I must confess, I had a bit of writers block when it came to writing this blog post about the completed painting. Not because I don't have anything to say about it or anything, just more that I didn't quite know how to word it, or at least start to word it. So to put it bluntly, and attempt to spare you of my usual verbosity, after a number of sessions in the evenings after work these past few weeks, and some serious time over the weekend just gone, my angel painting is finally finished.
At the start of this month, I shared the original ink drawing I had started back in the winter of 2010 in a blog post that was coupled with some fresh, rough line work of the direction I was going to take the piece in. What I didn't share with you was why I had abandoned the painting though. If truth be told, I actually don't know why I didn't finish the original with acrylics back then.
I do remember liking it at the time though, which is why I probably held onto it all this time. I feel now that it does show signs of a number of things that I know to be quite influential in my work and is probably key into why I decided to finish the bugger.
Obviously, there is a Studio Ghibli influence here, but there are two more subtler inspirations I think. I've always really loved the mask design from the Jim Carrey film, 'The Mask', and I think the groves in the wood of the movie prop have worked their way into this piece here (and probably many of my other paintings). Also, a lesser known inspiration is actually probably found in the game, 'The Summoner 2', where there was a whole level where you had to wear different masks to talked to various ranking officials.
I think thats probably where my love of masks has come from. Either that, or some deep seated psychological issue I'm repressing and not addressing.
Lloyd Harvey
www.lloydharvey.co.uk
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