This piece, Dream, is the second and last artwork in the Phantasmagoria collection, minted on NFT Showroom.
The Phantasmagoria collection tackles the blur between dreams and reality, and life in general. The artworks included are characterized by flowers and butterflies, each with its own symbolism.
For one, butterflies are a general representation to life. In Filipino culture, and most probably elsewhere, there is belief that a butterfly visiting someone embodies the soul of a loved one. Bluebell flowers are for humility and gratitude. On the other hand, red spider lilies represent parting ways and, in some cultures, even death.
The collection ends with Dream, the red spider lily variant.
And just when she was living her life to the fullest, making use of everything good around her, she found that it had all been a dream.
This piece is minted on NFT Showroom in two editions.
Because I played around with an Alice Vink reference in the first Phantasmagoria, I decided to use another one for reference to make the collection uniform.
As usual, I used MediBang Paint for Android to work on Dream.
It was while sketching when I decided what flower to use. I was about to use lilies again, but I always use them. I chose another variant, and remembered one of my favorites, the red spider lilies. When I searched for its representation in flower language, it fit the context of Phantasmagoria... albeit reading the definition sent chills to my spine.
✔️ Base sketch and clean sketch: pencil tool
Because I just couldn't seem to settle on a drawing formula, I ended up coloring in all base colors first before painting the details. This was unlike my processes in my other recent digital paintings.
I started with the face because that's always been my favorite to paint. This, followed by the clothes and the hair. I didn't pay much attention to the hair, because I was pretty sure any details I would add would be insignificant once I adjust curves, brightness, and contrast.
I did the butterfly next. I was unsure how I would proceed with it, so I just painted it with whatever colors I thought fit. Then, moving on to the flowers, I thought I would give up on them. It was too tedious to me. LMAO. I wish I had the patience of pointillism artists.
✔️ Colors and details: watercolor brush
Finally, I exported the MediBang file into PSD and polished everything else in Photoshop. I adjusted the curves, brightness, and contrast, and illuminated the flowers and part of the butterfly.
The idea of making the spider lilies glow came from the anime Tokyo Ghoul, in which the flower had been used in part of the story. Now that I think of it, the goodbye in spider lilies does make sense in Tokyo Ghoul.
This is a late night artwork. I just wanted to finish it already. xD This week, I'd focus on work, so see you all this weekend~
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