Darkest Dim

Or Darkest Dance, though I like the first title a little more. It's the name of one of my favorite songs by Tokimonsta from an EP I used to listen to a lot back in high school. Recently I've been reflecting deeply on an early 20th century painter named Egon Schiele who sadly died from the Spanish Flu in 1918. I discovered his work a few years ago during my first few years at my second College experience and was drawn heavily to his use of simple instruments. He made these breathtaking groundbreakingly strong pieces out of graphite or charcoal, and watercolors/gouache. He did oil as well, but seeing these powerful pieces made with the same tools I've been using ever since I discovered my other favorite painter Yoshitaka Amano back in 2020, made me want to explore the mediums more.

One detail I love in Schiele AND Amano's work a lot is their use of stripes. Stripes, and bright dots of color. I wanted to make something that felt elegant and symbolic, though I can't exactly tell if there's anything super symbolic here. Part of me just wanted to paint my deer fursona, and paint him gayly, and stick flowers and pearls in one corner and then ta-da this was the end result LOL

The background was almost on a whim. I'm drawn to dark skies and using thick striking black swathes of paint to isolate and propel a figure forward, and that's what I wanted to do. The almost bacon-like strip of light in the distance looks a bit like a break in the clouds. It makes the piece feel almost surreal in a sense.

But, in the end, yeah, I think I just wanted to paint my little gay deer fursona in some stripes lol

Done with graphite and gouache on cardstock