‘Moonlight‘ — a story of beauty, pain, and strength.
‘Moonlight‘ is not part of the ‘Dearness‘ series, but it obviously follows the same theme: there are the antlers, the arrow, the bowman, the pearls, the empty look … and the heart-shaped nipples. All these elements you can also find in the ‘Dearness‘ series.
I actually created ‘Moonlight‘ somewhen between ‘Dearborn‘ and ‘Dearness‘.
Before I created my first piece of the ‘Dearness‘ series, ‘Dearstand‘, I only used to fuse the ladies in my Surreal Stories with objects, like porcelain (such as in ‘Porcelain‘ and ‘China‘), flowers (such as in ‘Queen Bee‘ and ‘N-lightenment‘), or a drawer (such as in ‘Keyla‘).
But I never found myself creating animal-inspired ladies.
Well, things changed when I felt inspired to create my ‘Dearness‘ series in September 2022.
… not the last piece in the series, by the way. I feel like there is more to come…
- Click on images for full view
As I said above, ‘Moonlight‘ doesn’t have the exact same theme as the ‘Dearness‘ series, but it kind of follows in the same vein.
The lady I created in ‘Moonlight‘ is also half-human half-deer, with large antlers growing on her head. She is natural, raw and strong, yet delicate and beautiful.
As a deer-like creature, she is in the nude.
However, very much like the works of the ‘Dearness‘ series, ‘Moonlight‘ features a duotone color palette. The dominant color in ‘Moonlight‘ is a soft peach color, accompanied by subtle grayish-blue tones that create a dreamlike atmosphere for an otherworldly beauty…
The Making Of 'Moonlight'
I’m now going to walk you through my creative process and share with you the story ‘Moonlight‘ tells…
Let’s start with a close-up of the face.
‘Moonlight‘ tells a story of beauty and pain. The beautiful deer-like lady got hit by an arrow. Despite the cold metal painfully piercing through her heart, she is still standing in her full beauty.
However, suffering and desperation show in her face. Her look is empty and tears are welling up in her eyes.
Her sensual lips are slightly open in disbelief. Somebody is concealing in ambush attempting on her life. Is she going to survive? She is holding back a scream, because she is way too wise to admit defeat…
If you are familiar with my Surreal Stories, you know that the face of the ladies I create is always my own.
I also gave my face to ‘Moonlight‘.
In the four work in progress shots below, you can see how I edited and stylized my face step-by-step in Photoshop.
The major editing steps included enlarging the eyes, transforming the eyebrows (significantly adds to the sorrowful, empty look), and painting the lips.
Also note that I changed the position of the eye fold, which is not so easy to do, but definitely helps create the typical lowbrow-like faces of my characters.
In the last step, I added the “make-up” as well as subtle highlights and lowlights to work out the features of her face.
Let’s come to her antlers.
Her antlers are large and powerful, reaching up high into the sky. Almost touching the moon…
They are adorned with delicate pearls—beautiful and tender, yet strong and powerful. Feminine strength.
The arrow.
The arrow, shot by a bowman standing behind her in ambush, pierces straight through her heart.
Some blood is dripping from the wound, transforming into crimson butterflies ready to carry her soul up in the sky…
You’ve surely noticed the heart-shaped nipples that you can also find in the ‘Dearness‘ series.
The breast, especially with uncovered nipples, is already the symbol of femininity. It is a symbol that nowadays is forbidden to display publicly… even if it’s about art.
(My Dearies caused quite some uproar in the social media world—even though I blurred the nipples or patched hearts over them. If you are interested in what happened exactly, check out the “Social Art Dilemma” after reading this post.)
A heart stands for something that is dear to us… I transformed the areola into a heart shape to emphasize feminine delicacy of feeling and emotion.
She’s wearing a jeweled diadem as a symbol of sovereignty and dignity. The blue gem also symbolizes the third eye.
Right above her head, a moon jewelry and the real moon—after all, her name is ‘Moonlight‘.
…but there are some more details.
You’ve surely noticed the bowman on the left-hand side. But have you noticed the jumping deer in the form of two clouds as well?
And Saturn?
Admittedly, the two jumping deer are not so easy to spot.
But if you know where they are, I’m sure you will easily recognize them…
What was particularly fun about creating this artwork? — The hair.
What was particularly hard about creating this artwork? — The facial expression.
Let me conclude this post with a poem that was inspired by ‘Moonlight‘.
I always find it amazing how Monica is able to capture all the little details of my work in her poems—without having read my interpretation first because this article wasn’t even online at the time of writing the poem.
I’m loving it! ♥
Bejewelled night sky,
Twinkling wonders in the sky around,
This exquisite beauty,
With jewels hanging from her horns,
Alas,
That look of disbelief,
An arrow pierces straight through,
The butterflies turned blood red…
Their signal of help and danger to the forest must be read….
There is in the distant mist
A man with a bow and arrow
The forest must wonder how far will he go?
For fun or a mission?
This charming, gorgeous girl,
Has watery eyes,
Still she stands,
Her jewels all in place,
One butterfly is by the open wound,
Urging the others to help,
Is help too late?
For this young helpless girl?
Will her life away to swirl?
Or will the forest come forth
To save her?
And revenge this cruel beast of a man,
Or would the white magic sparkles around her,
Indicate,
What her presence on this earth to be eliminated,
For a higher level to be rejuvenated……………
∗∗∗
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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Wow! I cannot imagine how much work goes into creating these images! Amazing. Love the poem too ❤️
Thank you, Sabrina! Monica’s poetry is truly lovely ☺️