moonvoice | [Art] One of the greatest love stories of all time, imho.

Karijiana the Sun and D'miezak'r the Moon

(mixed media on A3 illustrator's board (11.7 x 16.5in) in watercolour pencil, regular pencil, acrylic, metallic paint, fineliner and faber castell textas).

This is insanely better in real life, but photos will have to suffice as my scanner isn't big enough for this.

Before humans, but after the creation of the world, Karijiana was many things. She was the sun, the midnight star, the flowers under the sea, the amber, and of course the Beluga. D'miezak'r was also many things. He was the moon, the sea and the fish in the sea, the silver and the heart's blood... and of course the Narwhal.

The Narwhal and the Beluga loved each other deeply, and met at midnight on any night there was a crescent moon in the sky. Beluga rode to Narwhal with the midnight star on her back, and Narwhal so delighted in her beauty that he brought her all the nourishing fish in his seas. In thanks, and to show her own love for him, she grew great gardens of flowers and shells in his waters.

Such gardens have long perished now, though some places remain where one can glimpse a pearly shell or luminous flash of what once was. But Beluga and Narwhal still meet on some midnight nights in the cold and icy North, to share the love of Karijiana and D'miezak'r; the Sun and the Moon.

01 - I don't actually have the original sketch since I didn't think about doing WIP shots until I started. The first thing people don't generally know about me, is that I don't often draft my spiritual artwork. Why? Because the spirits move through me, and they know what they want.

02 - Here I am outlining the general shape of the picture with a 0.2 artliner (waterproof). I know, at this point, what I want to say and how I want to tell the story. I do very little research into the anatomy of the animals, since I actually believe that one can convey more about the essence of an animal not through drawing it exactly, but through contacting the animal spirit instead.

03 - This is one of my favourite parts of the process. It is before the mindless repetition, but after the pencil work, where I can start to strengthen the lines and see where the contrast will really be. Here I have added the fish, and started to add the 'energy lines' in the animals.

The Beluga, who has a softer energy, and gives more energy than she receives, has a 'spine' that points its hooks upwards. This represents the giving of energy. The Narwhal takes more energy, and his hooks therefore point down, to represent keeping energy in the body, and not giving it up to the world around him.

04 - Cue mindless detail. The spirals in the background are done with a 0.1 artliner, and require a trance state to do. If I was too 'conscious' while doing them, I wouldn't be able to do them quickly. As such, my hand remains relative steady and the spirals keep me held in trance. Dotting can do this too, but to a lesser degree. All the spirals are clockwise.

05 - Cross-hatching with a 0.1 artliner begins to bring the flowers out into sharp relief. I also define the 'sun' and the fish on the Beluga's back a little more. The cross-hatching took forever.

06 - Inking is finished! Yay! Cross-hatching is done, and I have dotted the underside of the Beluga's belly to show where she's in the water. I have added more definitely to Narwhal at this point as well, including dotting and crosshatching to create more contrast. I now leave the picture for about 12 hours while I let the colours 'come' to me.

07 - The colours come haphazardly, but when they come, they usually boldly know what they want to be doing. I have used delft blue, jade green and turquoise green in the ocean so far. At this point I am using watercolour pencils.

08 - The sky has much the same colours as the sea, but with violet added around the Narwhal. Colours are becoming clearer. As soon as I painted the fish and five-pointed flowers orangey-red I knew that I wasn't listening to the spirits enough. Beluga/Karijiana wanted pinky red, not orange. Alas!

09 - Fixed the five-pointed flowers with a soft acrylic glaze. Colours are now exactly what I want. I will fix fish later. Given much more detailed colouring to the flowers, a combination of watercolour pencils and coloured pencil. I have added some grass green highlights to the tip of the waves. I have also layered coloured pencil over *all* of the watercolour pencil in the ocean and have started on the sky. You can see around the 'midnight star' I haven't finished yet.

10 - I have fixed the fish, finished the sky, added some magenta to the 'star', and added yet more complex definition to the flowers. At this point my camera gives up and stops picking up all the detail, since it was intended for happy snaps, and not pictures with this much detail. I colour the narwhal, and only need to do a bit more touching up before it is finished, yay!

In the final version, I add metallic paint (silver and copper), as well as cream highlights (top of the whale, bubbles on the wave tips, around the narwhal's horn, on top of the beluga). I grab some textas (yes, faber castell textas) and add some texture to the pink flowers in the ocean, and a turquoise blue highlight to the dome of the narwhal's head. I also add acrylic highlights to the fish, and re-do the black fineliner 'outline' of the narwhal's spray.

Hey presto! Artwork! Now I'm tired. And I'm giving my hands a break. A3 pictures are hurty.