[PROCESS]
While creating mood boards for this commission, I looked into the lyrics to find some inspiration.
[1] “Let me build your house without bad blood and just give you my love instead, right now.”
When explaining the song to me, Josh told me that it is about two inseparable people; one is emotionally scarred, while the other unconditionally reaches out in attempt to help. Referencing to the lyrics “build you a house”, I thought about bricks, concrete, roofs, etc. materials/textures/structures that are present in houses. That, plus bringing in the two characters, I came up with the concept above. ‘Inseparable’ would be the overlapping bodies. Brick walls in the background representing house. Line textures on the girl face symbolises scars and tears.
p.s. the male character is supposed to resemble the singer Josh himself!
[2] “The wound will heal but the scars remain, can I soften them with honey?”
This line brought me to think of the tear-and-paste method. I imagine tearing apart one of my own portrait drawings, as the tear marks would symbolise the scars, and the tape would symbolise the ‘healing’ or ‘honey’. In addition to that, I thought about dripping translucent tinted paint over the collage, depicting the ‘honey softening the scars’.
[3] Another idea is to use geometrical shapes to piece out an abstract form of a house. In the middle, an eye with a teardrop; and drawing straight parallel lines in the shapes (imitating the texture of walls/houses) to symbolise the scars. With the shapes surrounding the eye, I wanted it to reflect the lyrics “I’ll build a house around you”, creating the bubble of security presented by the song-writer.
[4] For this proposal, I went back to the ‘house’ concept. However, this time instead of using inanimate objects (walls, bricks, etc.), I decided to use an arm to ‘build’ a roof over the character. This creates more warmth with the human touch, also a stronger sense of protection, comfort, and consolation. I planned to execute this idea imitating a printmaking style.
Josh really liked the idea and the image of the girl. He also preferred to feature just the girl, instead of having also ‘himself’ in the picture.