Illustration Friday - Surrender

This week's Illustration Friday was 'Surrender' - easily the most inspiring theme I've had so far. The theme gave me the freedom to explore one of the avenues of art that I truly adore - macabre art. I was hit with this idea immediately, and after many days of hard work I finally arrived at this result.

I've placed my illustration after a jump, as the subject matter may be sensitive for some people.

Macabre art is a big inspiration to me, full of emotion and many interesting ways to explore the darkest parts of the human condition. I have long been interested in macabre art and have been experimenting with the genre myself for a very long time, and finally I have created a piece I am truly proud of.

This piece was made by using a photograph of myself and sketching it, before inking the sketch using the Pen Tool in Photoshop. I then used the Brush to shade everything individually, experimenting with different styles. I eventually found that this simplistic-yet-realistic shading style was an effective way of portraying the piece with the realism I was aiming for.