it causes can inhibit a person's ability to be there for others.

Is the character on the left unable to be there for the character on the right, or is what the character on the right doing causing the damage? I don't know.
Emotionally, I connect to the second explanation more, but my partner thought it was the first, and I like that ambiguity. 

What about you, do you see?

That's it for me for this post, I am currently working on the physical rewards for August and will share those with you later this week. I am also hoping to work on at least one other piece before the week is done, and will share that with you once it is ready.

Oh! And I got into the Gallery Nucleus show!

I am really chuffed, and the pieces are on their way to the gallery now!
They will be available to purchase on the 3rd and 4th of September at their gallery in Alhambra. :) 

As always, thank you so much for your support and I hope you are all well!

All my love, M