A happy accident

in #art6 years ago

I experienced a happy accident today while working on an originally modest, meandering doodle (eventually titled Involvement) that I chose to keep developing until it filled the allotted space and seemed like enough but not too much. I was in the process of saving it and exporting a .jpeg when I decided to stop and experiment with flipping the image's orientation. I made a copy, flipped it, decided I didn't like the look of the mirrored version, and went to turn off the offending layer but first turned on the original layer, leaving a new hybrid on the screen... and I was immediately entranced. A whole new vision emerged, darkly seductive to the point that I lost interest in the bare original.

The original drawing, Involvement, has a large central figure surrounded by line forms. I wasn't in love with it but felt it was worth seeing through to completion. Involvement-web-lrg.jpg

Involvement (2019) digital art by Kevin McLaughlin

The accidental image, while technically symmetrical, is nonetheless varied and full of things to discover (in a kind of Rorschach-test way). It has one level of interest seen close up, and when viewed from a few feet away there is a subtle op-art effect in certain places. I find it more interesting than the intended work (above)... What do you think?

Involvement-mirror-shrine-web.jpg

Involvement Mirror Shrine (2019) digital art by Kevin McLaughlin