Darci Lauren

Multi-disciplinary Visual Artist

I’m a UK-based multi-disciplinary artist exploring the interplay between realism and abstraction in my fine art, while my illustration focuses on character work and emotional storytelling. Informed by personal experiences, my work is driven by experimentation, whether through layering and tension in painting or expressive character design. Adaptable across media, styles, and subjects, I seek to push creative boundaries, using different approaches to explore emotions, memory, and the human experience in diverse ways.

Paintings

Illustration

Personal Illustrations

Clementine's Curse - Character Design Project (2025)

Life of Chubbs - An Inktober Project (2024)

Kinsanity - A Character Project (2023)

Blog

Keep up to date with Darci's artistic endeavours!

My Experience with TikTok (mini) Virality

Published 18/04/2025

On 29th March 2025, singer and rapper BBNO$ announced a cover art competition being held on TikTok for his single 'Meant To Be'. As a fan of his music and an artist, I knew what I had to do! However, the deadline was in exactly a weeks time and so I had to work FAST.I created an oil painting, approx. 30cm x 30cm, in 3 days. It depicts BBNO$ from the music video of the song 'Meant To Be', where he does an interpretive dance full of raw emotion. I translated it into a piece inspired by DaVinci's 'Vitruvian Man'. It was an interesting concept, as the original 'Vitruvian Man' represents the ideal/perfect man and yet the song is about heartbreak, loss, grief, regret and perhaps how he may have become a better man in the end.

I recorded the entire process of crafting this painting and my phone screamed at me because the storage was entirely full. But with so much content recorded, I managed to craft some lovely content for TikTok to launch my submission.Here is the link to the original TikTok video that became somewhat viral:
https://www.tiktok.com/@darcilaurenart/video/7489407322641485078

ABOVE: Final submission for the 'bbno$ cover art competition'

In the span of 3 days, I posted 3 videos to promote my artwork. It was important that I reached as big of an audience as possible as I relied on the TikTok algorithm, users tagging bbno$ and my appearance on the hashtag #bbnocoverart in order to simply be seen and considered by bbno$ himselfIn these 3 days, I received outstanding and overwhelming support. With a total of around 187k views and 42K likes, my artwork was seen by a large majority of the active fanbase interested in the competition. The video which recieved the most views (a whopping 145k) also had over 700 comments, most of which tagged bbno$ in the hopes he would see the artwork.I wish I had good news, but unfortunately, even 2 weeks after posting, my artwork was not seen by bbno$ himself and was therefore neither considered for the contest or for the following music video he made using fanart made for the contest.Upon reflection, while it is disappointing to feel like I was nowhere near close to winning, I am so proud of the community that rallied around me and my art. From this, I gained over 250 followers who liked my work so much they want to see more of it outside of the bbno$ fandom and that's incredibly heartwarming.So, although I didn't win the competition, I was given a taste of success in terms of being recognised as an artist. And its proven to me I can make art and people will love it... Never give up!

The Making of 'A Retreat To Youth'

Published 07/03/2025

Completed in early 2025, ‘A Retreat to Youth’ is the largest painting I have ever made, at 70cm x 100cm. As my undergraduate degree draws to its end, I’m crafting a body of work for my final exhibition, all of which embodies a topic deeply personal to me at this point in time: the liminal and transitional space between childhood and adulthood. And thus, ‘A Retreat to Youth’ is a self-portrait depicting me, cosy within some blankets, hiding away from adulthood with symbols of childhood icons surrounding me. About regression, clinging onto what childhood you have left and relishing in nostalgic iconography.This blog post is going to be a bit of a thorough analysis into the process of making this artwork, from the draft stage to its ultimate state.

The first stage for this piece was creating a draft. It was quite natural for me to start the painting first on a much smaller surface. I went in with no ideas, apart from knowing I had been inspired by artist Neal Tait and his use of layering to reveal and conceal. You may wonder why there was no sketching stage, and the answer is: I almost despise sketching. I can sketch for fun, but when working abstractly, planning a painting too much makes the abstraction feel forced and static. By working fluidly on a draft, there was little pressure to go wrong but still complete ability to explore the concept I had.

ABOVE: Draft of 'A Retreat to Youth', approx. 20cm in height.

For the final piece, as seen in the attached slideshow, the first stage involved drawing symbols of childhood nostalgia—specifically, Hello Kitty and Sylvanian Families. These motifs are a crucial element, as they subtly emerge through the final layers, introducing a playful undertone. I rendered these linework drawings onto a custom plywood panel using a Posca pen. Initially, the result was crisp and whimsical—but that needed to change.

Beginning an abstract painting can be daunting, as it demands bold, expressive decision-making. To break the initial hesitation, I applied black acrylic washes over the panel and its cutesy illustrations. This approach prevented the surface from feeling like a completely blank canvas, allowing me to dive into the painting process with greater confidence.The third stage is the most exciting – I call it ‘just messing stuff up’! This is where I get to play with shape, colour, and composition with bold choices. The draft was a useful guideline, yet I adjusted some colour choices for the final piece. I felt that the draft has a sickly green tone that perhaps conveyed a different idea altogether; It is imperative to be conscious of these choices and how they affect your overall message. In this messy stage, I spatter and mix and scrape. I am constantly aware of the symbolism in the background, and I have to resolve how much I want them to be concealed by the paint.When the abstraction is complete, I have to find some sort of harmony within the chaos. Using a combination of realism and abstraction helps guide the audiences’ eyes and helps them understand what the painting is truly about. As my artworks are often introspective or of personal memories, it is common for me to paint a self-portrait, and this was no different. I worked with water-mixable oil paints and made sure to use hints of the background colours within the skin tone, a playful mix of pinks and green actually make it feel much more like skin whilst also helping with immersion. I thinned the paints down when working on the blanket so that I could submerge the elements of realism and abstraction together. This is critical to ensuring there is visual harmony rather than a clash of stylisation.

I left the oil paints to dry for a week, and afterwards, I added the finishing touches. This stage was documented in a short video (available on my Instagram and YouTube). Finishing touches include adding pressed pastels to masked areas, as well as gestural mark-making with oil pastels. This is probably my favourite step, where it all comes together and feels like a piece that I am happy to put my name to. This stage is quite an expressive one, and it helps with the overall cohesion of elements.

ABOVE: Close up depicting the colour range in the face.

While I’m in love with draft and its dainty yet powerful presence on my studio desk, I am extremely proud of the full-scale painting and how impactful it will look in my final exhibition. Stay tuned to see how the degree show comes together in the coming months!

Interested In Buying my Work?

To enquire about original artwork, please email [email protected].

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Examples of Products