Very first oil-painting, from idea to finished product.
 

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.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v9...uce/1liten.jpg

I went through ALOT of paper
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v9...uce/2liten.jpg

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.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v9.../4-OHliten.jpg

trying out different colours
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v9...skissliten.jpg

A couple of the different "sacred heart" ideas
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v9...heartliten.jpg

I surprise myself when it looks this good right from the start, it starts to feel like this will turn out great
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v9...brjadliten.jpg

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!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v9...sion1liten.jpg

The next day the final piece falls into the puzzle..
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v9...gmlarliten.jpg

Backlight the heart, finished!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v9.../klarliten.jpg

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.

Sweet bro. very nice. Loved the projector idea to get it on canvas, turned out great. So you gonna do more?

I really like it. It's cool, and sentimental, and the colours are great!
Good job :)

Thank you very much.
Seeing how good it turned out when I didn't know a damn thing about painting, and how much I learned doing this one, I can't wait to do more.

Just waiting for inspiration...

Aww! That's so sweet!

And excellent documentation of the process! Your line work is excellent! :D

not only do I love the painting.. but the ideas behind it are very sweeet - -your girlfriend is a lucky lady.. :) nicely done

That is so cool. The simplicity makes it completely striking. You did a really beautiful job.

So, how did she like it?

That's really nice!

It's inspiring me to actually buy some paint tomorrow morning and get working on something that's not for class. :)

Good job, man.

That's such a thoughtful gift, I'm sure she'll love it! I really like the bold colors, they all fit together really well and make a striking visual.

It reminds me of tattoo style art but for a wall. Quite ingenious and looks good for your first try!

The idea at first was to make it look like an old-school tattoo, more basic-looking than it turned out. I decided to skip the thick black contours when the gradients turned out so good.

She was as suprised as everyone else when she saw it. Not even I thought it'd turn out this well.

Snoogans - very cool! I like the way you used different symbols that work well together... ;)