Hello Lovelies! In this post, I’m showing you the digital art creation process of ‘Extravaganza‘ from start to finish with WiP screenshots and a timelapse video. ‘Extravaganza‘ is the follow-up to ‘Wounded Vanity‘, but includes real natural elements that I blended up with artificial 2D elements in Photoshop. As usual, you will also learn about what inspired me to create this artwork and what I mean to express with it…
‘Extravaganza‘ is my second shoe creation that I made in 2013. After making my first shoe creation (‘Wounded Vanity‘) in 2012 and having fun with it, I felt that I needed another one.
If you are interested in the digital art creation process steps, then check out The Making Of ‘Wounded Vanity’.
Making my first digital shoe definitely felt a bit weird at the beginning. After all, a foot is not the typical candidate for an artwork, right?
But I enjoyed the digital art creation process so much, so I just thought, ‘Let me do it again!’ This is how ‘Extravaganza’ came into being.
‘Extravaganza’ was somehow born through ‘Wounded Vanity’. Since I created a stiletto high heel in ‘Wounded Vanity’, I now wanted to have a different type of shoe. Wedge heels were quite en vogue at the time, so I decided to do my very own wedge heel creation.
But of course, I also knew Michel Tcherevkoff’s other ‘Shoe Fleur’ works at the time, which also included wedge heel variants. His ‘Shoe Fleur’ already inspired ‘Wounded Vanity’, so I guess they also played their part in ‘Extravaganza’ and I don’t want to miss giving credit to Michel!
‘Extravaganza’ is Italian, and means – as you already may have guessed – extravagance. Just as I like to do it in my Surreal Stories, I was again gonna use natural elements to create this wedge heel shoe, and – as usual – there was gonna be some thorny and prickly stuff going on in my creation. Everything but an ordinary shoe…
The Making Of 'Extravaganza'
Reverse layering
- Click to play
Work in Progress shots
While I photographed just my bare foot for ‘Wounded Vanity’, I wanted to blend real natural and 2D elements with ‘Extravaganza’. So I went on the outlook for some ivy and other twines and wrapped them around my foot. As you can see, the setting for my photo shoots is always pretty basic. There’s still a lot of editing work to follow, but, after all, the digital art creation process is what I enjoy the most!
As for my digital art creation process of ‘Extravaganza’, I’ve started with the background. I’ve added some sort of shelf that’s going to accommodate the final shoe, and I’ve overpainted everything below the foot that wasn’t needed.
As I told you at the beginning, ‘Extravaganza’ was going to be a wedge heel. And because everything about the shoe was going to be ‘natural’, the wedge is made up of soil, too…
Here, I’m blending in some more stock images and 2D elements like the moth (yes, it’s a moth and not a butterfly), moss (at the front of the shoe), barbwire, and thorns.
The extravagant high heel is almost finished. I’ve added some more 2D twines and leaves, and also two more red moths. Since the heel is made of soil, it also crumbles…
The final steps of the digital art creation process have been accomplished. The first thing you might have noticed is that I changed the tone of the image from a green-yellowish to a more pink-purplish tint. This looks much better to my preference.
I’ve also adorned the shoe with some white pearls (pearls are an element that I use a lot in my surreal creations), and there are also some wasps that have joined the scenery. Other images where I’ve worked with wasps and bees are ‘Queen Bee‘ and ‘Lisa‘.
…and one thing that cannot be missing is blood. Those of you who are familiar with my works know that the ‘elixir of life’ – as I like to call it – is also a key element that appears a lot in my works. I like it because it’s a symbol of life and a symbol of evanescence.
While ‘Wounded Vanity’ is meant to express the futility of beauty and fashion, ‘Extravaganza’ follows these motifs – however, not with an as strong mimesis as ‘Wounded Vanity’. Nevertheless, you can also find elements in ‘Extravaganza’ that contradict the concept of ‘Beauty knows no pain’: the thorns that prick, the wasps that sting, and the barbs of the wire. The little drops of blood dripping from the thorns insinuate that the thorns have already hit their target.
The shoe itself is a symbol of ephemerality. Nothing of the shoe will stay, as it is completely made up of ‘nature’. The crumbling soil already hints at its disintegration…
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I hope that this post helped you gain some insights into my creative process and better understand what I meant to express through this work. However, I know that art is subjective and I am always interested in knowing how my viewers perceive my art.
What do you think about this piece? How does it make you feel? What does it mean to you? Please feel free to share your thoughts and opinions in the comments. If this piece inspired you to create a new piece of your own, I would love to see it! Post a link in the comments, tag me on Instagram (@ginangiela), or reach out to me directly. Make sure to sign up for my email list below so you don’t miss out on new ‘Making Ofs’ and other cool stuff. ♥
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Extravaganza
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