Douglysium

This assignment required me to make a painting using animals to represent myself symbolically. I’m someone who gets tired very easily due to an iron deficiency so the sheep’s association with sleep represents that exhaustion and call to be. My eyes and mouth are meant to resemble that of an owl, because I myself am a night owl. The parrot represents how much I talk and my own thoughts sometimes refuse to silence themselves. The birds on the paper in the painting represent wisdom and are in a frame meant to represent the Hermit of the major arcana. Ravens are associated with wisdom, such as the ravens Odin has, and their presence on the paper represents how I strive for that wisdom and knowledge but don’t actually have it. It also helps depict that approach in my art. The dogs at the bottom of the painting are my real pets. They are both standard poodles. The screen between them represents how often I am using electronics like my tablet, TV and computer. The windows in the background are built to resemble the screen of the tablet I use to draw and depict the night sky. There is the moon and stars but also the constellation and symbol for capricorn, my astrological sign. The curtains and sleeves  are red and blue because those are the kinds of cards I like playing the most in Magic the Gathering.

#douglysiumart #traditionalart #gouache

1: A symbolic self portrait of me at a table drawing something. My mouth is replaced with a beak holding a pencil with a bee at its tip, and my eyes are large with sclera made pink from lack of sleep. I’m wearing glasses and the top of my head has a large crack revealing my brain amongst my receding hairline and black hair, a bit of blood drips out of said crack. Around my shoulders is the gray wool of a sheep, with my right shoulder having a tired looking sheep’s head. My red sleeved left arm is erasing something on the drawing while my blue sleeved right arm is steadying me against the table, with its palm flat against it. On my left arm is a squawking parrot. On the left portion of the table I’m drawing on is a laptop and balls of crumpled paper. The actual drawing has two ravens with a lantern above the two of them. At the bottom right corner of the paper is the roman numeral for 9 (IX). Under the table is a black poodle on my right and a yellow poodle on my left representing my two pet dogs. Between them is a glowing screen of some sort. Behind me are two open curtains, a red one to my right, and blue one to my left, revealing a window that looks like it’s made of 4 Ipads. From the viewer’s left and top to bottom there is: the capricorn constellation, a crescent moon, stars, and the symbol for capricorn. 

2: Various concept art and pencil sketches