Lux Wood Art

Ocean Kiss – Our Flag Means Death Original Colored Pencil Drawing

Two pirates, one ocean, and a love story that changed everything.

Our Flag Means Death completely stole my heart. It’s hilarious, tender, heartbreaking. It’s filled with wonderfully complicated characters. But what I love most is how naturally it tells its queer love stories. Ed and Stede are simply two people falling in love, with all the fear, excitement, vulnerability, and beauty that comes with it.

And what a pair they make. Stede Bonnet, terrified but determined to build a new life, and Edward Teach, the legendary Blackbeard, who has grown tired of his own legend. They find in each other something neither knew they were looking for. Their relationship is funny, messy, incredibly moving, and one of my favourite love stories.

For this original colored pencil portrait, I chose one of their beautiful moonlit kisses. I wanted to capture not only the tenderness of that moment. I also needed to show the feeling that these two men have become part of each other’s worlds.

So I gave them the colours of the ocean. Deep blues, shimmering greens, and touches of sunlight flow across their skin and hair. Then I added swirling wave-like tattoos that travel from one face to the other, connecting them in a single movement, as though the sea itself had left its mark on their love.

I imagined the waves imprinting their shapes on their skin, seaweed lending them its colours, and sunlight diving beneath the surface to find them.

You were the waves I found in the depth. You marked our skins, I made us sparkle. 💙

Material

Ocean Kiss is an original drawing made with Faber Castell Polychromos and Caran d’Ache Luminance color pencils, and pastel Posca pens for highlights on a Strathmore paper 118g/m2 (80lb).

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