The Time of Shadows

Digital painting produced with Painter 9. Reference is from almudena-stock.
Created for Freaky665's Dark Feelings Contest.

I already had the idea for this painting before I knew of the competition which gave me a good reason to get on and complete it. The emotion here is grief. Primarily associated with death but also loss in general. The lack of colour in the figure represents the absence of the person who is dead. I was also thinking of the kind of statues seen in Victorian graveyards. The rose is the last vestiges of memory that will fade over time. No matter how hard we cling the petals will eventually fall as the rose withers. The memories once strong become shadows.

[edit]

I have been over the image and refined it somewhat since first uploading it. The original competition deadline was getting close and I was going away so did not have time to finish it as I wanted. Luckily the deadline was extended giving me a bit more time. Superficially it looks much as the first version. It is just that the details have been clarified.