Hey everyone! Nite morning 👋 How are you doing? I’m here

My entry for the INNER THOUGHTS contest, created by Spacefullart on X

"Sometimes I feel like everything weighs more than I can carry, as if the daylight barely brushes my skin and never truly reaches me. I walk, I breathe, I smile, but inside I sink into a silence no one can hear...."

I recently participated in an art contest that I found out about almost by surprise on the Salvor Discord server (that’s what happens when you miss notifications), when there were only about two days left before the submission deadline. So, there wasn’t much time, but I decided to go for it because the proposal seemed really interesting to me: you had to choose one of the more than 800 NFTs from the Inner Thoughts collection and use it as inspiration. Among so many options, the one that immediately resonated with me was “Depression” soo I didn’t look any further and decided to work from there.

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Generally, my pieces in Salvor tend to carry some emotion behind them and a slightly dark vibe, which was perfect for this, and in this case it was no different. Although I chose “Depression”, what I wanted to express went a bit beyond the simple concept. My idea was to give form to something more internal, more intimate, like that feeling of curling up in a sort of fetal position, almost like a defense mechanism. It wasn’t just about representing sadness, but showing what lies beneath it: a deeper, more internal state that we sometimes carry with us in silence.

The problem was that just as I started working seriously on the piece, the electricity went out. I had already completed about half of the drawing, and I felt really sad because I thought I wouldn’t be able to finish it in time. I waited for about 10 or 11 hours without being able to make any progress, and with every passing minute, I got more and more worried, because I didn’t want to miss the chance after having started with so much enthusiasm.

The power came back at midnigh ¬_¬ and at that moment I decided I was going to finish it no matter what. That meant not sleeping and working straight. It was a long night, full of focus and a little bit of adrenaline, but I managed to reach the end. Of course, the next day in the afternoon, I ended up with a terrible headache, probably from not sleeping well. But at least I was able to complete the piece exactly the way I wanted ^-.

I worked on the drawing in Photoshop, which I’ve been using more often lately. I also really like Corel Painter, and I’ll get back to it at some point, but this time I stayed fully in Photoshop, which allowed me to work quickly and maintain my workflow. There are things I can do faster there than in Corel, so all the more reason that, at that moment, it was the better option⁰^_+.

While I was creating, I recorded a video of the process. I didn’t manage to edit it completely because I was really sleepy and needed to submit my entry, but I did make a quick cut and uploaded some parts to X. It’s not the entire process, but at least you can see how the illustration evolved through different stages. I took several screenshots, which I’m sharing here as a sort of step-by-step.

In the end, the whole experience turned out to be pretty intense: finding out about the contest late, dealing with power outages, staying up all night, and finishing the drawing in record time. It was exhausting, but also exciting, and I really enjoyed being able to channel all that energy into a piece that speaks about something more internal mmmhmm something we often don’t show, but that exists. I’m speaking for myself here.

For me, this piece is not just about depression as a concept, but about those internal states we all carry and sometimes hide behind a smile. Often, we can laugh, talk, or appear fine, but no one really knows what’s going on inside us. That’s what I wanted to express with this work, and that was my way of giving form to something so difficult to put into words.

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Thank you very much for taking the time to view my work.

A while ago I was looking for this little shark you see down here 🦈. It’s really special to me. I won it a long time ago here, n it was done by a person many years ago but also I consider a GREAT GREAT GREAT FRIEND now n who does amazing work , very talented🤗.

I thought I had lost it , I was very sad… but noooo! I got it back! Yes ! He found n sent it to me again, and I’m so happy to have it with me once more.
So from now on, this shark will be keeping me company 💙

Now yes! See you next time.