The initial sketch.
My take on Lucy Westenra in the film Bram Stoker's Dracula... as imagined by the exceedingly brilliant Eiko Ishioka.
I saw this film as an impressionable 11 year-old and it has never really left my consciousness.
Eiko Ishioka's lush and edgy designs for costumes breathed so much life into the movie. I don't think it would have been the same, had it been done by a different designer.
I started my artistic journey with copying manga, and being heavily inspired by anime. I never really took formal lessons in life drawing so I always felt that realism was completely out of reach for me. This was my first real attempt at doing a realistic painting.
The details in Lucy's costume took a lot of time and effort.
So much so that I had to wrap my hand with a kerchief to support my knuckles and wrist. I pushed on through the pain, and made something that I was very proud of. I finally felt that I have leveled up in my work!
There is a great satisfaction in knowing I am doing better work than I was previously. I am not at all a competitive person, and I spend a lot of time trying to "one-up" myself.
I find more joy in self-improvement than in competing with others.
Thank you so much for taking the time to look, and for the constructive and thoughtful comments. :)
If you are interested in looking at more of Eiko Ishioka's work:
https://www.wmagazine.com/story/eiko-ishioka-late-costume-designer-and-art-director
Rest in peace, Eiko. Thank you for your extraordinary vision and inspiration.
Lucy Westenra ©2017 by Ivy S.
(Graphite, India ink, and Golden Liquid Acrylics on watercolor paper.)
Beautiful hommage! Restin peace, Eiko! Great to see you prosper as an artist by focussing on self-improvement. You would be a great benefit to the community on my channel and also a perfect fit for my interview series 'Creators Chat' ! Hit me up if you're interested!
Thank you so much @maxruebensal! What does the creators chat involve? I'm not very good at interviews. hahaha
Basically I would just send you a bunch of questions on steemit.chat .. and form an interesting interview/article out of it. I normally start with very basic questions and if something interesting pops up, I go more in detail there. Do you have steemit.chat? If yes, I could send you a first message there.
Yo!! This is really good!! Good work, as always. I'm not sure how old I was when I first saw the film, but it was probably somewhere around the same, maybe 12 or 13 at the oldest, though. Never left my memory(and never will) :)
Thank you so much dude!!! The visuals were just off the chainnnnn
Hi @velveteendream , congratulation for your painting, you are an excellent portraitist. I would like to invite you to join my drawing contest https://steemit.com/sanvalentineart/@steemotion/san-valentine-drawing-contest.
Have a nice day
Bye
Thanks for the invite, @steemotion. I am unfortunately terrible at contests because my inspiration comes and goes, and it is never in a time where I need it. hahahaha I appreciate your kind words.
*Captured via screen shot from the "w" magazine article
This is such a talented rendering of a beautiful costume. I admittedly have not watched the movie, but I love the pristine white with the ashen complexions that makes the bright red blood that much more striking. Thanks for introducing me to such a visionary artist like Eiko Ishioka!
Thank you so much! I'm not sure the film would be considered some sort of masterpiece by film industry standards, but from an artistic standpoint, it is a treasure to me. I really appreciate your kind words! I feel like Eiko really brings some dreams and even nightmares to life. :D
Dear Artist ! This post has been resteemed and upvoted from FineArtNow account ! See you soon !
@fineartnow I was wondering if I could somehow participate in your channel? Not just curating but by writing articles for a dedicated category? Such as collection posts of artists, essays etc? Just let me know if you're interested!
very-very good picture ok I've vote.jangan forgot vote back
Looking good! I've seen the movie but don't remember much about it anymore.