howdy!

quite a bit behind with my chapters again, but hey! i'll get those to you at some point :')

for now, we're back with another drawing contest picture! yeah! after having a phase of participating.... and then having a huge mental breakdown in the middle of pretty boytober, just... not doing any of the contest-pictures.... yeeee....... hope the peps who organize those and read this aren't too pissed with me QwQ

but i gave it another shot! specifically with this series of contests, hosted by Eulenherz23. The contest starts with 20 participants in round 1. the picture with the lowest amount of points get's kicked out, and the next round commences, until there's nobody left.... and to me, that sounds more than fun.

so, motivation was right up there, i was on the list of participants, now all i needed to do, was to wait for the prompt for the first round to be released.

And guess what happened today!

as you've probably figured from the title, the prompt for round 1, was "fire" ... honestly, I just exploded with euphoria as soon as I read that. if you've stuck around here for quite some time, you probably know, that I have a soft spot for fire and fire-related things... it is, in fact, my favorite element, and to a certain degree I probably am a pyromaniac.
fire is just so pretty, when it burns stuff, i can't help it QwQ

so, i just... couldn't help myself, stopped my work on an oc-animatic i'm working on, and started to draw my picture for the prompt.

now... fire....

lot's of ideas come to mind, especially since i already have so many characters, stories and concepts built around the element.
firstly.... well.... you guys know me. first idea was obviously to draw my fire-prince ruindir. but i thought it was a little too simple, you know?

lately i've been enjoying adding more diverse backgrounds, emotions and stories into my illustrations, so i decided to just yeet everything out of the window, and focus on the thing itself, and what i combine with it.

my biggest understanding of fire, is that it's an illusion of light, created when it destroys things. it doesn't exist, and yet it has the appearance of something magical... something scary. for all that fire does, is consume, destroy.
fire is greedy. it takes everything it can, and breaks it... and yet... without those things to consume, it cannot survive.
fire fights. it takes what it must, to continue existing, even if it means destroying it in the process.
and whilst it takes, destroys and fights for existence... it carries a certain beauty with it.
as i said before, yes, it may destroy things, but the way it does it in, looks alive. it's fast, it's bright, it's mesmerizing in the way those warm colours dance around the corpses of what they consume. it spreads warmth, it spreads light.
fire comforts you, whilst you watch it destroy other things. it also helps us to survive, in that manner. fire may seem selfish, as it takes and breaks, but it shares it's results with us. we see the light, we see the warmth, we recognize it's abilities and use it, to help ourselves to survive.

and that "contradiction" of something, that's beautiful, helping, inspiring, yet destructive, greedy and also harmful, was the basis for this drawing.

now.. for some odd reason, the translation of the concept wasn't as difficult as i thought it would be. i decided to essentially draw a person, engulfed in flames. they are wounded, hurt... probably in the face of a soon death, reaching out to a glowing, fiery butterfly, flying from the flames.

after getting a rough sketch out of the way, i then decided on my focal points:
butterfly, the eyes of the person (which should be glowing somehow, showing the mesmerizing effect) and... the person's heart.

now, for some odd reason, i wanted to illustrate the person's soul, as a blue light within their ribcage. not only, would it add a different colour temperature, it would also show the fragility of the person a bit better, and how at the core... we're very different from fire.

yeah.... kinda had this hella epic picture in mind, and whilst i totally failed at getting the picture i wanted onto the canvas, i ended up with something, that may even be better than my initial mental image.

uh.... idk what to say anymore... got no WIPs, because i was so focused and motivated...

so... here's the final, i guess?

Yeah!

I definetely had a ton of fun drawing this... especially the stylization of the fire was fun, since i wanted to play around with jagged shapes, that nearly make the "threat" feel surreal.
i also gotta draw more butterflies in future. whilst checking through references i found a ton of really pretty butterflies, and they are hella inspiring.... who knows, maybe i'll even create a character or two based on butterflies...

either way, i hope you guys like the drawing as well! i'm personally really happy with it, and am excited for future projects, since my art is finally going in the direction i want it to go. i think my skills have finally reached a point here, where i am not limited anymore... i can enjoy complete artistic freedom in what i want to do, which is amazing.

like... i barely even need references anymore... obviously i still look at them, but i'm not dependent on them, to create something anatomically correct, you know? so yeah.... real happy with my art at the moment...

so i guess that's it for the chapter then!

>>cuddles, pats, wraps in blanket and gives some cookies<<

hope to see you guys around next time! remember to take care of yourselves, and i'm looking forward to finishing and showing you all the other stuff i've been working on :)