This piece is one I created in a painting class— a class I enjoyed quite a bit! But I remain conflicted when it comes to this particular piece— I feel like it's still not done quite yet, but I haven't been able to bring myself to work on it any further either.

Regardless, I do want to find time to return to it eventually, and I really enjoyed the process of making it, back when I did so. The assignment was to make a collage of paintings from notable artists throughout history, then paint that collage. Honestly, I think the collage and my early pictures of the painting process were my favorite parts— I actually fell in love with the underpainting process throughout that course, there was something immensely satisfying about blocking out values and wiping away what wasn't needed with a paper towel.

Here are some pictures of the painting taken while it was still in the early stages of creation.

An artwork that depicts an island, surrounded by
an ocean filled with clouds. In the foreground the coils of
a sea serpent are visible. The sky in the background is
cloudless. The piece is a sketch and lacks color.

An artwork with the same composition.
The piece has ares of light and dark painted in through
the process of underpainting, and contains a
reddish-brown hue throughout.

An artwork with the same composition.
It now contains blue in the ocean of clouds, the serpent,
the island, and the sky. The rest of the piece is still
a reddish-brown hue.

I started applying that process to my digital works, too, after that class. I can't quite say it fixed my artblock or anything— I fear I'll be busy battling that on my own for quite a while, but it did make specific parts of the drawing process a lot more satisfying.

I am still invested in the inspirations that resulted in this piece, and I'd really like to rework some aspects of it as it currently is, free of the restrictions of the assignment it was originally made for.

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