It is 5 am. Or maybe 6. He is the only one who is awake. The weather is chilly. Street lamps are now off. Birds are starting to wake up, but for now, it is all silent. It is silent and desolate so he can be all alone with "it". That's what he lives for.
The best time of the day.
This painting is quite small (smaller than A5 I believe) with miniature details, which you see enhanced here. I used tiny brushes to make it and applied the paint in many thin layers. I would have wished to show you the physical piece. Unlike big paintings, you need to hold this close to you and get closer and closer to see each detail. I love that.
I am immensely captivated by early Renaissance landscape art. How they paint each tree and rock, the bizarre architecture, the blue mountains far away, the silence and magic… It just feels like somewhere I know and very real. This is a painting that come about because of those feelings.
Sadly I still lack a name for it. Well, maybe...
Castle of Alchemists, 2020
My final project of this year’s graphic design class.
This is a back to back spread that becomes some sort of a booklet when it is folded. The facing pages are those that I have uploaded separately, and you can see the whole spread at the very beginning.
Our wonderful teacher (Adam Pekalski) had given each of us a city from Italo Calvino’s novel, Invisible Cities. The stories in the book are very visual, you instantly have an image in your head as you read them. I really enjoyed picturing and illustrating Zobeide. Also I’ve got to say that I was inspired by Dragon Age Inquisition’s tarot card designs (I really love them).
It is the original and the whole text in the pictures, so read it and enjoy it.
The Pathfinder and At Least 3 Worlds (2018)
This image is significant to me, which has much to do with its unusual way of emerging. It is not my creation but rather my sober hallucination. I started with tree branch-like shapes and a background texture. In the texture I was seeing things, and I started giving them visibility by going over them, preserving their original appearance. After I did this throughout the whole image, I checked whether there was a pattern with the images that had come about, and realised that the painting was divided into three.
LEFT - HELL
On the left, figures like demons (middle) as well as what I believe to be a suffering woman has emerged (bottom). An interesting detail which didn’t emerge clearly in the picture, but that I can vividly feel, is a girl of innocence who has sat on a dragon.
MIDDLE - EARTH
A dog’s face, a snake preying on a bird, a boy with headwear over them, a pregnant woman are some figures among this part of the image that emerges from the branch-like shapes that give the whole work its body, it’s structure. The most important figure of all is that whom I called the Pathfinder. He is a dwarf-like figure with a pointy hat, has lifted his hand as though if he is in command and is somewhat mischievous though also religious. I imagine him appearing to those who seek and take them places on a vast green, rocky land.
RIGHT - HEAVEN
This part of the image is the one with the least figures, and is also divided into two. On the top, there is a being of a different dimension, somewhat in the appearance of an elf, smiling mischievously as though if seeing through the dreadful humor of existence. On the bottom, there is a wise old man with a key and a badger-like animal appearing next to his image.
Transitory Figures
There are two figures in the Earth section that seem to be referencing to the Heavens. One is a small alien, much like a baby in a womb, standing between earth and the elf-like being. The other is the face of a man on branches, which seems like a narrow reflection of the wise old man (though a different person).
I was listening to Empire Ants as I was about to fall asleep, so an image suddenly and randomly flashed in my head. (When the music changes beginning from 2:12)
You know, when you see a dream, even if it is meaningless you get really touched by it. So the same happened to me with this one and I felt like drawing what came to me. The image in my head was so blurry though. I had to make it concrete, which was tough. I'm not even sure if it was Noodle that I saw.
Anyway, I hope you like this speed painting.
Embryo Inside a Cave of a Castle of Creature-hood
I didn’t need you to catch me, baaaka!
I made these things once and forgot about them. Let's have them stay here.