Dandelion | Process

Context

Dandelion began with the idea of making a piece about flowers. My first thought was a baroque bouquet. The title amused me, but the idea of flowers arranged with decorations felt uninteresting. I was making the piece for 1xharsh, who would add his texture glitch effect, so I could experiment with the form. A figure holding a giant flower felt more promising.

It was intended for The Cultivation on OpenSea. I wanted to leave room for 1xharsh’s contribution, without making him feel that his changes could only diminish the work. In the end, I decided to make a finished version of my own.

This is the process, from the first sketch to the finished piece.

DandelionMuhju · 2026Posed in 3D, then painted over10,629 × 14,173 px · JPEGUnminted

IA Giant Flower

I wanted a curve that felt heavy, perhaps with a figure carrying it. Then I imagined the flower caught by the wind, with the figure pulling it back like a sail. I made the curved pipe in Rhino and placed a figure beside it.

A line sketch on white of a long curved stem rising to a round flower head with hanging lines

A curved pipe selected in yellow on the grey grid in Rhino

IIThe Pull

Next I needed a pulling pose. I couldn’t find a suitable reference, so I worked out some of it myself. I reached this stage without saving once.

Two grey hands gripping a pole shown see-through in tan in a viewport close-up

A grey nude figure hauling a long curved pole, one leg bent against it and the other stretched out

I thought the pose worked well. The line of action showed how the forces passed into the ground, while retaining a slight imbalance and a sense of instability. I liked his expression too.

At that point, I still wasn’t sure why I was making the piece or what to call it.

IIIA Dandelion

I decided the flower should be a dandelion. I imagined the large seed head blowing away, with seeds in flight and leaves below. I wasn’t sure whether to include a yellow flower too. I had tried eating a dandelion as a child and remembered its extreme bitterness.

I hadn’t decided what the figure should be. A fairy felt too familiar. I considered a knight, an angel or a self-portrait.

IVHolding On

Chiampo taught me to place the two middle fingers slightly closer together. Then I raised the index finger. I thought I preferred it that way. It made the hand appear to exert more effort.

I thought the blockout was complete. I liked his feet and was reluctant to cover them with armour. I still hadn’t decided what the figure was or what he represented, or whether that needed to be settled.

A grey hand gripping the pole with the two middle fingers close together in a viewport close-up

A grey hand on the pole with the index finger raised higher in a viewport close-up

I liked the piece enough that I became reluctant to hand it over for the collaboration. I decided to finish my own version, then let 1xharsh make his. What I saw in it was holding on. I also thought it could work well as an edition.

VWind to the Right

Then I considered the background. I wanted the giant dandelion shown in full, with wind and particles flowing to the right. The figure’s neoclassical hair would stream in the same direction. I also considered leaving the background white.

I imagined something fantastical, magical and serene. A neoclassical scene with a green field, a light blue sky and seeds flying away. Perhaps a bucket and hammer lay nearby, suggesting that the man had been constructing the flower. Or he could be in a garden, with architecture around him. I wanted to keep the background restrained so it wouldn’t dominate. A painting I admired showed me that one figure could be enough, in whatever colours I chose.

The wind had to be clear, with everything pulled to the right. The thought was I can’t let go. That direction was crucial. I wrote a list:

Place the dandelion seeds as 3D models
Add dandelion leaves, also pulled by the wind
Make the pole green
Consider adding cloth flying in the wind
Edit the shadow
Remove the cloud beside the dandelion on the right and the dark clouds on the left
Add a hammer on the ground in the grass and a bucket of flower seeds
Show the seeds in the bucket about to fly out too

Perhaps the piece could belong to a collection of small stories or myths. I wrote an initial version of the gardener’s story. He wanted the dandelion to remain full, so he kept reattaching its seeds, unaware that they were meant to fly away. He clung to them until a gust of wind finally carried them off.

VIDay Two

By the second day, I felt the piece was coming together. The seeds, green stem, bucket and mallet were in place. I bent the grass to the right and removed the clouds I didn’t like. The wind was becoming clear.

A figure hauling a green stem beneath a violet sky and pink clouds, with a translucent sphere, seeds flying right, a white bucket and a white mallet in the grass

The scene with grass blowing to the right and the right-hand cloud and dark left clouds removed

I also considered what the gardener should wear. Neoclassical and mythological figures suggested nudity or loose drapery. Worker’s trousers would take him out of that world. A simple linen wrap could catch the wind alongside the seeds. I considered leaving him fully nude, exposed with only his tools and his obsession. I eventually chose the linen wrap.

The scene under a deep blue sky with the figure, bucket and mallet still white

A figure, green stem, sphere, seeds, bucket and mallet with shadows on a transparency checkerboard

A viewport close-up of the grey figure’s head and torso, looking up with mouth and hands open

A dandelion seed head replacing the sphere, seeds blowing right, with the figure, bucket and mallet still white

VIIBack Home

Back home, I continued painting. I gave the gardener colour, with his hair blowing to the right and a linen wrap at his waist. I coloured the bucket and mallet too.

The gardener holding the green stem, face, hair and chest painted in colour, with arms, hands and legs still white

The painted gardener in a linen wrap, hair blowing right, with a coloured wooden bucket and mallet beneath a deep blue sky

I was still unsure of the title, but I was sure of the story. The image measured 10,629 by 14,173 pixels, about 14K.

VIIIThe Last Fixes

It feels like a painting about trying to hold onto a wish while the world insists on letting it go.

My final list was short: fix the double cloud on the left and show the colouring process, using the bucket’s change from white to colour as an example.

The near-final piece with two small clouds side by side to the left of the large cloud

A crop of the finished sky with one small cloud beside the large cloud

IXDetails

The image measures 10,629 by 14,173 pixels. These closer views show the gardener, the seed head, the bucket and his feet.

The gardener’s head with hair blowing right, hands gripping the green stem and linen wrap at his waist

The dandelion seed head against blue sky and pink cloud with seeds flying to the right

A wooden bucket tipped in windblown grass, full of seeds, with one seed flying away

The gardener’s bare feet in windblown grass beside the base of the stem and a fallen mallet

XDandelion

Dandelion, the finished piece: a gardener in a linen wrap holding the bending stem of a giant dandelion against the wind, seeds flying right over a grass field beneath towering pink clouds

2026The story of the gardener

There was once a gardener who loved a dandelion.

Every morning he walked the field to inspect it, and every morning he found seeds missing, carried off by some careless breeze in the night. So he gathered them from the grass, from the dirt, from between the blades of wheat, and with his mallet he fixed them back into place, one by one, until the head was full again.

He did this for years. He believed a whole dandelion was a healthy dandelion. That nothing should leave. That perfection meant keeping every piece exactly where it was.

He never asked why the seeds had wings.

Then one evening the sky darkened in the west and a wind came across the plain, the kind that bends trees and flattens crops. He saw it coming. He dropped his mallet and wrapped himself around the stem with both hands, pressing his full weight against it, as if he could hold the world still.

But the wind came, and it let them all go.