I've been experimenting with some different themes and ideas lately. This one came out a lot different than I had intended. The original idea I had in mind before I started it was to have a white background with wild, chunky looking flowers growing up from the bottom. Something cleaner, and more colorful.
The things in my head usually never come out the way they're supposed to though. With the rare times I do get clear images in my head of what I want to convey, they'll either come out completely wrong, or I'll get bored during the creation process.
I find it a lot more interesting coming to a fresh canvas (or in this case an unaltered photo) mostly blind and unaware to what's waiting on the other side. It's as if I sense a shadow, and pursue it, pulling the creation out from the unknown like a creature from another world. There's an excitement in not knowing. A sense of exploration.
This gothic portrait is available in a few different sizes as a limited edition exclusive to Curioos.
Click the image below to take a look:
For anyone interested, here's a little video slideshow showing my creation process. The artwork is based on my own photography from a photo shoot I did with Sarah Warkentin, and was created in Corel Painter with a Wacom drawing tablet using a combination of digital painting and photo manipulation. I digitally painted on many hundreds of layers, but condensed a lot of them to make the slideshow go a little smoother.
Here's some detail photos of the artwork. Digitally, this is the largest portrait I've done yet, at 10000x15000 pixels. Curioos has a couple pretty large print sizes available for this one, so I wanted to make sure even the largest size is still extremely clear.
For anyone wanting to sign up to my mailing list, I'm giving away a free full resolution digital download of "Born for Battle". It's a very large image, 9000 x 6750 300dpi, and I figured it would be interesting for people to be able to zoom right in to see the details and brushwork. Also, anyone with access to a good printer can print off their own print of it without having to order anything online.
Click on the image below to sign up and get your free download
