Vanitas 12 started (10-14-2017)

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.

Vanitas 11 finished!

Well, finally it's done. I am happy about the way this piece looks. I did not need to do any compositing of multiple photos for the best composition like I had done for several other drawings. This is pretty much how the image was captured in camera. The only artistic liberty I used were streaky texture of the background to the right and the intentional flatness of the hair. I feel those little manipulations added an interesting play to the perception of space and increased an emotional impact.

Vanitas 11 update (07-25-2017)

The hair and the top 1/2 of the fabric have been rendered. Now I can do the rest of the fabric, make some minor adjustments and this piece will be done.

Vanitas 11 Update (07-23-2017)

I have been working on this drawing diligently. The rendering of the figure and the skull is pretty much done. Now I am working on the hair, then am going to move onto the fabric at the bottom. I am still not 100% sure how to treat the background yet...

Work in progress 07-23-2017.

Work in progress 07-21-2017.

Vanitas 11 update (07-12-2017)

I took a few months break from Vanitas series, but today I went back to work on this drawing I had started back in January this year. I am thinking about using an experimental technique for rendering this piece. Not sure if it actually works, but will see... I have so far shaded the part of the figure with 4H and 3H leads and ready to move on to darker leads now.