A painting that had been “on my desk,” sometimes forgotten, sometimes picked up again. The ballpoint pen drawing alone took weeks to appear, and the digital color arrived little by little, with a thousand microscopic changes that only I could see. Sometimes, it’s nice to have a comfort piece, something to work on when you feel that particular feeling, without the need to create something new, but rather to reinforce what’s already there.
And yet, the piece doesn’t appear “finished.” There are still scanned pen strokes emerging here and there amidst the paint, because when I tried to repaint them, I didn’t like the result, and I went back and made those pen strokes resurface again.
So they must remain. They tell a story, a feeling of anger, of resentment that has no way out, of defeat and, ultimately, of surrender. The volcano erupts, the lava flows hot as the sun, and eventually slows down, cools, transforms into sharp black rocks that will slowly become less sharp rocks, pebbles, dust.
Artwork
“Lava unicorn,” my digital painting. A dark inhabitant of the inhospitable lands, a heart of lava and a skin of obsidian.
Started as a digital sketch, ballpen drawing, digital painting on Wacom Cintiq and Photoshop.
Details
Use of this artwork
You can share this artwork on a social media only if you credit me properly in the caption, “Artwork by Elena “Greenedera” Zambelli http://www.greenedera.com”. Thank you for the understanding.
For any other use of this artwork, contact me first. And don’t feed it to the Ais.
If you’re interested in new similar projects, or you’d like a custom print, please contact me.
Created between February 2025 and July 2026.
Published on: 16/07/2026
Copyright 2025 Elena Greenedera Zambelli, all rights reserved #noai
Article written 16 July 2026
🥀 Art is feeling. Sometimes, art is darkness.
