...to Heaven

_{lyrics by Led Zeppelin}

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Heh, well doesn't this look like some sort of deranged acid trip? XD
I feel really REALLY lame submitting this, because when I was drawing, I used [link] as a model (sort of) and it looks like I just copied it TT__TT
I really admire ~Calisto-Divine-Blue's work, and I wish I could draw like her. Her stuff is so bold and bright, and I just love how she is able to convey her thoughts onto a piece of paper in different media. So, Calisto-Divine-Blue, if you see this, I'm sorry if this similarity makes you uncomfortable .

With this drawing, i was trying to do a curly/wavy hair in motion study. And what better easy motion than sort of falling? XD The only curly hair tutorial that I really have drawn a bunch of information from is one that focuses on ringlets; not curly in general. But then I thought maybe I could just kind of hint at it in a blatant way such as drawing waves inside a bushy hair blob. So I took the hair I copied ([link] girl on the left, uncolored) from Maura, my lovely ~News-Muffin, who has been making some appearances once again after her looooong hiatus due to parental blockage. ^^ The bangs were all my own, however. I don't know where they came from; I just wanted them to look kind of messy, and I think that turned out well.
After I got the sketch done, I decided that I wanted to be a little more experimental. My Micron fine-liner is going dry, so I took out the COPIC fine-liners my mom got me for Christmas (I love her) and went over with different thicknesses in different places. And after a long period of neglect, my Crayola crayons made another appearance... for the whole picture this time ^^. I was a little scared about coloring skin with them, but it was a lot easier than I thought. The real difficulty was in the background. Usually I plan out my backgrounds and know exactly what I am going to do. Not this time. This was just a load of cerebral vomit . And what do you guys think of me using white paint to make highlights? I've seen it used by a lot of really good artists, so I decided to take a stab at it. I rather like how it turned out, even though I know I need work .

The whole time I was drawing this, even though I didn't listen to it once, the song "Stairway to Heaven" was stuck in my head--especially the very last line, and she's buying a stairway...to heaven--and that mood was what was showing through in the way I did everything. A little ways into the background process I decided to pay a little homage to the song and put in a staircase. I know it doesn't look like one now, but it did. XD

I'm going to put this on the 100-themes challenge as 7, Heaven. (Hey, that rhymes |D ) I know this doesn't exactly match most people's idea of what Heaven is, but It comes pretty close to mine. My belief is that our souls are all part of a greater power and we are trapped inside our bodies within this universe of matter, and that when we die our souls escape and rejoin that great entity. (This doesn't mean I'm an Athiest; I'm Episcopal.) So my view of Heaven is more of a cosmic one than "clouds and pearly gates."

Enjoy!