A 1000 Crystal Tears and the Pearl of Wisdom

The Making Of...

I was amazed how quickly this painting came about after I started it. I had been feeling into this idea which made many evolutions before my paint actually touched the canvas. I sometimes draw a sketch or two of a painting before hand, but for this one I drew several over a forte-night of time, give or take. Here they are, as you can see pretty rough...

Once I was ready to paint, I didn't actually draw details onto the canvas, but only a light outline of the clam, and the rest became paint magic. Along with a few posed photos for reference, I was on my way...

Yes, I also took photos of myself crying, which wasn't any easy thing to do, capturing tear drops before they fall and disappear is challenging! Here are a few attempts... (on a side note: I noticed in many of the photos I have in ear buds, this is because I listen to a lot of music, then I forget I am still wearing them!)

This is my first painting on a perfect square canvas, and a smaller size than I normally work on. So when it came to certain aspects like the face, it was very fine details to carefully bring about. Here are some close ups and different angles…

I don’t want to reveal any meanings behind this painting because I want to leave it up to individual interpretation, making it was more of an intuitive and collective experience, but after I painted it, I did a search specifically to see how pearls are made, its very interesting!

It is a long title, my longest yet, its almost like a title to a storybook. But I have also been calling it just 'Pearl of Wisdom' for short, or POW.

So that's it, I hope you enjoyed your walk with me through this: the making of!

And here's a smile now...