“Shadow” is the last one of the series. I chose black as the main color scheme of the painting to describe the emotion of suppression. During doing the sketches for this painting, I decided to use really dark background and large negative space above the figure to make the painting has really heavy feeling.
The negative space of the painting is where I need to put texture on it. At first few stages, I tried to achieve the darkness I want, but it seemed so hard to keep it transparent at the same time.
The first stage, the head was too big……
I did a lot of layer to get the darkness I want, and I went back did a little texture on it too. Overall, I keep the value range at darker level to create the atmosphere I want. So, there is no light value on the painting. I keep the lightest light on the face, and I use cool light warm shadow for this one.
Posted in Summer 2009.
By Shannon
– June 18, 2009
This one is part of that portrait series. And, I was serious struggling with this one. The process of this painting was extremely difficult for me. I think on of the reason is that one this is consider “big” painting for me, so the face is huge on the canvas , and second, I am not used to this color scheme. It was really difficult for me to achieve what I wanted in my mind.
Starting with sketches, I already had some obstacles even before I actually start painting. I couldn’t get the composition right. My instructor, John Wentz, has told me that I need to also consider how the space relationship of subjects and canvas can also affect the emotion of a painting. Scale and format of a painting can be important elements of a painting. Those elements can be tight in with the emotion I want to portray in the painting. So, I did a lot of sketches to try to get the emotion I want to convey in this one.
This one is about “Anger”.
I personally think I am a really tone down person, so I chose to do layering technique to represent that my emotions are hiding behind the surface. Also, on this one, I tried to incorporate texture into the painting. So, I chose the splash to portray anger. So the first layer is red splashes, then I layered a lot of different red on top of them.
One thing for sure that I learn from this painting is big painting is hard.
Posted in Spring 2009.
By Shannon
– June 18, 2009
I had an idea doing three self-portraits as a little series of my final thesis. The three paintings are all 36″x36″, and they are representing three different emotions that correspond to the same idea of “Scars”. Self-portrait to me is a journey of self-exploring. Through doing these, I hope I can define myself and understand what is in me better. Also, to express myself with paintings is always cool.
This one I titled “Somewhere”. The reason behind the title is a little silly, but it’s part of a song I like and it’s also about depression which is perfectly connect to the theme of this painting. So, obviously, I want to convey depressed in this painting. I chose white as a theme color for this one, because I think that paleness suits this theme.
Color studies.
This time, I didn’t choose narrow value range to work on this one is because that I felt working on last painting “Scars” was a so much more painful process. It was really hard working on a not full value range painting to describe form and all that. So, this time I decided to do full range values. And I like how it turned out.
Finished Painting
Sorry, I didn’t have the pictures of the process. Sometimes when I am too happy about the process, I forget to take photos in between.
Posted in Spring 2009.
Tagged with Eternal Recurrence.
By Shannon
– June 11, 2009
This painting I titled it “Scars” is part of my thesis. I did several value studies first to see which of the value I want.
Then the color studies.
I was going to do low key one, because I thought that would be easier to execute for me. But, more I think about it the more I think high-key one would be better.
My thesis is about my feeling toward to “Eternal Recurrence”. “Scars” is my experience of surgery I had, and for me, diseases always come back to me. I want to portray that feeling of no matter how hard one person tries to get away the pain and it still comes back over and over again. After a while, all I feel is the numbness of life. It is hard to get away from the loop of destiny. Like “Eternal Recurrence”, it is a never ending time frame, and everything repeats.
So, that’s why I think High-key would be better for this kind of the emotion. Then, I decided to do narrow value range for this one, to keep value in to higher range. Form doing that, I am able to describe the emotions like numbness, lightness, and emptiness. And, because this is not only the issue of me, it’s about all the women. So, I did a white wash on the face to make the identity of the painting less important. It’s not about any specific person now.
Finished Painting.
Posted in Spring 2009.
Tagged with Eternal Recurrence.
By Shannon
– June 11, 2009
I have been trying new technique that suits my thesis style. I hope I can find a style that I can handle well, and that works well with my thesis. Brunt Sienna undertone is one of my experiments.
So, I start with some still-life paintings.
And a portrait.
Overall, I like the effect of the Burnt Sienna undertone, but it looks too traditional for me. Sometimes, paintings would look too happy, and too noisy. This style doesn’t go well with my thesis, which is sad stuff. It doesn’t have serene quality either. So, I’ve decided not to use this technique for my thesis.
But I still think it is a good experiment.
Posted in Spring 2009.
By Shannon
– March 2, 2009
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