Here is a piece of art I created in response to the prompt Surreal Dreamscape.
Here is the full image:
Digital drawing on tablet, pencil and charcoal tools.
A surreal dreamscape where eclipses, melting architecture, and a hooded figure blur the line between reality and imagination.
My drawing club meets every other week, and this past week’s prompt was particularly intriguing: Surreal Dreamscape.
I have never attempted a surrealist piece before. As a designer, it’s difficult for me not to maintain a sense of realism when I draw. Even my fantasy illustrations are grounded in materials, movement, physics, colours, and textures that correspond to things you might encounter in real life.
I’m fascinated by the concept of dreams. I find it remarkable that when we dream, we deceive ourselves into believing the situation we’re in is acceptable. Very René Descartes… but without God or demon, just ourselves. When I dream, one part of me generates the context, while another part perceives it and accepts it without question. That’s why the hooded sandman appears at the top of the picture. The hood represents me (or you!) deceiving ourselves.
In my dreams, the light is always an even twilight. That’s why the artwork features a solar eclipse. An eclipse also resonates with the symbols often associated with dreams, so it felt right.
Physical things in my dreams often melt, become formless, or vanish. That’s why the artwork includes a melting house. The windows are streaming because reflectivity is another symbol in both dreams and surrealist art that I wanted to explore. The windows’ reflectivity melts downward, becoming a pool of mercury-like fluid that reflects the eclipse.
Should I create more of these? Should I paint a version of this?