As an art therapy major and blogger, some of my artwork have been reflective pieces and incorporated certain concepts in the field. However, to change things up a bit, this post will more or less be an art dump of pieces I did that these past few weeks.
I’ve been growing more comfortable with using oil painting, although attending a 3 hour painting class twice a week definitely helped. We started a still life a few weeks ago using a full-color palette compared to the limited 3 color palette used previously, which gave me creative liberty to mix and blend a variety of paints to get a certain color I wanted. Below on the left is the complete still, and on the right is one we began recently, playing around with shapes and patterns.
Back in July, I mentioned some Little Mermaid-themed sketches I was working on, and I recently updated one of them. After sitting in my Procreate library for months, I finally dedicated my time to completing my Azul Ashengrotto piece. I made a previous post that went in-depth about this specific character, but to sum it up now, Azul is a video game character inspired by Ursula from the Little Mermaid.
What I wanted to do was to draw Azul in a scene from the Little Mermaid, specifically the scene where Ursula was doing her “Poor Unfortunate Souls” musical number and striking a deal with Ursula. From what I recall from the older sketch, I had some of the clothing drawn out but the hand gestures were what was giving me trouble. I played around with different hand positions until I ultimately took a photo of my hand palm upwards, almost stretched forward as if to ask for someone’s handshake. That was Azul’s left hand, and for his right I settled for a clenched fist pressed against his chest, maybe in a manner that could seem gentlemanly or impatient.
Although it took several layers, the lineart was my favorite part of the process, mostly because I was refining and perfecting a sketch I was decently proud of. Color-wise, I color-dropped from an image of Azul to be more accurate, and to avoid clashing the hues of the wardrobe and making it too vibrant. Adding subtle shading, I added a layer of dark purple to make the effect that Azul was in darkness. The background itself was vibrant considering it represents the cyclone of the “winds of the Caspian Sea” where Ursula steals Ariel’s voice; the green glow on Azul also further cements the setting. The finishing touch was the silhouette of tentacles in the background, since Azul is in his human form, but is a nod to the fact he is a cecaelia. Overall, I feel very happy that I finished a piece that has been in the back of my mind.
