Ablaze...

I didn’t get to make as many pieces as I would have liked this month, but I got more done than I would have if I didn’t. I might have to assign themes for myself to help keep the momentum up! Are there any challenge prompts for June? I know there’s Inktober in October. Mab Graves and Stephanie Law both do them too. I used to do this thing called Illustration Friday on my blog back in the day. ⠀ ⠀
Normally this time of year would be spent preparing for the Bead&Button Show in Milwaukee. We’d be burning the midnight oil something furious up until we left. (I’ve been known to even work in the car driving out and finishing up last minute details in the hotel room! LOL!) But with COVID-19, they’ve postponed the event until August. I don’t know if we’ll be going or not. Really... who has any plans these days? It seems like nothing is certain.⠀ ⠀
The other drawback to the postponement of the show is that we won’t be making the money we normally do. We also won’t be able to bring in new inventory like we do when we attend a big show. We’ll figure something out.⠀ ⠀
But I digress...⠀ ⠀
I was going through pictures of the ocean, as you do when you're making mermaid artwork, and some images popped up of kelp forests. I was instantly drawn to them. Even though it was underwater, the way the light filtered through the kelp leaves, there was this beautiful fiery glow. In some of the pictures, it looked like a dark chamber filled with columns of swirling fire. The wavering swathes of kelp resembled dancing flames. I thought about this warm color palette and how it contrasted against a shock of the electric blue of the water and I wanted to capture the feeling of an underwater blaze.
If you'd like to add, "Ablaze" to your collection, drop by the Allegory Gallery website.