FROM WITHIN - Finished Painting

Hi peeps, 

I think I have managed to take a photograph of this painting in a way that best represents it.
The colours and values are still ever so slightly different from the original but I have gotten it pretty close I think, as close as is technically possible for me at this time with that I have at least, haha. 

I am really happy with this one, although it was quite hit and miss for a while.
It is more minimalistic, and more muted than my usual work, but I love how crisp and defined the lines are, and I think that for a concept as intricate as this, minimalism works best so as not to overwhelm the eye too much. 

I pondered what colour to make the snake for a while, and my normal inclinations would have been to make it a vibrant red or a glossy black, but I decided to go the more understated route with this off-white colour scheme. 

I feel like it makes for a more ethereal and ghostly atmosphere. 

A few shots of the painting in the sun.

The biggest challenge with this piece for me was to try and pull off the 2 planes (body and hands) and their respective contrast in value correctly.
I am generally very apprehensive about pushing my values further than a light shadow, so deciding to make the character's body melt into the background was intimidating. 

I am glad I tried it though, as I think it does make the hands stand out more, and the snake even more so, and really projects the right kind of hierarchy between the background and foreground. 

My last step was to add the scales falling off the snake. 

I had an image in mind similar to when Haku turns back into a boy from being a dragon in Spirited away. 

I wasn't satisfied with the piece as it was before the scales, as I do have a predilection for small detail and the image felt too bare without some intricate detailing of some kind. 

The snake being a metaphor for inner voice, personal turmoil and the workings of the mind, having it fall slightly apart in a shower of petal-like scales felt appropriate to create a lighter, more whimsical narrative to the image. 

I wanted to project the feeling of a tentative kinship between the snake and the character, an illustration of the uneasy relationship between who we think we are and what we need to resolve within ourselves or learn about ourselves. 

With the kind of imagery I explore, I often have to be careful about how I present the body distortions and modifications I draw, so that they don't feel gory or are not understood as literal representations of the physical body being harmed. 

That is why I almost always keep my character's expressions as well as hand gestures delicate, contemplative and gentle.
I don't want to project fear or distress, feelings that are very strong and quite extreme and, in their purest form, often happen during exceptional circumstances. 

Instead, I strive to explore the feelings that can be more ongoing, the ones we live with day to day, the quiet and the unspoken, the burdens we have come to tame enough to be able to sustain them for a long while.
This piece expresses a little of me at the moment, and my recurrent attempts to tame my own anxieties and uncertainties.

Overall, this is a concept I really like, and I don't think I will stop exploring it here.
I think it could be well integrated into a bigger image with more detail in the future.
We will see...:)

In the meantime, thank you for reading this, and thank you for being here.
I hope you are all well, 

Sending you all love,
M