Sunday, November 8, 2020 at 01:09PM I received early copies of Drawing Magazine Strokes of Genius edition in the mail. I am honored to be included in this publication 2 years in a row, It really validates my effort of trying to accomplish something in this field of artistic expression.
Monday, October 12, 2020 at 08:52PM I started this new drawing yesterday. The original photo reference was a B/W image on a medium format film I took over a decade ago. I intended to use this image for printing on sheet metal using liquid photo emulsion back then, but I never did. With that process in mind, I intentionally over-exposed and over-developed this negative 2 ~ 3 stops in order to increase the image contrast. When I test printed this image, the highlight (her face) was unfortunately way too dense and I could not see any textures in there at all. I thought about using this image as a reference for a drawing a couple years ago, and I tried my best to bring back highlight textures in Photoshop with not much success. So I almost gave up on using this image. I reshot its new versions with different models a couple of times and tried to recreate the shot but I could not get the new images close enough to this original which was truer to my vision. So I finally decided to use this old original image as a reference with its warts and all. I am thinking about not drawing her eye at all, and am hoping, by doing so, I might be able to make her face look luminous. Will see...
Tuesday, August 18, 2020 at 09:09PM Someone asked me about the design of my latest drawing Vanitas 23. So I worked on this analysis to explain how I designed this piece. My idea was to explore circular pattern repetition and 2:3 ratio sub-divisions a la Alphonse Mucha. This type of design sometimes comes as a combination of a happy accident and more intentional adjustment/manipulation. The model's pose was pretty much how it was at the photo shoot. I picked the best image out of many. Then I added most of the bubbles by strategically placing them so that they would collectively form circular patterns along with the lines of her dress. I extended the bottom of the dress in the back and changed the angle of her leg at the bottom right, so that her whole body would form a more dynamic triangle shape. Overall I am very pleased with the result.
Wednesday, August 5, 2020 at 02:17PM I finally finished this piece after working on and off for nearly 3 months. I'm pretty happy about the way it came out. The youtube link is here.
Wednesday, July 8, 2020 at 08:22PM I just received an email from DRAWING Magazine telling me that my piece "Vanitas 18" was one of the winners for Strokes of Genius 12 competition. This is my second winning following last year's with "Vanitas 11". I am honored to be included in a group of fantastic artists. The winning entries will be published in a book that's coming out late November this year. Can't wait to see the book in person!
