The Awakening

The awakening painting was created by first making a pencil sketch on paper then scanning it into the computer. I used Corel Painter 7 & IX to paint the image.

Mostly I used the soft charcoal variant of charcoal & the artist pastel variant of pastels and oil brushes. I worked in many layers, applying coats of digital paint on successive layers. When I had finished, the layers were flattened on the background image.

This particular image is probably one of the most complex paintings I have done to date, and utilizes many more layers than my other work.

The inspiration for this painting came from my dreams, which at the time seemed mainly focused on the inner child and the awakening of the great healing potential which lies within our deepest selves. These dreams seemed to lift my spirits and helped me through a particularly challenging time in my life so I felt inspired to create a piece of work that reflected my thoughts and feelings about the process.