[thatsbelievable]

[elizamaru]

Doing this backwards is exactly how to draw everything btw…

[thatsbelievable]

[elizamaru]

I painted the cover for Sophia Hannan's upcoming teen/YA gothic horror novel, We Were Never Here, a while ago. The book will be published by Simon & Schuster in July. (In America only, I think?)

This cover has probably already been revealed for some time now, actually. It's difficult to track when/whether I can post the covers I've worked on over the past few months, as there are quite a lot of them and they are all published on wildly different dates...

I've looked at many water-damaged paintings for this cover, and it took a while to come up with an effect that I think looks reasonably believable. Painting damage works with horror elements so incredibly well. I'd definitely be exploring more in my future pieces.

https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/We-Were-Never-Here/Sophia-Hannan/9781665958332

[ominous-signs]

Official ominous sign

[elizamaru]

Here's a wonderful detail from Rembrandt's Lucretia (1664). Notice how the hand and especially the wrist look all bruised and decayed as a result of the handling of the paint. Maybe it's intentional, maybe it's just some of the paint peeling off due to the age of the painting. I don't really care, because this effect is just so impressive either way. I'm immediately pinching this technique for my own works...

[thekimonogallery]

Torii Kotondo Morning Hair

This image was considered so wildly provocative in 1930s Japan, that it was banned from further publication, remaining prints being destroyed.

[elizamaru]

I think wonderful portraits, like this one, should always have an intimate quality. Just imagine you, as the viewer, are sharing an evanescent moment of allure (for this work)/grief/rage and so on with the subject through the hands of the artist. Successfully conveying this quality through elements that aren't the subject's face, such as unique visual cues scattered throughout the piece, or even the craft of image-making itself (like the quality of lines or shading), is what makes a portrait truly unforgettable.

I don't think even fully nude bijinga were banned in the 1930s. The intensely sensual quality that can be felt across every element in this piece must have touched a nerve somewhere for it to have received this treatment lol…

[thekimonogallery]

Kiyokata Kaburagi (1878 – 1972) was the pseudonym of a Nihonga artist and the leading master of the bijin-ga genre in Taishō and Shōwa period Japan.

[elizamaru]

I was trying to see if I could improve my French by watching No. 9 on Arte the other day, and somehow it resulted in this little study of Mrs Burnham. Ugh... maybe I should find some other way to study...

[thatsbelievable]

Friday Funnies!

[elizamaru]

S/F toy theatre update N. ?

I've been buried in work again recently, but I'm still finding time to work on this project. Susette and Hugo are about 80% done. 3 more characters to go...

There are some limitations to the pose design. I find the main one is that the silhouettes shouldn't be so intricate that they become impossible to cut out, yet intricate silhouettes are considered by many to be an integral part of expressive characters. A way to make up for this is probably to incorporate interesting shapes & patterns in the spaces within the silhouette, and be very conscious about the quality of the linework. We'll see how well this works...

[artemisdreaming]

Hokorobi 綻び, 1928

Kitani Chigusa  木谷千種 (1895-1947)

[thatsbelievable]

[elizamaru]

Painting details, mannnn...

[thatsbelievable]

[thatsbelievable]

[thatsbelievable]

Friday Funnies!

[elizamaru]

A rather maximalist WIP I've finally got some time to develop a little bit. Trying to reference a lot of Alexander Roslin''s works... Also I'd still like to think painting unapologetic fops is my forte lol