Vanitas 35 (Cellini) finished

I finished Vanitas 35 subtitled "Cellini". This was an interesting technical challenge with so many different textures: translucent black blouse with frills, shiny metallic buttons, brocade bodice and the weathered concrete wall background. Initially I was thinking about mixed media drawing with watercolor splash, then I abandoned that idea. This piece does not need anything else.

Vanitas 35 (Cellini) WIP

A month I go I started working on this new Vanitas drawing tentatively called "Cellini" after the plaster cast head my model Laelia is holding made by Benvenuto Cellini. Today I pretty much finished the figure and I am ready to work on the background next. It's going to be another heavily rendered and highly textured background based on a photograph I took last year in Tokyo.

Reflection at the end of 2022

I made a little collage of drawings I did this year. These are the ones I exhibited (or am going to soon) in the shows. One thing I have noticed when I put all these pieces together is that my treatment of the background is getting more elaborate. They are not just a simple back drop providing some shade to the negative space but they become a secondary narrative element and interact with the main events in the foreground. This is more apparent in the larger pieces due to the simple fact that there is more room to play with in them.

I do like what I am seeing here. As I mentioned in my last blog post, I see some change happening in my drawings. And I feel this kind of background treatment works really well with this new direction. It adds a subtle but more complex narrative structure to the drawing.

Artistically 2022 was a satisfying year. I participated in many shows and my art was featured in a few publications large and small. I was finalists at 4 competitions. The sales of art are still slow. I hope that will improve next year.

Well, I just have to believe in what I am doing and keep going!

Now that "Summer" is over...

I finished this new drawing "Vanitas 34 (Summer)" a couple of weeks ago. I really didn't realize how fast I was able to finish this one until I checked the dates of my Instagram posts showing some WIP shots. It did not take a whole month for me to finish it. So I figured it was roughly 100 hours or maybe even a little less. Of course the fact that I was on my sabbatical greatly helped me work faster on this drawing in a more focused manner.

Now that I was able to spend a little time to think about this piece, I can say a couple of things that are happening in my art at this moment. I feel my art is taking a slightly new direction. All the elements that were staples in my Vanitas series are still there but there is something else that's new. In the previous Vanitas pieces, my main concern was to portray the physical and emotional states of female subjects by showing both their vulnerability and strength, but more emphasis on the former. With this new drawing "Summer", the emphasis has shifted more to the latter. It probably has something to do with the fact that my model was not in the nude, but also the background with its dynamic summer clouds in the sky added a sense of power to my subject. I can also say her pose of standing against a chaos in the background and the overall triangular composition did something to the piece and amplified its strength. And one other thing that was no less significant. My model being an African American was also an important factor that played out in a positive way in the current cultural climate. All those things were not what I had fully anticipated when I started working on this piece. I was made aware of them by a few people who saw this piece and responded to the sense of empowerment in it. Come to think of it, it was kind of happening already back in Vanitas 30 with my model Megan standing strong in the nude and showing her skull and the bee tattoo down her arm, but the sense of strength was not fully realized until I worked with Amber for this drawing "Summer". I do not make any art that has an intended political message simply because that is not what I am interested in. However, what I discovered in this particular piece was an interesting eye-opening experience for me.

"Summer" WIP update (12-07-2022)

The sky and the clouds in the back ground are finished. I just need to draw trees at the bottom. Then this piece will be done. So far so good.