SKETCHING ANOTHER SNAKE

 Hello friends!

Welcome to the blog... another Saturday and this time I want to tell you and show you about my new sketch for a painting I'm working on, re taking up the image of the snake since it is the representative animal of this year.

At the beginning of the year I was designing some sketches to paint and after I finished the wolf I found one of the designs. So here are the first strokes, I used graphite and I also charcoal from willow trees, then moved to markers to make the washes, then I will do this pieces with oils.

I have been very involved with everything that is floral, especially in my paintings as they most of the time have flowers, but this year more flowers for everything, for all my designs and my paintings. So here what I thought was a vase in the shape of a snake and from this vase the flowers come out. I have been working with peonies which are some of my favorite flowers.

After finishing the wolf I thought it would take me a little longer to get back to painting. Because almost always when I finish a painting I rest for a few days and then I wait for inspiration to sit down and paint. But this time the whole process was very fast. No, I haven't rested. Which excites me because it means I'm in a lot of spirit.

This week went by super fast, I didn't even had time to read. So today there won't be any recommendations for reading, but I do have one recommendation for watching, especially if you like long fantasy and creative series with many cheesy stories....yes!

TO WATCH: ONCE UPON A TIME. I plead guilty to this one, everything started very well, the story developed super well, I thought it was a super creative series.

I started this series around 2017-18 and the characters and stories spun together super well my favorite character is the one played by Robert Carlyle as Rumplestiltkin who I loved 🥰  from beginning to end and yes, I started in 2017 and I just finished it in 2025 I left it for several years because it was so long that the seasons came to an end but then they would continue again new stories. 

So when they came to an end I got tired of it and I said, well what else is there going to be? but well, one of those times when I had nothing to do and I would watch the series again and it hooked me again So this time I got to the end and everything thanks to Rumplestiltkin because this character is beautiful I loved him, he made me cry,  I mean from the first time until the end he made me cry yes I am so HSP.

The series is primarily set in the fictional seaside town called Storybrooke, in which the residents are actually fairy tale characters that were transported to the real world town and robbed of their memories by the Evil Queen, who used a powerful dark curse obtained from Rumplestiltskin. The residents of Storybrooke, where Regina is older, have lived an unchanging existence for 28 years, unaware of their own agelessness and their past lives. The series are about these characters facing difficulties while they recover the memories from their fantasy and magical time, all of them are characters from books like Snow White, Little Mermaid, Peter Pan, Frozen, Brave, Hansel and Gretel, Beauty and the Beast, Oz, and much more, but the cool thing is they are all part of the story of Once Upon a Time, so the way they all are connected it's very creative. 

Since the end of last year I have felt a little bit off,  like a hermit with her own thoughts in the dark holding the small sparks of light left, watching this series again made me realize how much I have closed myself having on hold that crazy Valeria that I miss, but some day hopefully soon....so far in 3 words what I can say and always have said: ART SAVE US!

PAINTING ELVES AFTER FINISHED THE SERIES MANIFEST.

 Hello everyone!

I have been enjoying a relaxing week but also taking care of my creativity. After the Terranaut I had a short brake to watch Manifest and to do a paint study.

But let's break it into parts...

About Manifest...

I think I never had seen TV for so many hours! I watched 62 episodes (the whole series) in less than 7 days for 2 reasons: I was so immersed to the story and because my streaming service was ready to expire. 😂 

I loved the story, it's about impossible things, time travel, chances to change the future, solving problems through clues and all of this thanks to very different and complex characters but my favorite was the one who cries the most: Zeke and his big heart played by Matt Long, his story was my favorite. ❤️ 

After feeling like part of the show due several hours attached mentally plus how as a HSP this of course affects me, I'm glad also I had the time for creating and work a portrait.

Sometimes when I finish a big project like was Terranauta, I like to keep creating but maybe in a less compromised or planed way, I think it's more to keep me fresh artistically and creatively.

I have many bucket list ideas to paint but what I took randomly first was a male portrait, I don't do many male figures but I enjoy them too.

So I started a sketch on linen paper and I was pleased with it, then I thought to turn him into an Elf to give him a specific personality.

Then I started with oils and I wanted a classical style as I always have been in love with classic, romantic - Pre-Raphaelite styles, but I was not very sure about the result.

At the beginning was ok, but it was turning very different from what I had visualized, and I just remembered how different it's to work with oils where a very small dot can change everything specially if you work all at once instead by dry layers. I think the struggle was to paint when I did't wanted and with very bad light, plus I had a lot of pain on my hand.

 Why I painted if I didn’t wanted? well, because my daughter wanted to paint and she never wants to paint with me so I had to take the chance while she was starting a Timothée Chalamet.

Valentina's Timotheè painting in progress

I was not pleased with my Elf and I was not sure if I wanted to start another one as he was almost ready...how to throw away something that has already some life? Im pro art 😂 .

I was kind of lazy to start again all over, but my nonconformity was bigger so I decided to start a second one and keep this one too till finish.

Here the second one:

It looks more like I imagined with more warm colors and more blended details instead vivid brushstrokes, but in some way I like also very much the first one, the expressions are more vivid, he looks with a more raw feeling...I know it sound weird but I can't explain. Seems like According to this post I like the ones with a hard life uh? 😂 

In the end, I love them both and they are special, each in their own way, and now the background...

I wanted something simple but with a soft and dreamy atmosphere for the backgrounds. 

I have added golden frames as part of them and I really loved the vintage design.

FIRST ELF: Here the first elf you can see the colors and more details from the face. He has a neoclassical look but with more expressive brushstrokes.

The slightly furrowed brow, parted lips, and the distant, reflective eyes suggest he's grappling with some inner struggle or longing. This emotional nuance reminds the ability to convey psychological tension through subtle facial details (more than my second elf even when they are inspired in the same model). I wanted to turn his upper lip with more volume as I have been contemplating sculptures, and he reminds me in some way to a sculpture.

SECOND ELF: He has also the neoclassical and Pre-Raphaelite look with warmer colors, carefully blended, he looks more refined and soft, the eyes are smaller but also expressive like asking for something. 

Both elves are depicted recalls the Renaissance or Neoclassical portrait style in terms of lighting, composition, and expression. The elves looks complete with the golden laurel and robe-like garment bridges fantasy with classical mythology. Both appears noble, almost divine, yet humanly uncertain, which deepens the narrative. I see both like victorious as the bay leaves from the wreath represents victory.

Both figures are calm, evoking a sense of divinity and introspection, much like the saints or mythological figures painted by Raphael or Ingres and I love that. The golden laurel crown and draped garment further support this classical feel.

 • Romantic Sky and Mood: The softly blended, expressive sky with hues of blue, pink, and gray adds emotional depth. It evokes the Romantic era's fascination with mood and nature, this time with pastels where the environment mirrors the inner world of the subject.

 • Subtle Fantasy Element: While the composition and technique are grounded in academic tradition (this was my goal), the elves pointed ears and ethereal expressions lend a quiet fantastical quality—it’s not overtly magical, but it feels otherworldly and not just a simple portrait.

 • Painterly Brushwork: Especially in the sky and clothing, retain a loose, textured quality that balances realism with expressive freedom, more notorious in the first one. That gives it a slight Impressionist edge in the background, while the face remains smooth and highly rendered for the second one.

I just love Romantic classicism and subtle fantasy portraiture. The elves appears noble, perhaps touched by destiny, caught in a moment of awe or foreboding—a timeless characters placed between myth, magic and memory.

The Elves "Granted victory for an Elf" are available on my ETSY  sold separately.

TO QUOTE: I am still reading "Thus Spoke Zarathustra" so here what I liked:

-Oh heaven above me, your pure, deep abyss of light! When I contemplate you, I tremble with divine desires.

-Throw me to your heights, that is my depth! Shelter me in your purity, that is my innocence!

-Together we learned everything, together we learned to rise above ourselves and to smile clearly.-\

-There is little male here, that is why their women are masculinized, because only he who is sufficiently male will redeem women.

-For them, virtue is what makes one modest and meek; in this way they have made the wolf a dog and man himself the best domestic animal for man.

-Always love your neighbors, but please be those who love themselves first.

TO LISTEN: "One Day" by The Verve, I always loved this band since I was teenager, the sounds and the lyrics are beautiful, Richard Ashcroft the singer and composer writes very beautiful songs, but this week I was listening repeatedly this one.