I met the shadow of my past
This is the illustration I did for my original characters and the story I am currently writing.
The main character, Leon, is an ancient wizard who was cursed (or blessed? or cursed?) to live his life until he becomes the king. Leon is stuck in a chain of reincarnations: once dead he is soon born again as a child, with all of his memories and powers still on him.
Here I sketched some thumbnails of main characters of this piece — Past Leon, Current Leon and the Mirror.
I knew I needed to give more depth to the mirror, so I decided to go with some paintings on the opposite wall since Leon and his partner are in a big haunted manor. I decided against drawing too much details for little paintings, so I first wanted to leave them just blank dark canvases.
But here's when a happy coincidence came in. I heard Kang Daniel's "Paranoia". The lyrics of the song really resonated with me. Leon's paranoia is a big part of the plot. He was hunted and killed plenty of time to see danger everywhere around him.
And so here they are - eyes and smiles, all for my poor little child.
And lastly, to make the illustration more eerie, I decided to go with a mix of green/pink/yellow light. I think green and pink are pretty good for a ghostly atmosphere and I want to explore them a little bit more in my next projects!
There is also a little video on TikTok where painting blink and smile to induce even more panic in poor Leon’s heart. Pun is totally not intended.
(I also embed a short version without music here)
So here’s all for a little breakdown of this illustration :)
Thank you for your attention!
