Backstory: My girlfriend just moved into her new apartment. A month or so ago she complained about not having anything to put on her walls, as a housewarming-gift said I would make her a painting. Although I have never tried it before, I was convinced it wouldn't be too hard. I mean.. there are like a million famous painters, how hard could it be? I bougt everything I needed and set up everything at home, but inspiration never came. I figured I'd do something quite simple but something that conveyed my feelings toward her and at the same time be something he'd WANT to hang on her wall. It didn't seem so easy anymore.. I decided to not to think about it too much and let the idea come by itself, and then two weeks before she was to move in; it did! A old-shool-tattoo style winged heart! The planning begun....
I started coming to work a couple of hours early to get enough time to sketch.
I went through ALOT of paper
I figured it would take too damn long to transfer it to canvas by hand, so I used a overhead-projector to get the sketch up there.
trying out different colours
A couple of the different "sacred heart" ideas
I surprise myself when it looks this good right from the start, it starts to feel like this will turn out great
After the first session, (started when I came home from work about 5PM, time now is 12:40 AM) I'm quite amazed at what I have done. I've thrown away the idea of a basic-style painting, no contours here!
The next day the final piece falls into the puzzle..
Backlight the heart, finished!
Symbolism:
Horseshoe - Luck
7 - perfection, the mark of life, we became a couple on the 7th of march.
Flaming heart - in reference to the sacred heart; divine love, kinda enforced by the egyptian-style divine sundisc.
key - trust
key and keyhole - me giving her the key to my heart.