Beautifully Complex Psychology

- CONTEST ENTRY –

Around 20 – 30 hours
Photoshop CS6
Wacom Tablet

Hey everyone, for those of you who don’t know me, I’m Beth, 21 year old student in final year of University in Cambridge, UK.

I was so excited to enter this contest as I’ve always found Psychology to be a fascinating subject especially when it inspires artwork within our community.

Inspiration and concept:

To gather ideas I of course watched the movie (Loved it!) as well as the interview Deviant Art held with M. Night Shyamalan and found it so interesting to hear his thoughts behind the movie and what inspired him. I admired his ideas behind all the different personalities “reaching for the light” as a source of control over Kevin so I always wanted to have this central light source in the painting to reflect this. I also liked the way Shyamalan talked about the juxtaposition of genres and therefore wanted my painting to mix of fantasy elements, sci-fi and horror, creating a beautiful but chaotic scene.

The female character in the centre is supposed to be Casey Cooke, (Anya Taylor-Joy) and the central male is Dennis (James McAvoy). As Dennis is one of the strongest personalities, I wanted him to be a key feature of the piece with Patricia, Hedwig and Barry in the background waiting for their turn. The winged creature on the left is my interpretation of the beast and the white figure on the right represents Dr. Fletcher who seeks to understand Dennis and wants to help Kevin. The blue creature is another reference to the movie as some personalities email Fletcher saying We need you - and casey uses the walkie talkie to try and get help.

The main concept is that the personalities are trying to give Casey the experience of having so many minds connected into one, hence all the intertwined wires, and this can be beautiful, terrifying and mysterious all at the same time. I wanted to create a balanced piece that showed both the light and dark sides to this internal struggle just as the film did, with Dr. Fletcher expressing her empathy and beliefs that Kevin possessed something unique. By the end of the film, I felt this same empathy for him and I think a similar emotional impact came through when I added Casey reaching out to the viewer almost asking for help – the eye contact also created an engaging quality.

As someone who has struggled with a form of this disorder in the past, I can understand why this can be quite a sensitive and controversial area of discussion. However, I think that keeping an open mind and understanding that mental illness does not mean you’re automatically a crazy, psycho killer is the way forward.
I’ve never put this much time and effort into a painting before so I’m proud I got it finished! I hope you guys like it and thanks to DA and M. Night Shyamalan for hosting this contest, I’ve learnt a lot from this process and have enjoyed seeing so many ideas from other entries. Good luck everyone!
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Watchers:
Commissions open again this summer! Slots will be limited so please contact me asap if you have any cool ideas you want me to paint <3