NYE Drawing (Patreon)

Since I'm not a big drinker and NYE in Montreal is usual a -20C night, I don't go out for it. The past couple years, I started a new tradition with myself: Taking a macrodose of shrooms for the evening and drawing. Last time I tried this, I got some interesting results, but this time I wanted to really push myself to draw something cohesive and complete.

Procreate has the really cool automated timelapse feature so it was my weapon of choice. I made a new sketch every 40-60 minutes since it takes a couple hours to really kick in. So, I started with some regular observation drawing from photos. As things progressed, it got harder and harder to look at and think about photos, like the ultimate lack of concentration. When it felt like it had really kicked it, I decided to add music since I get synesthesia as mushroom trips are heavily influenced by environmental cues. I wasn't going to make anything interesting within the boredom of a quiet living room. (Meanwhile, Justin for some reason decided NYE was the night he was going to learn to make bread and was failing spectacularly in the background.)

Timelapse

You can watch the timelapse here to see this progress
* Please note I made this for our private art community (Patreon) so please don't post about it on public socials. The video is a private video. You can share the artwork without that context, however.

Next day, I went to check out what I drew since everything seems "great" when you're on shrooms. Pick your least fav. song, guarantee it will sound like your fav. So there's no objectivity and I could have made trash.

I was very surprised this came out as it did. I did very little to change it after. Just cleaned up some wobbly lines, a few things about the composition by adding some texture. I painted into some highlights based on what I remember since a lot of this looked more gem-like. 

The best way I can explain this image: There are actually 3 snake heads - the main one you see, a second to the right on top of the main looking in one direction, and a 3rd looking the other way. This is why the body is kind of everywhere. That won't make much sense since what I saw was more 3D. The colors, I say, are fairly accurate, although what I saw was brighter and more overwhelming. 

Now the most surprising thing for me is the whale shape to the top of the head on the right side. The whale looks very much like something I'd seen in Aboriginal art. Immediately, I went to research symbolism, because whether applicable or not it's cool to know. 

Unfortunately, the information on today's internet is absolute garbage...so I bought myself a nice book call The Book of Symbols from Taschen publishing. As a side note, I want to make art that's more intentional and informed so a book on symbolism based on history and culture is very useful.

Symbolism

Whales are associated with the intimidating unconscious, hidden intelligence and wisdom, and the role of the mother in giving life and being nurturing. Strangely, I did at some point think about my mom during the drawing. Snakes are a very dynamic symbol: they can be anything from protection, vigilance, sexuality, overcoming weakness and illness. Then, the color purple is associated with transformation and alchemy, especially this particular bright violet. 

I always associated with having more "dad" energy than feeling motherly or particularly compassionate or nurturing, so my interpretation of this is somewhat like "hey that's in there, if you're willing to let it out of the depths". It's something for me to think about.