Watercolour and Indian ink on paper
After finishing the small paintings featured in my previous blog, I decided to do a larger watercolour.
The
inspiration for this painting is partly from 'Guro Lolita' a sub genre
of 'Lolita' in Japanese street fashion. Have you ever spotted a
staggering lolita covered in blood and wearing an eye-patch? You most
likely had just encountered this rare breed. Guro is an abbreviation
for grotesque, and includes lolitas splattered with blood, to lighter
versions where they are covered in tattered bandages.
An
overview of this styles motifs include medical cross symbols, arm
slings, eye-patches, nurse hats, fake knives, plasters, fake bruises and
stitches on arms and knees, broken dolls or bloody teddy-bears are all
common accessories.
My
painting is a little more bright and playful than this image of a blood
splattered Guro. My character is a whimsical lolita clad nurse
surrounded by her mischievous animal patients, these characters are
reminiscent of childhood toys including the little smiling ambulance
rushing down to the chaos below. This world is very cute a vibrant duality of sweetness with darker undertones.
I
was recently asked what the theme of this paintings was? In reply I
said 'crazy head-spaces and cute escapism' hence the title 'State Of
Emergency' 'State' was referring to ones 'state of mind'
This
painting was done using the same process I described in my last blog,
the images below include a process photo of the painting at its second
stage, after I had inked the original pencil sketch with Indian ink and
rubbed away any remaining pencil lines.
State Of Emeregency
Detail
Process photo of inked sketch
