In the South Korean drama It's Okay to Not be Okay, one of the protagonists, Moon Gang-tae (Kim Soo-hyun) called the antisocial Ko Moon-young (Seo Ye-ji) an "empty can." He said that Ko Moon-young made a lot of noise because she didn't know what her own feelings were. She was so empty that anything she took in rattled her.
She looked so beautiful, so alive, but she was just as troubled and dead inside.
Alive is my latest minted NFT on @NFTShowroom. It took a lot of inspiration from the abovementioned context. The face here was referenced from a stock photo on Unsplash, while the rest of the elements in this artwork weren't.
Alive is about exhausting all life there is until you start spitting out death, and not having idea about your own beauty because it's meant for others to see it.
Well, at least that was the poetic way to go about it. xD In reality, the prompt was scream. It was only while I was sketching that I thought about adding other elements to it -- from the crawling twig, to the random leaves, to the blooming lily, and to the flower buds. While sketching those things, I was starting to create the story, and I guess it just happened.
Working on this was really enjoyable to me, from the sketch down to the polishing. I did everything in one sitting, and went back to it at two different times to see stuff I would have wanted to change. I never really get what I wanted altered until I let it sit and come back another time.
I laid out all base colors first. I was initially going for something monochromatic, maybe yellow or brown, but I ended up choosing otherwise. The lady subject was on the lively color side, whereas the mini garden behind her was at a sepia-ish tone.
As I would go about most of the time, I started with the face. Instead of laying all contours to get a general idea of how it would go, I went about painting it one at a time. From the left eyebrow down to the chin, onward to the right side of the face.
My favorite part would have to be the mouth. It didn't look much, but I actually took my time there. I wasn't sure I was doing the teeth right, I didn't like how I painted on the details of the lips, and I sure as hell was confused how I would add the tiny detail of spit. I liked that part because even when I didn't like it during the process, it ended up looking just right.
I did the hair next, followed by the twigs wrapped around the face. The hair was lightly painted on with the watercolor tool, along with the tiny strands. I wasn't meaning to make it detailed, so I let it at a general look. The twigs, on the other hand, was another story.
I wanted to add texture to the tiny branches on her face, but I had zero idea what brush to use. In the end, I settled with just trying to increase contrast in values, in hopes it would look more natural than just being pasted there.
Finally, I painted on what I liked to call her "mini-garden."
I minted this work in two editions of NFT at NFT Showroom and as of posting are already (thankfully) sold. :)
I have been so engrossed watching all sorts of documentaries on Youtube in the past week, with my latest favorite being the I Shouldn't Be Alive series. I've also been so into unresolved mysteries, missing persons, etc. And it's crazy how I just suddenly wanted to be an internet sleuth. xD If you also enjoy watching documentaries, what are some you would recommend?
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