Cultivating the Bloodline
- Preston Cram
- Jan 7
- 3 min read
Cultivating the Bloodline is an exploration of lineage. It comes from a restlessness with unexamined continuity – of life carried forward without deeper meaning.
It's blood without warmth.
Touch without connection.
As is often the case, I didn't fully understand the meaning of this piece when I began. I simply had a feeling, and I allowed it to express itself on the page.
In this post, I'll talk through the inspiration for the art and some of the specific symbolism, then share details about the tools and process used to create it.
The Inspiration for Cultivating the Bloodline
This image grew out of a personal tension around the idea of reproduction. That discomfort exists on two layers – a physical layer involving the fragility of human bodies, and a deeper layer rooted in behavioral patterns.
The many tubes and wires here function on both levels. On the surface, they merge flesh and machine – not unlike medical devices. But they also quietly constrain movement and growth.
The mother holds her child closely, but without affection. This is not closeness born of presence or choice – it's the continuation of an ancient system, a ritual extended from one generation to the next.
This art doesn't seek to conclude, only to explore: what is the cost of the ceremonies we honor without questioning?
The Process for Cultivating the Bloodline
The original pencil and ink work was done on a piece of 11" x 14" Bristol paper. I wrote about those processes in a previous post, but I'll share images of those stages again here for reference, then get into detail about the color work.
All the color work was done in Photoshop, and the color palette came together quickly.
I knew I wanted a sense of fleshiness with a subtle sickness lurking behind it. With that in mind, I opted for greenish-yellows for the skin tones and accented them with pink and crimson for the tubes and cloth. Meanwhile, the vivid, almost-neon colors of the smoke and planets reinforce the ritualistic, otherworldly quality of the image.
Here's what the art looks like with the complete color separations and color palette, before I'd done any rendering:
From that point, I began adding subtle gradients to each form to indicate light and dark areas, then added texture with the dodge and burn tools set to a rough texture brush.
For the shadows, I outlined each area using the lasso tool. Then, with the hue/saturation sliders, I dropped the lightness and tweaked the hue and saturation of those areas.
I created the edge highlights in a similar fashion, but instead of relying on the hue/saturation sliders, I used a combination of the bucket and brush tools to fill the selection with a bright, warm yellow color.
Lastly, I added a few subtle touches to complete the image:
Created glows around light sources with a soft airbrush and the circular gradient tool.
Highlighted and changed the color of the actual line art to be warm and responsive to the primary light source of the planets.
Added texture to the background.
Here's another look at the final color art along with a few detail images.
Cultivating the Bloodline provided an opportunity for me to explore personal feelings through a direct, immediate composition, and it was a useful change of pace between two particularly dense images. (Tension and Reverie and Moments After the End.)
I enjoyed the chance to return to a crosshatch-heavy style using pen and ink on paper, and the color process gave me room to explore bold colors in an explicitly surreal environment.
With a bit of hindsight, it's clear this is part of a longer conversation I’m still having – with the art, and with myself.
Thanks for being here – I'll share more as the work continues.
I post process videos, sketches, and behind-the-scenes work as new pieces take shape. If you'd like to see the next stages of this world as it's built, you can find me here:
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