Maria Raducanu

Flowers for you!

This is beautiful and healing. Thank you so much for creating such phenomenal work and sharing it. It made my day better! I love the feeling of motion in the waves and the sheer destructive power, yet so natural and peaceful at the same time.

I incredibly love this, stunning work!!!

This is so cool! Very inspiring for environment art work...

We already have 1000+ reasons to hate """artist""" James C Mulligan (see below), but it was extra enraging to see him stealing and taking credit for the work of actual Bambi artist and all-around Disney legend Tyrus Wong, so here's a mini Ted Talk 🧵

What a phenomenal dragon! Stunning art! I should go read that series...

Portrait of Spyro the Dragon executed in 3D. Spyro is on a cloudy green-yellow background. He has a mischievous expression, looking at something above him with a sparkle in his eyes. He is turned 3/4 towards the camera, facing more towards screen right. He is illuminated with a soft light, showcasing his cartoony features, purple scales, yellow horns, plates, and crest, and a stronger rim light highlights his silhouette on screen left.

Posting old art - today's entry is inspired by #SpyroCommunityDay!

ZBrush, 2018. Textured in Substance Painter.
#maria_raducanu_art

Completely harmless unless you're a little bug! Or if you're a human who loves jumping spiders so much, you could die for them.

Photograph of flowers in the garden. In the foreground, bronze colored chrisanthemums opening up - four semi open blooms are visible. In the midground, a mix of dahlias in vivid pink, sunset yellow-red gradients, and peach, amongst green foliage - 6-7 blooms. There's some burgundy and variegated green foliage peeking through as well. In the background, yellowish wooden fence.

Close up photo of several bronze colored chrysanthemum blooms in the process of opening up, with variegated and multicolored foliage in the background.

I spent half the day working in the yard - updating flower beds, planting new things, cutting back encroaching grass and clover. Everything is a big mess, but I got to snap these blooms at sunset.

Illustration of a silver-brown boa constrictor in a Monster Hunter glyph style.

Illustration of a brown and yellow ball python with Spider morph stripes in a Monster Hunter glyph style. This python is a rescue!

Illustration of a vibrant red-orange bearded dragon in a Monster Hunter glyph style.

Illustration of a pale yellow with yellow patterns albino ball python in a Monster Hunter glyph style.

Older art - my coworker Petra's pets stylized as Monster Hunter glyphs.

Boa constrictor Chrome, ball python Gambit, bearded dragon Aloy, ball python Belle.

Procreate + Photoshop, 2023.

#maria_raducanu_art

Does this count?? Little Strahd on my Ravenloft castle painting... He's hiding in the corner.
#maria_raducanu_art

Photograph of moss under a maple tree in a variety of shapes and shades of green and brown among other foliage like ferns.

Close up of freshly planted fern moss on the dark, moist ground surrounded by other foliage like sweet woodruff.

Photograph of a freshly planted patch of different mossed by a garden border made of a treated wood plank. It's various shades of green and brown. In the foreground you can see some ferns, variegated pachysandra, aeaf of voodoo lily and some other leaves.

Photo of a variety of moss clumps scattered on grey concrete. The moss is various shades of green and brown, and there's at least four types - sheet moss, fern moss, mood moss, and star moss arranged like a random mosaic.

I planted moss in my garden.

A slightly stylized digital painting with faint lineart, painted with bright colors. It represents a mischievous grey kitten sitting on the windowsill, sideways to the camera. His face is turned towards the camera, and his sly yellow eyes are following a terracotta planter with a green succulent falling off the windowsill, because he just kicked it off. We can tell by his lifted front paw, he was caught in the act. There are hanging leaves from other plants visible in the frame, and blurry trees and blue sky in the window. His tail is rounded in a big curl, his whiskers and ears are pointed, indicating alertness.

I'll start posting older art here, since I removed most of it elsewhere.

Kicking it off with Shinji knocking a plant off the windowsill. This was part of a collaboration for stamp washi tape, cats doing mischievous things - each stamp by different artists.

Photoshop, 2023
#maria_raducanu_art

The wildly interesting texture of oyster shells is so underrated! I love the way you illustrated it, the shapes you chose to exaggerate or meld together. It's so visually satisfying! Marvelous work!

Absolutely stunning, it takes my breath away!!

Thank you for posting! I want to be better at ALT text and other aspects of accessibility. Do you have any recommendations on how to write better ALT text? I try to make it descriptive, and not too long, but I'm still not sure how to improve. (I thought I'd ask before searching, just in case!)

Did someone say, DRAGONS? 🐉
How do I only pick 4? Here's just from games:
Onyxia, World of Warcraft
Tiamat, Dungeons and Dragons
Any dragon from Heroes of Might and Magic 2-4
Alduin from Skyrim

A photo of Maria standing next to a 8 ft green plastic dragon decoration at the Halloween section of Home Depot.

Large green plastic wyvern Halloween decoration at Home Depot.

Close up on the detailed, scaly face of a large green plastic wyvern Halloween decoration at Home Depot.

I went to Home Depot... And I was absolutely blown away. HOLY SHIT

One of my favorite quotes, from Sarah Hepola: "Change is not a bolt of lightning that arrives with a zap. It is a bridge built brick by brick, every day, with sweat and humility and slips. It is hard work, and slow work, but it can be thrilling to watch it take shape."

I noticed in the other replies you mentioned mindfulness, and I wholeheartedly agree and support you!! I'd love to talk about resources and practices that have helped me with mindfulness, if you'd be interested in that. Journaling, thought exercise, a support group, a lot of small, repeated efforts.

I did a lot of work in therapy for this. The main focus was self compassion, first observing the negative self talk with an open mind and non judgementally, noticing you are just having a thought. That doesn't mean the thought is true. Then sometimes reframing the thought in a kind way.

A pencil sketch of Hornet from the game Silksong, hunched over in exhaustion, facing right, holding her needle low to the rocky ground.

Hornet is tired. I understand, I'm tired too.
Little fan art for Silksong since I started playing the game.

A buckler, a cross, a tower shield, and a fir tree walk into a bar...

Large pink dahlia flower blooms, layered like a firework of sunset colors. There's four of them on the photo, surrounded by green leaves of dahlia and other plants, and smaller orange daisy-loke flowers of the calendula.

A photo of a garden bed showing some brown mulch at the bottom. There is a lot of foliage growing out - first you see colchicum, or autumn crocus, just purple cups sticking right out of the ground on a 4-5 inch yellowish sturdy stem with no leaves. Behind it a blue-green leaved, mintlike monarda with a similar purple hue of flowers, with the about five mature inflorescences. A lot of bright green calendula leaves are visible nearby, and a more fuchsia monarda is partially in the shot. There's a strawberry leaf in the middle as well.

A close up photo of a bronze colored chrisanthemum bloom surrounded by its green foliage. The many many petals are tightly clustered and a little curled, hiding the center.

A photo from the garden with multiple different blooms. In the foreground, a white gladiolus abyssinicus with a purple throat barely visible, gently nodding. Right behind it, several echinaceas "green twister" reaching maturity, with their deep orange cones on full display and pink-green petals slowly withering. In the far background, more blurry foliage, including a multitude of blue-purple, daisy-like asters all clustered on the same plant.

Looking at my flower garden... Why have I never considered to specialize in foliage a little more? I love flowers and I care for them meticulously. This learning would transfer well into a personal project.

I don't know if one piece would be enough though, it could feel like an afterthought. A pivot or a series might be needed if you would like to strongly embrace realism and convince hiring managers! It could be a fun challenge and a test if you do enjoy it consistently. All is up to you!

If you think you'd enjoy it, yes!

If the idea of working exclusively on realistic environments when you get hired feels stifling, I think it's ok to lean into what you thrive with.

Pencil sketch with light shading of Kirby with a determined expression, dressed as a wizard, floating in midair. Kirby wears a tall, star tipped floppy hat and a fluttering cape decorated with star patterns, holding a star magic wand that emits swirling lines of energy and sparkles.

Wizard Kirby.
Wirby

I took a nice, long break from all social media. I think I'm ready to be back to a select few, like Bluesky and Tumblr.

I'm so, so very sorry. Sending you my support in this heartbreaking situation. I just checked open positions posted internally and publicly, and unfortunately I couldn't find anything helpful yet, but I'll keep trying.

No Kings Day was one of the largest days of protest in US history. From deep red small towns to our largest cities, millions of people turned out to make it clear that the American people will not bow to fascism. #NoKings