I had quite the obsession for a few months of an idea of a woman in a lovely dress with an animal skull sort of serving as a mask. It took me a while to realize it, but I think the idea came from the ballroom scene from the movie Labyrinth. It's my favorite movie and I've seen it way too many times, so I can see why this idea was so firmly lodged in my subconscious.
This one took so much reference photo research, I kind of don't want to talk about it. There are also several photo-shopped versions of other women and other skulls that just weren't quite right. Ultimately I settled on this combination because it presented the least amount of problems where lighting was concerned. Ideally, I'd just like to have a collection of animal skulls and take these kinds of reference pictures myself, but I don't hunt, nor do I have the kind of money to just buy animal skulls online whenever I want.
This image isn't ideal because I was imagining a more feminine dress and just more of the woman shown, but I'm a bit of a slave to my reference photos and don't like to invent anything if I can help it. I wanted the colors to give a cold, austere kind of mood, which I think it mostly does, but it is rather monochromatic. The paper I used was a higher grade, but it still couldn't take quite the beating I'm used to doling out on cold press, so the background's a little streaky. Ultimately I do like this painting if I just appreciate it for what it is, rather than comparing it to what I had originally intended. It seems like my resources end up making a lot of my creative decisions.
