Valentine's Day concept Art By Katherine Lightwood

Valentine's Day concept Art

By Katherine Lightwood

Hey there!! How are you all?

After all my colleagues posted their blogs about Valentine's Day, here I am feeling tired and exhausted trying to speak about "love". I know it's been very late and there is no point in talking about this now, but hey! let's break some rules, shall we?

From some of my colleague's blogs, you might have known that I asked everyone about what they think about love, or what is their perception of "true love".

Well!! Everybody shared their story with me and I was truly amazed by everyone's perception, it's was really beautiful especially Praveen's story. When I was discussing that with my colleagues one of them asked me about my point of view about "love", and I was tongue-tied. I couldn't say a single word. I mean what would I say. I know nothing about love. To be fair, that emotion is very alien to me. So, I decided to blabber a bit less than usual.

As Valentine's day was near, our manager suggested us to make an artwork on that occasion so that we can post that on the blog. And like always I choose to make a concept art. At first, I thought to make a brutal gothic art but eventually, I canceled my plan. I couldn't think of anything brutal or kind which I can relate to love. And finally, like always I decided to ask my teacher because he is literally the "god of concepts". Now, the thing is that it was Valentine's day, and I was not sure it was appropriate enough to ask him about that topic. I had no concept, I was running out of time and I didn't know what I was doing. Skeptical of my decision, I nervously paced outside his cabin for ten minutes, until I saw another student entering his lab. Somehow, I went inside and asked for his help. He told me to follow him to the upstairs, and that what I did. I along with another student (who is excellent in making digital paintings) followed him to the upstairs. We all sat on a table and he started explaining the concept.

He said," Love is blind, why don't you show something like beauty and the beast story. Are you getting what I am trying to tell you?".

And that concept just stuck my cord, I shook my head in approval. The concept was amazing and that's what I was looking for. I quickly thanked him and returned to my class. That day I went home and started with roughly outlining a sketch for that artwork, but I couldn't satiate my taste. It felt like my artwork was missing something but I didn't know what. Next day, I showed that sketch to my teacher. He suggested me to make the beast more ugly and brutal.

He said,"Make the beast as ugly and cruel as possible so that your artwork doesn't need any explanation. Look the beast must look very sad, ugly and cruel who thinks the world doesn't love him at all, while on the other side there is "beauty" or belle who is so beautiful and she loves him irrespective of all his ugliness." 

As he was explaining this concept for a second I got lost in the beast's world. Very strange it may sound, but somehow I found that I could relate myself to that beast. I was syncing my thoughts with that "unloved fictitious beast" of my teacher's imagination. I made up my mind, no matter what happens I will paint the beast exactly the way my teacher explained it to me. I was very passionate about that idea. Valentine's day came and I missed the deadline as expected, but I was not that sad. I thought no matter what the time it will take I will make that complete concept art properly. It was the only way I could respect my teacher's thoughts. After lots of corrections, I finally completed that artwork.
While I was painting that artwork, it drained me in a very unusual way. That artwork poked into the realms of my fears that I had locked inside my mind for a very long time. I remember my colleague Nikhil asking me about my perception of true love. I was blank. I couldn't think of anything. I tried to recall every love quotes I've read recently to get inspired so that I could write about "love", but it all looked meaningless. And the fact was that no one can love anyone until and unless they could love themselves. I mean that's what I thought, but who knows the ultimate definition of love.

Generally, I've seen people associate this "love" with attraction and what not. But I don't think it's true, love is very different from "need". In the famous TV shows when I hear lovers saying "I need you and blah blah blah" all I could think is how can they be so selfish. "Love" is not "need" and if it was true, then my lover would be my "personal computer" because that thing I need most. If my computer ever gets damaged I will replace it without giving it a single thought and I don't think in love that is possible.

Most recently, I heard a beautiful quote from Sufi poet Rumi and that was

"Fall in love in such a way that it frees from all connecting". 

And that was the most enigmatic and beautiful love quote that I've ever heard. Even though I didn't understand that much but it somehow simplified my jumbled thoughts about love. All I understood that love was transcendental. I am very thankful to my teacher and all my colleagues of Digital Decatron who helped me to understand the complex concept of "True Love". And that was my artwork for Valentine's day. Now, it's time for me to sign out from the blog. To see more blogs like this make sure to visit our main page and Facebook page.

Till then bye guys and have a good day ahead.

Katherine Lightwood