Okay, so today I wanna walk you through this little project I did, the one I’m calling “broken heart with wings”. It wasn’t anything planned, really, just something that kinda flowed out one afternoon.
Getting the Idea Down
It started pretty simply. I was just doodling, you know? Had my tablet out, stylus in hand, just messing around. Wasn’t aiming for anything specific. Then, I sketched this rough heart shape. But it didn’t feel quite right being just a plain heart. I felt like it needed… more. Something to show it wasn’t just sad, maybe? That’s when the wings popped into my head.
So, I started adding wings. First attempts were clumsy, not gonna lie. Looked more like chicken wings attached to a valentine. I erased those, tried again. I looked up some pictures of bird wings, just to get the basic structure right in my mind. Not copying, just understanding the flow. I wanted them to look like they could actually lift the heart, even if it was broken.
Building it Up
Once I had a basic shape I liked – this cracked heart with these kinda strong-looking wings spreading out – I started refining it.
- Cleaned up the lines first. Made the cracks look more natural, less like random zig-zags.
- Spent a good while on the feathers. Didn’t want hyper-realism, just the suggestion of feathers. Layered strokes, you know?
- Tried to make the connection point between the wings and the heart look believable, like they grew out of it, not just stuck on.
This part took the longest. Just tweaking lines, erasing, redrawing. Sometimes I’d zoom way in, sometimes zoom way out to see the whole picture.
Adding Some Color and Feeling
Line work done, time for color. This is where it starts to feel more alive, I think. I went with a deep red for the heart, obviously, but made it darker around the cracks. Added some almost purplish shadows inside the breaks to give it depth. Made it look kinda bruised, you know?
For the wings, I didn’t want pure white. Seemed too cliché. I chose a sort of off-white, maybe a light greyish tone. Then I layered in some slightly darker greys and even some hints of pale blue for the shadows between feathers. Added some brighter white highlights on the top edges, where light might hit. The goal was to make them look soft but also strong.
I kept the background super simple. Just a soft gradient, dark at the bottom fading up to a lighter tone. Didn’t want anything distracting from the main thing.
Finishing Touches
Last steps were just small things. Added a bit more texture overall, like tiny speckles or noise, so it didn’t look too clean or digital. Made sure the lighting felt consistent, shadows going the same way. Stared at it for a bit. Flipped the canvas horizontally – that always helps catch weird proportion issues. Made a few final tiny adjustments to the wing curves.
And that was pretty much it. Just sat back and looked at the finished piece. It felt good to get that image out of my head and onto the screen. Captures a feeling, I guess. That’s the story of the broken heart with wings. Just a little something I made.
