Don't Be Afraid (2011)

Don't worry kids! There's a deep meaning and lesson to this piece. And if it was part of a story, it would have a happy ending.

So I could have spent a lot more time on this and made it better. But seeing as how this concept is a bit "dark" I chose just to get it done a little speed paint like. I initially was just doodling an old concept and then I had this idea hit me. And I thought, "wow, well I should definitely paint that."

Kind of the message of this piece is to face and accept our "darker emotions." Because . . . they are there. And the more we repress them, the more they will show up and sabotage other areas of our life. By looking at, and feeling deep within we can face these parts of ourselves that we've labeled as "bad." And once we face them, and listen to what they have to say, we can learn something very important. These parts then "grow up" and can be integrated into the bigger pattern of the complex thing that we call "ourselves."

At the same time, this piece really isn't meant to be taken too seriously. I really just wanted to make a cool piece of artwork. Hopefully people don't think this is too disturbing. Believe me when I say I could have made this a LOT more scary and frightening. But I chose not to.

And let me stress this once again, YES I know there are a bunch of things about this that need to be better. But it's just time for me to move onto the next piece. Thanks for viewing (and reading if you actually made it this far, lol.)

Everything done in Paint Tool Sai and then a little bit of contrast adjustment in Photoshop.
December 2011, 40 hours (I ended up spending more time on this than I should have.)
8000 x 4915 300 DPI