“Silencio” by Mia Makila, 2015 [digital] – click image to enlarge!
“Silencio”
Tag: digital art
Lilith
“Lilith” by Mia Makila, 2015 (digital) – click to enlarge!
I created this portrait of my little niece Lilith who had her first birthday this week.
I based my work on these two photographs of her.
“The Glitch”
“THE GLITCH” BY MIA MAKILA, 2015 [digital]
Details of “Enlightened”
Here are some detail studies of my latest digital artwork “Enlightened” and some original images that I used as foundation to build the artwork, layer by layer.
An antique Asian wooden mask served as the original image for the face, and then I changed the shape of it, texture, color scheme and added my own details and features.
I used the legs of this original image that I found on deviantart stock resources.
“Enlightened” – new digital artwork by Mia Makila
“Enlightened” by Mia Makila, 2015, digital – click to enlarge
Abandoned digital projects
Here are some digital projects that I never finished…(works from 2008-2014)
Ok so this also happened today.. first draft…
The stories behind my art: “Dreamgirl”
“Dreamgirl” by Mia Makila, 2012 (digital mixed media)
I created the digital piece “Dreamgirl” in 2012, 3 years after I took the photograph of my muse Domenique that I used as a base for the digital artwork.
The photo session with Domenique was inspired by “The Last Sitting” – by Bert Stern where he snapped the last pictures of Marilyn Monroe before they were featured in Vogue the same year she died.
From “The Last Sitting” photo session by Bert Stern (1962) where Marilyn Monroe where posing officially for the last time in her life.
My original photograph of Domenique that I used for “Dreamgirl”:
My original photo of my muse Domenique, posing as Marilyn, inspired by Stern’s pictures.
I also made two other versions of “Dreamgirl” by painting and adding new details and textures to the original fine art print:
Outtakes from my Marilyn photo session with Domenique: 
The stories behind my art: “Out of the Nothing Box”
From my diary:
“January 13, 2015
I keep forgetting that since I’m so attracted to darkness, it will always catch up with me at some point. I really have to unsubscribe to darkness from now on, it just makes me ill. Nothing good can exist inside the dark, there’s no attractive core, no beauty within the beast, no forgotten heart at the bottom of the pain. The darkness is just a void – absence of everything that feels good. I am no sun after all, I don’t have the strength to warm the cold darkness until it begins to grow life somewhere. I have been too arrogant as I imagined I could ever create life in a place that’s been cold, dark and dead for such a long time,
We had another painful fight and he just disappeared again. I can’t do this pain game anymore. I’m so stupid, once again I thought it would be different. All that is left is his coldness and my pain. Nothing else. Absolutely nothing else.
I have created two new digital works. It’s been a while since I have been creative at all. I read somewhere that an artist who’s not making art is committing an ’emotional suicide’ – is that what I’ve been doing?
It makes sense but it hurts – for it didn’t have to be this hard, it didn’t have to be this painful. And I can apply that to everything in my life. I have to start making it easier for myself. Everything.
This black fire has gone out. No more games. You can’t play with pain anyway. Today I’m resigning as a masochist.”
“Blackbird” – new digital work for sale!
When I posted my unfinished digital piece “Blackbird” on Facebook yesterday, I had no idea that it would become so popular. People have asked me if it’s for sale, and it was not at first, in fact – I was close to deleting it from my computer. But since people seem to enjoy it, I’ve decided to make it available for people to buy. It’s a digital piece, printed on Hahnemühle archival paper, 21 x 29,7 cm [including a little white space around the image as you can see in this image] edition of 10 original prints, all signed and numbered by me. Price: 2700 SEK [shipping fee included in the price]. e-mail me if you want to order a print: miamakila@gmail.com
The stories behind my art: “Screamer”
I made “Screamer” in 2013,. It’s a digital artwork made in PhotoShop and it’s an assemblage of collected and scanned images, put together in hundreds of layers – just like the traditional techniques for oil paint, but with thin layers of images instead of paint.
I began with a simple composition, I used a texture scan as foundation for my composition, I thought it looked like a landscape and had movement and drama.
I used the surreal baby head in the wagon from an older work – “Witness” [2007], that I never really liked, so I gave it new life with the “Screamer” piece.
“Screamer” is about existential anxiety, loneliness, vulnerability and fear. I made it during a time in my life where I felt very lost and alone, scared of not knowing where I was going. I felt helpless and like I was just drifting in a dark forest, without any real destination.
It is also based on one of my earliest childhood memories. I wasn’t older than 3 when my mom took me to the woods. She found some lily of the valleys and wanted to make a bouquet, and for a short moment she wasn’t watching me, and I stepped right into anthill – and screamed as loud as I could to get my mom’s attention. I felt scared and panicked and from that day forward I’ve been dealing with a very difficult Entomophobia [insect phobia].
The printing process, “Screamer” is born. It is printed in an edition of 5 original prints – only 3 is still available.
A child’s version of “Screamer”, it’s so cute!
MIA MAKILA 