wintonkidd

Poppy & Oak

Added 2025-07-17 00:31:09 +0000 UTC

Here they are again!🌳💛

I initially tried to get some really a dark, heavy tree shapes in the background as a way of making a framing device for the background but it just felt so heavy and stole attention away from the figures in a way that didn't add anything, once I reeled everything back into a monochrome space it ended up being more playful and graphic as well as kind of had this sunbleached summer heat look, which is my current lived experience :p🥵

This is a little bit more nerdy Department talk, but since I always keep a reference folder for each of my comics and I was looking at the Poppy & Oak one to remind myself of what my visual influences were at the time and I was really drawn to these vintage national park/forest service stamps.

When I was originally struggling with the background I was struck by the way they used light and shadow to create graphic shapes that completed other shapes. It's so playful and once I settled on that direction I was able to just keep at it.

I love it when art can manage to be complete and beautiful at a distance and fall apart into abstraction when you get up close like this. Now I know you're saying "Winton, nobody is aroused by abstract shapes, this is not especially relevant" and you're correct.
But~ only because I haven't gotten around to making my Bauhaus erotic comic yet, just you wait... ;)

💛Winton