Author: dai

Here’s a quicker piece for you guys this week. I was originally just sketching the guy on the far left, but I decided I wanted to expand it a bit further, which is how I ended up with this. I really enjoyed playing with colors from the palette and drawing in this less realistic style. I think I usually try to push myself into immediately doing complete illustrations instead of more casual sketches, and I often have to remind myself that half of my finished pieces came from random sketches in the first place. I also have trouble letting go of half-finished pieces, even when I feel like I’ve lost motivation or passion for it. Who knows, maybe in the future I’ll go back to finish them, but not in the foreseeable future. Either way, hope everyone’s been doing well and had a nice St. Patrick’s day!

Although I didn’t finish this piece, and I’m not very satisfied with it, I still wanted to post it. It’s based off the lyrics of “Human Fly”, a song by The Cramps. At least in the way that I interpreted it, the song describes a man who sees himself as a human fly, a pest, with a “garbage brain”. I wanted to personify the song as a man, one dealing with a lack of motivation and inner turmoil. The shading/coloring is still quite unfinished, as I ended up just not knowing where to go from where I was at. This semester, my workload for my classes has been significantly more than it was last semester, and I’ve been struggling to try to create art consistently, especially as the things I want to create art around seem to shift faster than I can keep up with. Work, in my opinion, can be one of the most effective killers of creativity and passion, and I hope to find more time for art in the summer.

In this piece, I wanted to encompass that disgruntled feeling when its late at night and you’re groggy and sleep-deprived. You might feel kind of crusty, and you just want to pass out in bed. I hoped with the lighting and the drops of water I could create that sense of sleepiness, a feeling that I’m sure most people here are at least somewhat familiar with. Also, with the guys sleeping in the doorway and in the background, I tried to create a feeling of camaraderie and coziness, even if they’re all bone-deep tired. I hope everyone’s making sure they’ve been getting enough sleep recently.

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This week, I painted an interaction between two friends, possibly the morning after a difficult night. I wanted it to be bittersweet, with the one on the ground clearly going through a rough patch. This turmoil is alleviated by the friend at the forefront, who made pancakes for their friend. I wanted to show a dynamic in which these two friends look out for each other, even if maybe they’re not ready to talk about their problems. I hope everyone has friends who are there to make pancakes for them when they’re in a slump.

WARNING: Movie spoilers (Reservoir Dogs (1992)) and Blood

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Hey everyone, welcome back to Chroma. This week, I painted someone looking into a mirror in a bathroom, having a crisis about their reality. I feel like bathrooms, whether in your home, a club or bar, or even just random public bathrooms, are almost liminal spaces. Somewhat unconsciously, I’ve gravitated towards drawing them for my backgrounds in a lot of my illustrations. Looking at your reflection, specifically your eyes, can sometimes be freaky in different contexts, which somewhat inspired the text written in the mirror. Additionally, this character I drew here has accidentally become someone that I’ve been including in a lot of illustrations, so prepare to probably see them again soon.