"I didn’t want to overload this one with meaning as I find that people will always see hidden meanings if they wish to"
This was born from several ideas and characters new and old that I’d been developing throughout April. Initially I had no intention of creating three panels in one painting - but as is often the case, more and more ideas spring to mind once the ink is flowing, so I chose to incorporate a lot of these in one image. Plus I’m a huge fan of comics.
After vacantly starring at the paper which lay amidst a pile of sketches on my desk, I pencilled outlines of all the major shapes to get a balanced composition. Once I was happy, I began painting with watered down black ink building up layers of shadows to create the illusion of three dimensions. Next I added layers of diluted acrylic over the shadows remembering to leave space for other colours. I’d already decided on several of the colours I’d be using but still wasn’t quite sure which colour would be dominant in each panel, so I turned to my computer (something I use less and less for creating artwork) scanned my sketches and did some mock-ups in Photoshop.
Excluding all the sketchwork, it must have taken me about 2-3 weeks of evenings to paint (I also work full-time). I began to lose the initial creative energy with this piece and so was becoming more and more precious with it, not wanting to ruin it at the final hurdle - something that plagues me on long painting sessions. I didn’t want to overload this one with meaning as I find that people will always see hidden meanings if they wish to, but there is a storyline, or loosely-connected events submerged within the chaos. The moon in the top panel being observed by one of the little doll-like creatures; the circle is repeated in the middle panel, but we are now close enough to see what is happening inside. Could the foetus-like creature in the centre of the moon be the doll from the first image that was enticed by its glow and is undergoing some sort of transformation? This is the kind of thing I’d like people to think or ask themselves.
It’s very much a mix of light and dark characters/styles, which goes some way to explaining the title. The dolls are taken from a series of cute but goofy things I created about six years ago, as is the large head with tentacles coming out of its mouth is also based on these characters. Most other creatures are straight out of my dark place. For as long as I can remember I’ve been addicted to creating images through various mediums. It’s frustrating, time consuming and mostly doesn’t pay well, if at all, but the satisfaction and pleasure from seeing the finished product is a hard thing to come by. I wouldn’t trade it for anything else.
Maxrock is a member of the Raw Collective, who put on Art on the Square - a monthly event held in the Old Market Square
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