Rejected Gift

As a Mother's Day gift, I recreated an image (right) from the ethereal and imaginative app game, Monument Valley.

This is one of the few app games I enjoy. It is a puzzle game featuring Escher staircases and playing with perspective. The game is relaxing and mind-tickling, in perfect balance.

Is that a horrible adjective? Mind-tickling. It should be positive. But "tickling" sound a bit unnerving.

More to the point, I highly recommend the game.

I was dedicated to finishing this painting in time for Mother's Day. Otherwise, I wouldn't have been so motivated. It's almost a line-for-line recreation, which I find less interesting than designing original art.

Ironically, my mom didn't love this either compared to other paintings that I've done. She keeps asking me to trade.

No trades, Mom.

I agree the color selection is slightly bland, but I love how the characters turned out. And my Mom is just being facetious.

I learned a few new techniques:
1. Painting on hardwood board. Wood is much smoother than canvas, but you must prime it yourself, which requires a lot of time and patience in my amateur hands. Wood boards are good for special purposes, like to paint letters and tiny detail. Otherwise I prefer canvas better all around.
2. Using tracing paper. Tracing paper is handy but tracing is boring and hard.
3. Applying shadows. One good thing with copying art is it forces me to practice elements that are tough to figure out on my own. I understood shadows and perspectives a little better after this piece.