🩵☁️if the sky falls☁️🪿 sharing creative process

👑Part of the 'With You' series🎨

Piece Titles: "天跌落嚟當被冚 1&2"
(translated title: If the sky falls 1&2)
Size: 16x20"
Materials: oil on canvas

completed November 19, 2024

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🪿 inspiration/personal tie-in
my mom always would use this cantonese expression with me and my sister growing up when we were catastrophizing or dealing with anxious feelings (which my sister and I do a lot of)

"天跌落嚟當被冚"
tin1 dit8 lok9 lai4 dong3 pei5 kam2

translation: “If the sky falls, use it as a blanket"

she still uses it a lot with us! so it's been a sentiment that I always return to and think about.

leading up to creating these paintings, I had been thinking about my family a lot and how I wanted to represent them in the series- so these are super early ideation sketches I had made with the goose /the princess's mother character



some quick color testing in gouache on sketchbook paper

🖌️start & finish
my partner and I planned a week long retreat in July (2024) and I brought these canvases that were easy enough to transport and started the pieces there, along with doing some nature studies around the area

the set up!

bringing them home

I'll include more photos/clips from the trip in a different post and focus on the paintings in this one.

when I got home, if I recall correctly- I was midway through Everybody's Fed- so I focused on finishing that piece first and then continued on these ones after

I find that it's fun to have and start multiple pieces going at once but at some point I need to focus on one of them to get it through to the finish line.

It was fun to be painting both side by side.. it helped to keep both consistent with palette and to make sure they looked like companion pieces

I painted the sides with a purply periwinkle color to finish.

at some point I was struggling with the goose and used my cute plush over an old painting with grass as a reference lol

it helped!

I had fun with these pieces, but the thing I enjoyed most with making these two paintings was the visual association I created in my head after- going on walks and looking the sky made me think of her a lot more after making these! even though the cantonese expression already mentioned the sky- something about spending many hours turning the expression in my head into these two pictures and painting in the clouds and the sky and the fluffy duvet crystallized it more in my head to associate it with her. I'm happy I spent the time to create this simple association, because it feels like everyday there's a blanket being pulled over me 每天都有被冚 😊🩵☁️

thanks for being here!

all my love
🌼