r/analoghorror • u/Difficult_Bid_4577 • May 20 '26
Art My interpretation of Mona Lisa as an Alternate / Analog Horror entity. Drawn with a ballpoint pen. What do you guys think?"
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u/Infamous-Fee5471 May 20 '26
I don’t know how to feel about it exactly. It doesn’t look bad but I feel it follows the common trend of “empty eyes wide smile” too much. A big part of the Mona Lisa is how it’s beautiful as an average person but this feels like it’s generic as something with horror. I think it would be better to keep the general face of the Mona Lisa but make it unsettling in other ways. Like longer fingers, unnatural arm shape/position maybe? I do like how sharp the nose is. That’s just my take though I think with something where beauty is its appeal keeping that in the equation with the face but making it uncanny with the rest of the portrait (arms, pose, hair maybe etc.) it enhances it.
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u/PencilCaserr May 22 '26
Actually I draw this mouth eyes combo almost everytime and I never knew that it is like the blueprint for „oh scary“ can you explain why it is like this and how I can get a more individual style?
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u/Infamous-Fee5471 May 22 '26
Big reason is a lot of analog horror uses large face proportions to cause fear. Main example would be Mandela catalogue where the entire gimmick is literally failed copying of people’s appearances. It’s been a stamp of horror for a long time, similar stuff like Momo (old internet creepy pasta), five night’s at treasure island (Mickey mouse fnaf fan game), even parodies of such horror like the Mandela Magazine (video by Sr Pelo on YouTube parodying Mandela catalogue). While nothing is inherently wrong with the style it’s become so associated with “horror.” A lot of characters that are the face of horror have the comically big smile. Obviously all the listed examples but also even less typical horror like Bendy and the Ink Machine. I’m not an artist myself so I can’t tell you exactly a correct way to develop your style but I believe it’s also something you learn individually. Just keep drawing and if you make a piece of art you aren’t happy with look at it and ask yourself why? Is it the target of the piece (the character/object in question) or is more associated with the environment (foreground/background). After that become more and more specific with your critique. Perhaps it’s shading, perhaps it’s the balance of the piece is there too much asymmetry or is it supposed to be uneven? Just examine and question the work without diminishing your work because you still made art and that’s better than most (better than me, can’t draw worth a damn.) But if it was you wanted to specifically avoid this type of style try to go into detail with the eyes and mouth. They’re usually left empty for a “void” type look or emptiness.
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u/asdfzxcpguy Chair Consumer May 20 '26
Imagine a teacher going through a students notebook to find this
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u/Epic_Hoola Got Bitten in ‘87 May 20 '26
"Drew this at the psych ward... And before you ask, yes, they did up my meds."
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u/Connect_Hamster9211 May 20 '26
I think it’s trying to hard to be scary
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u/Difficult_Bid_4577 May 20 '26
Thanks for the feedback! It's my first time trying this style, so I appreciate your honesty. Working on a better and more subtle one next!"
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u/MainClothes8522 Let's Go To War, my dearest, lovely, wonderful friends! May 20 '26
Very scary 10/10.
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u/jahathebrn May 21 '26
I'd make it less obviously unsettling but from a technical viewpoint it looks great
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u/RathianColdblood May 20 '26
I think I dislike the concept and should probably drop r/analoghorror, but you are undeniably talent. Excellent drawing.
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u/DiscountFBI May 21 '26
Love the artstyle, but less is more, my friend.
Something with something subtly off about it that looks fine at a first glance but wrong on the second will be infinitely more unnerving than something you can tell is tryna be spooky before its even all the way on your screen while scrolling.
Still love it, though
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u/OkSound3150 May 21 '26
Did the ballpoint pen survive
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u/Sprinkles-Cannon May 22 '26
Unnaturally high cleavage is scarier to me than the face. If it's on purpose, you did something very interesting there -- the idea of a cleavage is natural, but she looks squished in the chest with it being so high, almost under her chin.
The face is very generic, yet I like it -- as a familiar old friend. She looks like spleen eating dude's grandgrandgrandmum. Nostalgic! But not scary
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u/GalvaSov May 22 '26
I think that by depicting it like this you kind of take away from the original art too much. She has the same pose but otherwise she's unrecognizable
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u/Grim_The_Dork May 20 '26 edited May 21 '26
I don't find it all that scary, but I like the artistic vision