A Metaphorical Circus

Or, you know, a literal one.

A finished painting to go with all of those sketches from earlier.


It was a blast to get back to my paints after such a long time away, and I finished this piece with no major disasters. I got the dark, saturated color I was looking for, and I think that the color directs you to my central characters in a way I haven't really done before. (I do a lot of warm/cool focus, but it's mostly blue versus red. This has a lot more secondary color and doesn't just rely on warmth, but also saturation and value.)

I darkened the pony, since without the noise that was graying him down in the sketch, it was all "look at me! I'm bare watercolor paper! I'm bright!"

I also spent an entire afternoon painting the tattooed man, mostly trying to get the muddy (and, at least to me, very pretty) colors I associate with (old) tattoos to jive with the vibrancy of the rest of the piece.


In other news, I got into the Spring Alumni Sale! Look for me (with some new adorable animal merch) on May 1st. (And if there's a papergood you wish had my illustrations all over it, let me know.)