Geisha

My latest digital painting was based off the book Memoirs of a Geisha. The setting takes place inside of a tea house. I still have a couple of things I want to do to finish it but it is almost there. 

Spring Break

FROSHO:

Over the last few weeks I have been having a lot of fun sketching on post it notes. It is a really nice size to just make lines and small images. The post it notes inspired me to create a small series of paintings entitled "frosho". 

The paintings are based of types of people who would haveAfros. I thought about using icon people such as Richard Simmons but it just seemed to corny. The painting of the boy with the lady bug is based off of my dad. During break I found a picture of my dad from the 70s. He was a proud white man with an Afro with bell bottoms and aVolkswagen beetle covered in ladybugs. 

Anger

I did this painting a couple of weeks ago. I painted out of frustration because I am getting a little stressed out with the way my work has been evolving. I am trying to do work with a more limited and less saturated color pallet. 

Choi Painting Class

PHOTOSHOP:

Photoshop is such a great tool to edit your work, so use it to your advantage. I learned a lot in this painting. Even though I was using the original photo and my sketch to outline the piece, doing the forgery was pretty difficult. I mostly experiemented with contrast, curves, levels, color balance, masks and textures.

MIDDLE OF COMPLETION:

In the fourth step my I had to change the nose because I describing the nose as having a flat plane. So I fixed it in the fifth step making it appear more rounded out. I had to also fix the eyes because I made the right eye appear more round than it was so I elongated the lid. The left eye was to low so I raised its placement.

STOCK PHOTOGRAPHY:

We also discussed the importance of having a collection of stock textures to add to your paintings. Photoshop is such a great tool to edit your work, so use it to your advantage. I learned a lot in this painting. Even though I was using the original photo and my sketch to outline the piece, doing the forgery was pretty difficult. Since this study was a paint by numbers painting it gave me room to experiment with contrast, curves, levels, color balance, masks and textures.

Dialogue Painting

DIALOGUE:

In this painting I had to find a letter and illustrate it. I found this priceless letter my brother wrote my dad when he was about 7 years old. He's begging my dad to adopt another baby from Korea. In the initial sketch I literally had a baby sitting on the ice cream. That was such a problem because it implied cannibalism ha.ha.ha. Anyhow, I thought if I change the baby to a sketch then I could create a scene with crayons and maybe imply school. Yeah I was on to something. I am going to fix this painting too. I'm excited to see what my brother has to say when he see the painting.















This was one of the most challenging paintings I have ever completed. There is no black boarder around the original painting. I think this painting took such a long time for a couple of reasons. Conceptualizing took forever. I had eight pages of thumbnails front to back alone. All of the thumbnails made it hard to commit to an idea. Every time I start a painting it is such a scary feeling because I am reteaching myself how to paint. I get really nervous because I don't want to ruin my painting. Eventually I have to get it done. The skin was giving me so much trouble. I still need to brighten it up a bit but I have a better understanding of what colors (especially yellow/color of light) that brighten the painting without making the skin look chalky or neon. My goal over break is to do a small skin study in acrylic every day. I am going to try to incorporate more graphics in my painting. I really like the look of combining rendered areas with simplified graphics.

Heaven and Hell

H,E DOUBLE HOCKEY STICK:

Our teachers for this project divided the class into two groups. One group would be illustrating their idea of hell and the other would illustrate their idea of heaven. I was given hell. I wanted to depict my idea of HELL which is to loose one's memory as hell.











This is my process that I usually go through when I create a painting. There is a week of thumb nailing and brainstorming. Then once I pick the idea a bunch of comps are done to pick which composition works the best, then the final idea with placement, final drawing (rendered) and then painting process. I was told at my last review I should experiment with a different color palette and increase my contrast in values. I will be fixing this painting over break.

Limmerick Painting

LIMMERICK:

The bottle of perfume that Willie sent
Was highly displeasing to Millicent;
Her thanks were so cold
They quarreled, I'm told,
Through that silly scent Willie sent Millicent










IMAGE:
I wanted to create a piece that looked the same from upside down to right side up. I think it works but more as if the viewer were looking down at the painting. The fins on the painting from the smoke are a bit uncomfortable because I did not emphasize it enough. So I fixed it Photo shop.