Vanitas 2 update (8-10-2014)

I had to teach a photo workshop to high school students for a week and my work on this piece slowed down a bit. Now I am back on track. I have completed the pomegranate and I am in the middle of rendering the fabric. Naturally it is one of the most time-consuming subjects to render. I am not completely happy about the way the left half of the fabric under her lower body looks in my original reference photo. So I am going to collage that part of the fabric from a different shot taken during the same photo session. The pictures below are just quick snapshots. I am going to do proper photographing of the piece once it is finished, which I estimate will be sometime next week.

Vanitas 2 update (Day 18)

I have finished the figure of Vanitas 2. I struggled with the face a little more than the rest of the body trying to make it look right, and I think I finally got it. Now on to the background.

 

Vanitas 2 Day 6

I have nearly finished the lower half of the figure. The large smooth areas like these legs are a little tricky to render, especially when you are working from photographs. If you didn't carefully look at the subtle value shifts, you could end up with the surface that is not too convincing about its 3-dimensionality. Observing subtle value shifts on the surface of the human body and trying to make sense of them is an intellectual game like solving a puzzle. It gives me a chance to recall what I learned about how all the bones and muscles are connected, and to imagine what they are doing under the skin in this particular situation I am drawing.

I think this drawing is compositionally complex and interesting. It has a semi-bird's eye view of the model. The surface she is lying on is basically a flat tabletop, and yet there is an illusion of exaggerated spatial depth created by the conversing edges of the fabric. Then the perception of the space is optically further distorted by the use of a wide angle lens in shooting. The back edge of the table neatly cuts the picture plane at the 1/3 from the top, creating a flat space in the background that doesn't seem to belong to the rest of the picture and stops our expected spatial perception of the typical one-point perspective. There is a nuanced interplay between flatness and three dimensionality, which, come to think of it, is a recurring visual game I have played many times throughout my work in various mediums.

Vanitas drawing 2 started

Here is the under drawing of "Vanitas 2" I started 2 days ago. This is slightly smaller (20" x 26") than the last one. This time the subjects are a female figure and a pomegranate that is cut open. I am planning to do this also all in graphite. A couple of days ago, I showed my Vanitas 1 drawing and chicken blood salt prints to my gallery. The gallery owner really liked the direction my work was heading. I hope I can accumulate a collection of work and hopefully will have my next show fairly soon...

Vanitas drawing finished

I finished my first Vanitas drawing. The time I spent on this piece was approximately 150 hours just for drawing alone and I think it shows in the piece. It is not perfect and there is still room for improvement but I feel I did my best with my current ability and did not cut the corners. I like how the zig-zag pattern created by the torso, the arm and the stem of the flower guides your eyes through the composition from the top to the bottom. I am pleased with the overall look and the feel of the piece. I am ready to move onto the next one.