Self Portrait, Digital, 6 x 4, April 5 2021

This artwork was inspired by a whole story I made up while zoning out. This artwork expresses a personal issue of zoning out. I tried to show the emotion of being calm and balanced around a problem that is hard to take control of. In this story, she has trouble managing her power of controlling the dead so she needs to find that balance and power within herself to be able to master it. This painting is an acrylic piece with touches of gold ink. I’ve made the background on the right side brighter to show more emphasis on the skull but also put the gold lines in the top left corner to make the piece more balanced. I chose two fish to paint so that the top and bottom are balanced but also made them rotate around the skull to show further emphasis. I used different techniques in almost every part, for example, the flowers were painted with a palette knife (Impasto), I’ve done overlaying with the fish and dry brush with the bubbles and the girl’s face. I used a lot of brighter colours to show that having this power is not all bad and that there is still beauty that can be seen within it. My goal in this piece was to create a calming environment with a black background but also make all the other things in this piece pop with brighter colours.