Personal Development: 30 Day Challenge - Day 12

Day 12’s prompt was ‘Strong’ and for this I wanted to attempt another slightly unconventional idea which wouldn’t typically be the first thought to mind for many when thinking of this prompt. Instead of designing a something to depict physical strength, I wanted instead to display the strength of the mind. I feel it is often overlooked just how strong our own minds can be, and how truly powerful we are when we trust in our own capabilities. I wanted to design this as I felt as someone living with multiple disabilities it is often the strength of my mind which I rely on a lot more than my physical strength, whether that be to maintain motivation, manage my stress or ability to keep going no matter the odds.

I really love the concept I came up for this being the Queen’s chess piece, as it is considered the most powerful chess piece due to its ability for the most movement across the board.

I wanted to create something more interesting than just a basic chess piece though, so I decided to add an element of quality and luxury by adding a marbling design to my piece. I kept this as a white chess piece but used a charcoal rather than pure black as this created a much more realistic impression. I really liked my completed design however I am noticing a common theme, perhaps it is my Procreate exporting settings which need adjusted as once again the highlights look so much more intense than they had on Procreate. I do however like how the marbling effect remains visible underneath despite this.

If I were to repeat this creation in the future I would try to add more variation between the shapes levels to create more realistic shading as I feel it does not portray that as much as say my Day 4 attempt, although that required much more work to correct. I aimed to create these details using the same brush as my shading, however the contrast isn’t noticeable within my final export so perhaps I needed to darken these further in order to be effective.