Nocturnal

Nocturnal

Original mixed-media artwork on board. Hand-drawn portrait in charcoal and ink, layered with washes of turquoise, vintage rose, and deep black. 54 × 54 cm. Framed and ready to hang.

Nocturnal captures a moment suspended between earth and sky. Seen from below, a Black woman gazes downward with a quiet, almost otherworldly intensity—her posture regal, her expression unreadable. The moon hangs low behind her, casting a cool, diffused light that sharpens the contours of her silhouette.

The color palette weaves together the deep stillness of black, soft vintage rose, and a dreamlike turquoise. These hues bleed into one another across the surface, creating a layered atmosphere that feels both intimate and untouchable.

Tree branches stretch behind her like veins of shadow, while birds drift through the dusk in scattered formation—silent, symbolic, fleeting. Everything in the composition leans toward suggestion rather than certainty.

Charcoal lines define her features with restraint, as if she is slowly emerging from the dusk itself. There’s a sense of distance in her downward gaze—not detachment, but a kind of sacred remove.

Part of my Unspoken collection, Nocturnal explores the quiet gravity of presence. I wanted to express that hush and melancholy that comes at dusk when people around you turn into mysterious silhouettes in the fading light that wraps around them.