Sad Clown

Inspiration - No Division by Hot Water Music

*Process

There is a neutrality to the original art that bothers me today. What I mean by that is, the tension/struggle between the characters is too weak. Color and contrast are a very big issue with the original. I set out to strengthen the intent of the original work with this new painting.

My intentions for the Devil character were far more sinister at first. You can see in the iPad sketch that I was trying for a retro classic devil head. I really wanted him to be cool and not dopey. The more I honed in on the narrative, the more I realized that he needed to be pathetic. He needed to suck. The overarching theme of this painting is addiction. No one addiction in particular, just relate it to anything you can take too far. Any uncontrollable fixation, behavior, or vice that consumes you to the point of bottom.

You also see a glimpse of my first attempt at the woman’s outfit here. The problem, I was working too close with too small of a brush and it resulted in detail I loved but a distracting directional element for the greater composition that acted like like arrows off the page.

In this new image I really wanted to demonstrate how plants and birds should have been rendered in the original. Simple and drawn with style.

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