Painting Vessel Marie Token
There’s something about Vessel—something hard to describe but impossible to ignore. The voice, the presence, the mystery—it all kind of slips under your skin in the best way.
This piece started as a feeling more than an idea. I didn’t want to just paint a likeness—I wanted to capture the atmosphere, the contrast, the emotional weight that Sleep Token carries in every song. It’s less a portrait and more a response to the sound and the silence between them.
I was scrolling TikTok and one day came across a cosplayer account (@_Takeabite_) that was cosplaying Vessel, and a shimmer of motivational creative chaos washed over me. I liked the photos, followed them, and messaged this creator asking for permission to paint one of the photos they had posted. Thankfully, they said yes, and I got to painting immediately. This painting lined up with the release of “Emergence” when I started painting, and I was near halfway when “Caramel” was released, and I think the process of my painting followed how these songs made me (and many others) feel.
I don’t normally focus on details like I did in this painting, and I truly think it had everything to do with the release of “Caramel”. A song so bold, a feeling of ache and loss in a time of growth, while being embellished in a musical masterpiece that almost feels uplifting, and how the acceptance of love doesn’t always end in closure. The vocal delivery that Vessel expresses feels like a deep confession. One that feels almost unthinkable in front of an audience, but not because of one big moment, but because it gently picks at all of the little ones.
And let’s not forget II and their crucial part in the emotional architecture of the song. The yelling isn’t angry — it’s desperate. Like the calm couldn’t hold any longer, and the only thing left was a raw, unfiltered release. A small moment where sadness turns into something vulnerable.
It’s one of those songs that doesn’t hit all at once—it seeps in
“Caramel” is heartbreak and disappointment put into a musical form, but painting this piece wasn’t heavy for me — it was energizing. I wasn’t anywhere near the same headspace as Vessel or II when I created this, but I felt what they were expressing, and I found myself feeling renewed. So, no, I wasn’t crying while I painted this. I was thriving in an act of honoring a feeling that I did not create but still moved through me. Creating this piece wasn’t about processing pain, it was about channeling the emotion of the song into something meaningful and visual. I can feel the intensity without being consumed by it.