OWLCHEMY
Before the year is finally out, I thought I would share some unseen artworks I haven't shared. Here is the final design in the 3 part series of designs for DSYFA clothing.
VISION:
To explore themes of alchemy and ancient magik combining it with themes established in the ascension project release in 2015. Tying in with the previous existing designs created in the trilogy.
PROCESS:
I began with an idea of the old skool magician with long cloak held up before throwing it at the ground and disappearing, like in those old films and cartoons you see. Having used the panther and monkey imagery in the previous designs I decided to use the owl with the third eye in this piece. Immediately it occurred to me that the cloak could be the wings of the owl.
I began thumb-nailing out various concepts. Trying out different compositions and poses. The design ethos of DSYFA often looked toward ancient cultures, myths, magik etc. I started researching hermetical, alchemy symbols and glyphs and knew that i wanted to bring in elements of this in my design.
Taking the thumb-nails into a finalised sketch some design elements evolved naturally, such as the blades on the cloak/wings and the solar system in the bottom right corner and alchemy symbol in the top right next to the moon.
Finally I finally wanted to bring in some visual elements to tie it in with modern society, so I drew a skyscrapers and building where the tail should be. If you look carefully I also tried to make the building look like pens and drawing equipment as another 'hidden in plain sight' element.
Overall I was fairly pleased with the design, I was hoping to take it further and finalise it but unfortunately shortly after completing the piece I received news that the designs and DSYFA were on hold till future notice. This came as a real shock and a great shame as both myself and Steve the creative director of DSYFA had put a lot of time into the label. Who knows maybe in the future these designs will re-surface and we will see a release.
Here is the Trilogy as it is today:
