Control is Everything

and yet sometimes, it is not meant to be.

With the Lunar New Year celebrations, there didn’t seem to be a lot of control in my life. My days were filled with visitations, also taking part in plans with cousins to go all the way to town just to watch a movie. Work was hectic prior to the holidays, and everyday, I went home with a hungry stomach. Late dinners caused my gastritis to worsen. Things didn’t look well. I didn’t have control of my time; my life no longer felt like mine to hold and manoeuvre. It was frustrating, and took a toll on my mental health. I didn’t exercise as much any more. It was not helping with one of my resolutions of the year: to take better care of my health.

But things started to look up after a while. It felt exhilarating to be able to use my time as and how I liked.

Lifeforce

This was for the next prompt of the art challenge that have been going on for a while. Crystal. I actually hoped for it to look a little more epic, but I didn’t think I was ready to take on something so big. I also didn’t want to, because I felt it was time I take matters into my own hands and try to making this challenge go a little faster. Again, the idea will eventually be executed, and I can’t wait to try it out when I no longer have a challenge hanging over me that I want to finish. :)

The crystal aspect was inspired by the red or black shards a player can find on this game I play called Sky: Children of the Light. I also wanted to challenge myself in creating a full piece of fantastical scenery. Just plain nature, no animal or human. I don’t think I’ve ever done it before. Or if I had, it was a long time ago. It felt freeing to create Lifeforce. After taking so long to complete A Feast of Jellyfish, being able to finish this within a day was so, so satisfying.

A Frosty Sunrise

On to the next prompt! We have frost. This was a difficult one, but I’m glad I was able to create something I like. Other than the challenge of painting frosted trees, I also wanted to use colours I wasn’t as familiar with. The soft pastels were so fun to put together. Mix that up with darker colours on the muskox to help make them stand out — it was amazing to see it all come to life.

And because I wanted a fantasy tint to it, I decided to take some inspiration from bulbasaur, and added a flower on the back of the adult muskox to complete the colour palette.

I’m more than halfway done with the challenge. I hope to start on the next prompt soon once I have the motivation to. Until then!

My heart to yours,
Elaine

P.S. I apologise for no timelapse videos for these two pieces. I felt they were a little too simple for me to want to upload a Youtube video on both their timelapses. I’ll make sure to post one in the next one. :)