Scythia
Watercolor & pastel on paper

My first attempt at painting a portrait in a realistic style. It was my first move away from the cartoonism I started with as a kid. As a cartoonist back then, I thought realism was old school museum stuff that were for grown ups and therefore boring. What did I know? I was a kid! This painting started as a doodle of an eye while I was bored taking a break from my math homework. Then somehow, realism didn't seem to be as boring as the math homework so I found myself eagerly working on this piece. It was supposed to be a doodle, which turned into a sketch, which later evolved into a watercolor painting. Finishing this changed my perspective on it all as I started to appreciate the fun challenges of realism and began to add my love of the fantasy genre by creating fantasy portraits.

The setting itself was actually inspired by a dream in which I was followed by the lady in the picture who appeared to be some sort of mystic sorceress or otherwordly being who was benevolent yet frighteningly powerful and wise all at once. I like to think of her as my muse since I couldn't rest until I painted this picture, which was a turning point in my artistic development and inspired me to keep pushing myself.