Vanitas 10 update (01-02-2017)

The rendering of the model's body is pretty much finished. I am working on the hair. I added an extra inch to the top and elongated the piece vertically. Now I have a pretty good idea about the design of the piece and feel good about it. I gave up the idea of mixed media. I am going to finish this piece entirely in graphite.

Vanitas 10 update (12-27-2016)

I have worked my way with the graphite pencil up to B3 at this point gradually building up the skin tones. I am not sure if I should go any darker than this. I will decide on that much later after seeing the overall balance of values. I am also having a second thought about the use of watercolor now. This is Bristol board. It is thick but there still might be inevitable warping if it was wet and dried. So I might try using charcoal for the background with extra texture added by acetone. This composition with the figure at the bottom is the right orientation of this piece and the final piece will be almost square like this image below.

Vanitas 10 started (12-23-2016)

Just started working on a new piece for Vanitas series. I am thinking about trying a mixed media approach with this one, possibly graphite, watercolor and other mediums. Will see how it goes. So far I only worked on this with a H pencil. I am going to gradually build up the tones. I am envisioning this to be really dark and almost have a "mezzotint" look. I hope it works.

Vanitas 9 done! (10-30-2016)

I finally finished Vanitas 9 after a month of trying to figure out how to render the texure of black velvet. I decided to work on just the top of the fabric the strongest light was hitting. Less is more.

Vanitas 9 update (09-26-2016)

The orchid is nearly finished. Next I am going to work on the fabric covering the lower half of this composition.