Hello new followers! If you don't know my Chroma skull series, I will talk about it as I go here. I have decided to show you the newest piece step by step, starting from the very beginning. Its color will be INDANTHRONE, which is fun to say. Hope you enjoy the journey here!

The FIRST step for these is to pick a color, an animal, and a plant that symbolically go together, which is mostly limited by what skulls I can get my hands on. I usually start with the color. This one was simple- I work in an art store. I restock something called INDANTHRONE.

(2) Naturally I research this. I love pigment history. Watercolor pigment, used in a lot of night sky paintings. Somewhat contentious copyright history. My hook is "night sky", and I settle on Ursa Major and a nightblooming flower. Peaceful, straightforward prompt. Seemingly.

(3)I have to work with what I got, and recently I received a blackbear skull from a friend. This thing spent a solid week in a diluted peroxide bath to clean it up a bit, but she's ready to contribute to THE CAUSE.

(4) "why not just grab an image off google" you ask? Well, I am a bit of a snob and an idiot and this is just for myself, so I chase that elusive, amazing, sunlight-through-bone and interesting-angle combination. Anyway here is a cat helping out.

(5) The Mockup. I start with colors first, with only a guess on which skull pose I will use. The mood and composition has to match up well, and color is the foundation. I collaged my art for this- I labeled it so you can see the contributions. VERY FUN stage.