MEDIA: 

- Original painting created with Acrylic paint, Copic markers, Montana Paint markers, white out pens, and ball-point pen on paper. 

- Photographed and Modified heavily with Adobe Photoshop. 

DIMENSIONS:

- 11”x14” @600dpi, final file size of ~3.5gb [This was the first time that I experimented with Large Format Photoshop (.psb) files. It turns out that regular Photoshop (.psd) files have a file size limit of 2gb, and as I have pushed my experimentation with larger and more detailed digital pieces in recent years, this has become more and more of a problem for me. I used to struggle with trying to condense my files as much as possible when attempting to save, only to get the notification that the file size exceeds the 2gb limit and cannot save. To get around this, I tried creating separate .psd files for each of the different elements of this piece (the lilies were especially difficult, as they are composed of ~2 dozen individually crafted flowers, each with their own complex vector paths), and then I would flatten the .psd and place the flattened layer into my main active .psd file once “completed”. This was extremely annoying, however, as I kept wanting to make adjustments to the flowers like adding in highlights and shadows, but couldn’t do so as the whole layer group had been flattened. Fortunately, It turns out that there is an easy solution to this problem, as photoshop has the option to save your .psd files as a large document format (.psb). The Large Format Photoshop (.psb) files resolved this issue completely, as I was now able to combine all of my active .psd files in to one “mega” file, and I could finally have access to all of those layer groups in one place. Loading times and saving times are noticeably longer with these file types, but the wait is well worth it for all of the headache and trouble that they can save you in the long term!]

NOTES: 

- I unfortunately broke my 3rd or 4th drawing tablet half way through creating this piece, and had to rely solely on my MacBook trackpad to finish out the remainder of the piece, which was not ideal. But if there is a will, there is a way! Say what you will about Mac’s, but I can’t think of any other laptop trackpads out there that would even be up to the task (especially on a 6-year old machine!)

PSA: 

** I only just recently learned that Lilies are extremely poisonous to cats!! Apparently even just the pollen alone has the potential to cause serious harm. Fortunately, this is a fictional scene, and neither my cats nor the lilies were ever in the same place at the same time. I arranged this composition purely on the aesthetic appeal of each of these elements in combination and their contribution to the overall vibe that I was looking for with this piece. Cats seem to have a good sense of what plants they can and can’t eat, but it can’t hurt to be too careful!**

FAQ:

Q: How low long does a piece like this take to complete?

A: All in total, this piece took me about 2 and 1/2 years to complete, and I would estimate that I put in somewhere in the ballpark of 400-500 hours worth of work. I had this piece mostly finished as of this last winter, but I think I needed the recent heat wave to help give me the inspiration to make the final push! 

CREDITS: 

- CITRON Header Typeface: “GOODBYE DESPAIR” by UkiyoMoji Fonts on DaFont.com - one of my all-time favorite type faces.