Digital Painting - Tree of Life (w/ sketches, process and story)

"The tree of power gushed a golden milk,
And life bloomed in the deep.

The tree of doom gushed a river of blood,
And a thousand legions came.

Forsaken are the spells and sages,
That could clean the world's plagues,
For life to linger on.

From ancient ashes,
To the dust of the ages,
– Death marches at dawn!"

– Ankor Hut, Druid from antediluvian times.

Hi everyone, I wanted to show a illustration I did these past few days, and share a little bit of the process and the crazy story behind the painting.

Process

I first start to doodle and sketch pretty loosely what I'm about to draw. I try to come up with interesting shapes and compositions, to emphasize the overall feeling I want to communicate. I try to be guided by instinct at this stage, because if I plan too much my sketches, they tend to look stiff and without life.

I find that the first stages of a painting, the sketch and composition phase, are the most vital part to convey the appropriate feeling. If you can't communicate something in a small sketch, it will be harder to communicate in a more complex, planned out painting.

Another good trick I use to keep my motivation going, is to be more critical in the sketch phase then in the painting phase. Specially in the first stages of the painting process, you shouldn't be so critical. I have seen a lot of fellow artists give up in the first stages of color block in, myself included. If the sketch is dynamic, if it conveys a message/feeling, the painting will probably convey as well, and you will only know this when the painting is more polished, more finished.

This is the advice I have to you: If you have a good plan (sketch) keep going! Only give up if you really feel that its a mess, and you're not making assertive decisions. That is another good advice: if you are painting mindlessly, without conscious thought and without a plan of where things are going, you should go back to sketch phase. Its a mind game. Its a balance between the idea and the process.

Put the ideas on paper, choose the best sketch, afterwards: research! The idea of a tree in your head, might be a pretty good one, but nature has been in the tree-making business for billions of years before you even learned how to draw. So go to the web and find reference for the things you are envisioning. I'm not saying you shouldn't draw from your head. I'm saying that photo reference helps you to imagine better and with more accuracy. In this painting I used reference for the tree and waterfall. And I always use reference for color palette as well (from old paintings or photos).

Story

The story behind this illustration and the poem at the beginning is a long one. A long forgotten tale about a golden age of magic, mystery and wonder. An age when man walked with gods, and life was longer than an entire age of the universe. After uncountable millennia, the dust settled in, and we forgot our mythical past. Akhballå, the tree of life: the gift from the creators to mankind, so we could live with them in a beautiful and peaceful eden. The inspiration behind all mythological trees of the world; Yggdrasil, Akshaya Vata, Etz Chaim, the Bodhi Tree, and countless others. Now, only a tale no one dares to listen to.

The poem is from the Hermit's Diary: The Knight without a King, from the 12th century AD. The book was found after the first crusade by a group of christian knights and brought to Europe after Saladin took over Jerusalem. The unusual book had a lot of spells and enchantments written in a weird language that no european scholar had ever encountered. It took several decades to translate its cryptic language and even then, the overall content remained a mystery. A lot of secret societies still use some sort of symbology that has its root on the mysterious diary.

The diary is basically a lot of poems that together tell the tale of a traveling knight and his encounters with six wise magical creatures. Eventually, he stumbles upon an old almost dead tree, in a plateau, in a forsaken corner of the world. Through the teachings of each creature, he is able to decipher the true story behind that tree – Akhballå, the tree of life. He then faces the possibility of living forever and acquiring unbelievable powers, but the visions of people and Empires long gone come to his mind, and he denies the gift at hand, having learnt the true nature of its power and of his own purpose in the world.

"And so, the relinquishing of his human fears
was also the demise of his humanity.
After rituals and corteges to its light,
He saw the swords and torches
made by its bloody might.

I'm working on the Tree of Doom version of this painting. I'll post soon.

So this it guys! Hope you like it. Don't forget to comment, and if you feel like it, follow us for more art, crazy myths and philosophical thoughts.

Cheers!