Jellyfish Evolution

Here's an image I've been dabbing at for a bit in my precious spare time. I have a sort of fascination with jellyfish, not just visually, but scientifically and environmentally. As our oceans become more acidic, jellyfish are becoming one of the fastest growing species (in numbers), not just because of their ability to adapt, but also because of the lack of predators and the increasingly unbalanced ocean ecosystem. Who knows what evolution might bring hundreds - or thousands - of years into the future!

National Geographic photo study

I am a subscriber to National Geographic Magazine, which I've always loved to read and look through. It often has arresting images, and in this case I found an amazing photo in an article about Breton women and their traditional dresses and hats. 

This picture in particular caught my attention, and I decided to do a study from the physical magazine. However, when I compared the printed image to what I saw on National Geographic website (located here), the colors were way off, so I decided to do the study from the image on the screen instead. Since this is a study, I painted strictly from observation without any color picking or overpainting.

I also tried out some compositional changes to fit the figure in the frame a little differently. The photo is gorgeous and masterfully taken, but I wanted to see how changing the weight of the figure and the direction of certain lines would change the flow.