#44 – In the Morning Amazing (Circa Survive)
When I started this daily drawing challenge, one of my biggest goals was to refine my style. There’s something about working within limitations that forces creativity in a way that endless options never could. For this piece—based on In the Morning Amazing from Circa Survive’s On Letting Go—I set a few constraints to guide my process:
A simple six-color palette (plus black and white)
Retro Supply brushes and textures to give it a tactile, slightly aged feel
Minimal but intentional detail, keeping it bold and graphic
Finding Style Through Restriction
I’ve found that working with a strict color palette pushes me to be more thoughtful about contrast and composition. On Letting Go has this distinct visual mood—dreamlike but not overly complicated—so keeping the colors simple helped reinforce that. Too many colors, and the image starts to lose that focused energy.
Retro Supply’s brushes and textures have been a staple for me lately. They add a layer of depth and imperfection that digital work sometimes lacks. For this piece, I used a mix of grainy textures and halftone shading to give it a slightly worn look—almost like an old screen-printed tour poster. It felt like a good fit for this album’s era.
Breaking Down the Concept
The imagery in In the Morning Amazing feels like a blend of surrealism and nostalgia, so I leaned into that when designing this piece.
The figure is half-human, half-machine, reflecting the lyric “You are in my dreams, half human, half machine.”
A vintage radio sits in their lap, tying into “I cannot sleep without the radio on.”
Their eye reflects winter and spring, referencing “Looking right through the lens, from winter brings the spring again.”
It’s a pretty literal interpretation, but I wanted to capture that hazy, drifting feeling the song gives off. The mechanical elements mixed with organic ones feel like they mirror the album’s themes—transformation, connection, and maybe a little bit of isolation.
Pushing Forward
This challenge has been a reminder that sometimes, less is more. The more I narrow down my tools, the more I feel like I’m actually developing a recognizable style. Every day, I’m refining how I approach color, texture, and composition, and that’s been the most rewarding part of all of this.
Would love to hear your thoughts—what do you think about working with limitations in art? Does it help or hinder your creativity?
You can see more of my work on Instagram (@drawn_to_noise)