Hello all you lovely people! Here is the release of this months digital skin painting, featuring another brave model and fellow artist Eamon Carey.
I was actually really inspired by Eamons own figurative paintings when rendering the skin texture this time. It’s not as smooth as in previous pieces, but this more gestural expression is not something that comes so naturally to me as I am a big fan of the smudge tool on Procreate. So I know, I know – it’s not that much of a radical difference – but if you were to compare this piece with my previous works in the series, you’d see a slight evolution. It’s small steps, but progress nonetheless.
As myself and Eamon both attended CIT Crawford College of Art and Design together for our BA Fine Art degree, I know that we inhabit similar queer spaces. So I was inspired to somehow tie this aspect into the work, via my signature use of flora and fauna symbolism. Thus, I naturally gravitated towards the depiction of some octopus like element, as often evident in Japanese erotic art called Shunga. Translated literally, the Japanese word shunga means picture of spring, and ‘spring’ is a common euphemism for sex. The texture of the background wall is also very reminiscent of the song Norwegian Wood by the Beatles, which is featured in a movie of the same name, adapted from a 1987 novel by Japanese Author Haruki Murakami. The novel is a nostalgic story of loss and burgeoning sexuality, told from the first-person perspective of Toru Watanabe, who looks back on his days as a college student living in Tokyo.
The yellow bedsheets add a juicy pop of colour, which continues to be present within all the works of this series so far. And there’s many more to come!
Love you all ❤️