Sunday, August 19, 2018 at 04:45AM I have been working on a new graphite drawing "Vanitas 16". I am trying to finish this before the end of August. This one has a triangular composition. My model Julie is lying at the top of the picture stretching across the picture plane horizontally, and I am going to place a cracked raw egg at the bottom center. I am not quite sure how an egg might be rendered with monochromatic pencils, but will see...
Wednesday, July 18, 2018 at 08:23PM "Vanitas 15" is very close to the finished stage. I just need to fine tune a few things here and there. I decided to drastically darken the background by rubbing graphite powder all over it in order to heighten the contrast. I was not 100% sure about it, but I feel it was a right decision after all. It took me a while to find a right object to go with this drawing. The idea of using a feather came to me a few days ago and it just felt right, so I went with it.
Thursday, July 12, 2018 at 01:26PM Last week I started a new Vanitas drawing. This is #15. All in graphite. I have not completely figured out all the visual elements yet and am still looking for a right object to place in this image.
Sunday, January 21, 2018 at 04:28PM I am taking a little break from Vanitas 12 I started last year. Instead, I have been working on a small drawing: Vanitas 13. Today I finalized my composition. I am going to add a cherry underneath this drawing. The final dimension of this piece is going to be 10" x 9".
Saturday, October 14, 2017 at 12:31AM I started a new piece: Vanitas 12 a few days ago. This is going to be another graphite drawing on Bristol board. The subject is my model McLane and an empty shell of cicada. I collected a dozen cicada shells back in Japan this summer. They were generally larger than their American counterparts and their color is darker and really shiny. Very beautiful, so I decided to use them for my art work. I collaged 3 different images together in Photoshop to create this composition. So far I've finished general shading with H pencils and am ready to move on to darker leads.
