#(apparently ask drafts don't save on top but use the date and time they were sent)

[deltastorm101]

Hi! Do you have any tips or info on how you made Zane's spiral painting? I'm thinking of trying to replicate it too! Thanks!

oh hey, yeah sure!! :D

how 2 spiral 101:

SO. first i was looking at references, most of which were, of course, screenshots from room 665 party; i don't think i have those anymore but 0.25x speed and frame by frame search is your friend.

i settled on a 50x70cm regular canvas and bought two small tubs of acrylic paint, one black one white, and a wide brush because i didn't have one. in hindsight i should have probably gone with a bigger canvas (and maybe even a square one? or something like 90x80?) but i was hit with a random burst of energy and i just wanted to get started without my usual ridiculous amount of planning that makes me afraid to start anything.

i painted the canvas with two layers of black (almost completely undiluted) on the same evening, with about 2h to dry in between. then i was looking at where exactly the 'arms' of the spiral originated (from the center and then downwards) and how many turns/loops it had (4.5, plus 3 corners). after that, of course, i was too scared to start painting, or even sketching, the spiral right away so i wanted to determine the exact placement of the pattern by putting some kind of cord or string on the canvas first; i decided on shoelaces, worked out great, looked like this:

then i carefully traced it all onto the canvas with a pencil, fleshed out the thickness of the arms and marked where to put the little gaps and effects:

then everything after that was pretty much improvised. i worked with solid white strokes in thick areas, left gaps where i had marked them, added some roughness (mid-size brush, very little paint and very dry) and extra strokes (thin, semi-dry brush) where needed. the arms get thicker towards the corners and the roughest, most 'blurry' parts are on the bottom left. it took me some time to get a clear view of the bottom right and center right area because that’s where zane stood in a lot of the screenshots i took but i did find a good shot somewhere. i'd say the hardest part was balancing the messiness – i wanted it to look just chaotic enough to resemble the original without having it look sloppy and ugly and like i learned to hold a brush 5 minutes ago. i slowly worked my way around and around, perfecting the loops until i was semi-happy with the overall look and how it looked from afar. right at the end i added a few stray dots here and there – i thought i saw some black ones in the center area and white ones in the outer areas so that’s where i put them.

i guess going the extra mile to make this as true to the original as possible would be to look for a similar frame like zane has. an olive-ish color or dark brown painted wood with a slightly shiny (or even glossy) finish maybe. but i decided against that because it would have greatly overcomplicated things i was happy with already, and i wouldn't know how to frame a 1.5cm thick canvas anyway. but maybe with one of those extra thin ones? i saw some of those at the arts and crafts store i went to but they all weren't big enough.

hope this is what you were looking for, happy painting!!

#i'm making this sound like i have tons of experience or skill. LMAO i don't. at all xD #i paint like one thing per year and before this i've never been proud of anything #but ye. hope that helps :3 #alan wake #alan wake 2 #i guess this can go into the art tag #delta draws #(HAH i found your ask again!! yay) #(apparently ask drafts don't save on top but use the date and time they were sent) #(thus in this case burying it under some newer drafts and making me think it got lost)