CREATING XXIV/VII: January 2015

Splash of Life

-charcoal powder, watercolor, prismacolor-

Life can really suck at times, making the world appear almost black and white. The girl in the drawing is pretty much going through this type of depressing feeling, but it's not all that depressing. It's when you hit those low points in life that you begin to really cherish and be thankful for all the high points as well. That's the reason that splash seems so much more colorful hitting her and is more powerful because you can see the contrast between black and white and color.

In order to make this, I had to sprinkle on some charcoal powder then get a bucket of water and just splash the paper. This cause the powder to aggressively spread and dry in an interesting shape. I went back in with watercolor and prismacolor to define the lines a bit more and organize the composition. I of course had to add in the girl figure as well. Thanks to my best friend Julia for posing for me as a reference model!

Any comments, questions, suggestions? Comment below!!!

Universal Korea

-water color-

I'm a Korean-Chinese American born citizen and I tend to forget about my asian background as I live in a predominantly white neighborhood and attend a preppy private school. I can speak Korean fluently and have been learning Chinese for the past few years. I wanted to do a drawing that shows Korea as a global country now and how asian countries that were once a minority, are now beginning to grow and surpass those who were once above them. The man on top of the sun is a ribbon dancer who is a part of 풍물 (pungmul) which is Korean folk music of drumming, dancing, and singing. His hat's ribbon is connecting all the planets representing Korea's similar quality of being universal. I'm proud of the progress that's been made of my countries and am proud to represent them. #asianpride

Let Your Reflection Show

-pastel-

The title of this piece says let your reflection show, but that's the exact opposite of what I did. I tried subtracting myself from the image so that I could see the distortions of objects by the toaster better; when I was in it, I appeared on the right side of the reflection of the teal little glass jar so I covered up all the distortion happening with the table in the background. This was sort of like still-lifeception because my still life drawing has a drawing of another still life of this still life. Follow that?

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Be Careful, It's Hot!

-wax and oil pastel-

I've been playing with wax again except this time not as a coating for a collage but as the actual choice of medium. I used the wax to create different textures then allowed it to dry while going back in and coloring it with oil pastel. The texture reminded me of hot lava so I tried to color in according to that theme. Just like how you don't want to touch lava, you want to be careful touching this piece because of the point and sharp texture.

Any comments, questions, suggestions? Comment below!!!