Once Upon a Time was created in early 2023. I was a fan of Chinese movies back then and this one was inspired by Movie Series The Untamed. There is a scene where the main character played a flute in the middle of the night and played the song of revenge. So I think it will be cool if I infused the scene with my character eFeL.
At first, I don’t want to dress her up with red hair. There are so many red hair characters already on the internet. But the red will brighten up the page. The hair was a combination of red and orange. And it was the main character in the picture. The skin was painted with one single color by Daniel Smith, and now it become my favorite skin color at the moment. The color has a subtle feeling like it was there but it was not, layering the color was easy and smooth. It did not overpower the hair color which is the main thing in the picture. What I did not expect was the color to match beautifully with the hair. It was my first time also to try the color. Then to give a clear identity of eFeL, I painted her eyes green.
Then the flute, the flute was also one of the main characters along with the hair. It takes me a while to decide which color and what pattern to use. The golden brown was supposed to be her skin color. But I was in between this color and dark brown. And decide to use a lighter color which is golden brown. The reason is that I don’t want to remove the focus to the lower part of the picture. As people’s eyes are drawn to bold colors first then the lighter ones. The pattern was lines and leaves, to match with the falling petals.
Let’s talk about the earring, it was on her left ear. It symbolizes the number eight with purple color. I put it there also to clarify that she is eFeL. You will see that same earring in the other painting.
The painting was made 99% by watercolor. For the other 1% I use Derwent inktense in pencil to solidify some lines. The paper is Fabriano 300gsm 100% cotton cold press in traditional white. With size 56cm x 36cm or A2.
And since it was inspired by the movie, I add a movie line at the top and the bottom to give a cinematic feeling. And put it in a black frame to add more focus to the picture.
This picture was taken the day after I make a deal.
Not gonna lie, this is one of my favorite paintings, so when someone ask me to buy this painting, I was kind of sad, excited, and grateful at the same time. Sad that I won't see it in my room anymore and excited because someone is interested in my art and grateful I have someone willing to appreciate my art.
Link to this web page
