he(art)

nov; one more day.

2011-11-16T02:42:00.001-05:00

november

2011-11-05T02:31:00.005-04:00

so there's a somewhat-detrimental leak in my house and the above was found this morning in a warped state, drenched in some oily liquid + antifreeze. am enjoying this portrait though, despite its unfortunate fate. transferring onto mounted linen over the weekend..

dave

2011-11-03T23:43:00.002-04:00

first time painting here. breathe.

with a sapphire necklace

2011-10-09T02:19:00.006-04:00

/2hr study. Droid pics. alas 2am fingers are only good for uploading and publishing; will update w/ final drawing tmw when I've the energy to approach a scanner.

*edit*

soft vs loud.

2011-10-08T00:42:00.001-04:00

now to blow your mind...
drawn from a lower perspective, with more energy & less control, it's almost an entirely different person: sketch2.

truly one's inner state is reflective. the observer may sit across from the studied object -- upright, silent, focused on the back-forth between drawing and model -- yet the volume of thoughts within him are emotional, impassioned, almost shouting (ex2). or, perhaps they're carefully articulated, a reasonable thought backed by patience and wisdom. steady, rational and calmly thought out (ex1). and what a difference this makes.

...am i going crazy yet?

quick poses

2011-09-23T20:02:00.004-04:00

colored paper, here we gooo

2011-09-21T01:44:00.006-04:00

boat pond

2011-09-20T02:14:00.004-04:00

only a glimpse of central park after sunset. (if only i could sit here everyday and draw!)
consumed by wanderlust... oh well. more updates in october, pwomise.

"self-reflection"

2011-07-30T01:24:00.007-04:00

& close-up:

9x12", oil on linen, mounted on board

digging up past drawings.

2011-07-29T07:44:00.004-04:00

remember April? revisiting Dani from portrait, and a skull cast from Saturdays i spent cooped up in a dark room with a plaster and a picture plane.

taking a still life workshop with Douglas Flynt; updates to come.

feitian

2011-07-01T14:56:00.009-04:00

and a smaller one here. inspired by Shen Yun dancers and Classical Chinese dance, i'd wanted to make a series of ornate drawings for a stationery collection.

hv/c-mania

2011-06-28T10:03:00.002-04:00

chroma shifts, chroma shifts.
i will call these 'untitled no. 1' and 'untitled no. 2"

Richmond Illustrators Club Juried Show

2011-06-18T18:42:00.005-04:00

I've two pieces up at Ghostprint Gallery, for the Richmond Illustrators Club Juried Show / View here. A big thanks to the committee for awarding "Half Light" the Bronze Medal.

The show runs for one more week - if you're in Richmond, Virginia, do check it out!

junebug

2011-06-11T14:39:00.007-04:00

Graydon's color workshop / visite à la Met.

-making color wheels-

-GCA's 4th Annual Classical Sculpture Competition-

value workshop

2011-06-07T23:54:00.005-04:00

with Tony Curanaj, who is hands-down amazing.
1/2, lily and kevin's studies
3/4, my blockx

this should've been what any aspiring artist learns on the first day of art school. well, six years later.. at least it's now or never. to know (after all this time) that "muddy" and "chalky" aren't realities, it's about their relationship in hue value chroma; that all color is a perception; that it's possible to look at the palette as one would a mathematical solution. suddenly this is making sense...

"83.7% of a good painting is value." -- sarcastically, TC

now onto Graydon's color workshop! last minute splurge.

hello, summer.

2011-05-27T00:56:00.004-04:00

had scribbled on the side of the paper today: "an even temperament"

figure sketches

2011-05-24T02:10:00.001-04:00

2/40min.

studio clean-up; discovered treasures.

2011-05-23T14:50:00.004-04:00

you see what this says?

time is of the essence.
& yes: i have post-its of chinese characters all over my door. i'm moving out of my current studio, and setting up furniture for a new workspace. while digging through old sketchpads (and successfully ruining another white shirt with charcoal stains), i found a few drawings from freshman year at Carnegie Mellon:

1. sneezing out a bird; god bless?
2. still life brainstorming
3. perspective study
4. contour drawing (note the ♥ used to dot the "i"s in "Vivian")

blasted past.

thursday studies

2011-05-05T23:16:00.004-04:00

1. 3hr/spring studio.
2. how awesome is her goku hair?

earlier tonight, a very generous friend at GCA gave me a sheet of a grayish-blue toned Canson paper, which i will transfer 2) onto. huzzah.

copy of "Innocence"

2011-05-04T21:23:00.003-04:00

such vivid fleshtones, the way the light hits the side of the face, flickers through the lamb's eyelashes. alas, a drawing first.

shepherdess holding a newborn lamb.
view the Bouguereau original here, part of Sotheby's 19th C Spring auction.

graphite/white charcoal on toned ingres paper.

Journey to the West

2011-05-01T11:49:00.009-04:00

Journeying to the West -- The Monkey King, a very talented Taoist, and Pigsy, a notorious womanizer, join a Chinese monk for his journey to India in search of sacred scriptures and enlightenment.

The above process: line drawing; digital block-in of the basic hues; modeling in details. Composite in Photoshop clouds and background texture. This was done for a Behind the Scene look at one of the stories portrayed in a Shen Yun performance:

The Story Behind the Scene: 'Journey to the West'
/ The Epoch Times

sketchy-sketch

2011-04-29T00:22:00.001-04:00

"thinker" pose :)

spring st / 3hr.

in progress

2011-04-24T00:30:00.003-04:00

dani: block-in
skull cast: 1, 2

sketchy-sketch

2011-04-23T23:54:00.002-04:00

3hr/springst.

dani

2011-04-19T13:24:00.002-04:00

block-in.

quick gestures ..

2011-04-19T00:32:00.002-04:00

sketchy-sketch

2011-04-03T23:25:00.002-04:00

guy.. or gal?

cabaret!

2011-04-01T12:26:00.002-04:00

charcoal / society of illustrators

skull cast: in progress

2011-03-27T01:48:00.006-04:00

View Block-in

gesture sketches

2011-03-27T01:40:00.002-04:00

the met during the day; open studio at night.

belvedere torso

2011-03-27T01:27:00.006-04:00

sarah

2011-03-24T23:54:00.002-04:00

1. block-in
2. in progress

charcoal on flimsy staples grid paper.

2011-03-20T01:08:00.003-04:00

sarah, in progress

2011-03-16T00:10:00.005-04:00

here's the block-in before the transfer

女らしい

2011-03-15T00:54:00.006-04:00

gerome

2011-03-10T23:29:00.002-05:00

conté on recycled paper.

long time no.. conte.

2011-03-08T00:25:00.010-05:00

2min/5min/40

i haven't done quick gestural sketches of the figure in way too long. a gentleman from s. africa sat by me; having been an artist for ~15 years, he said, on surviving as a struggling, invisible creative...

"be stubborn. stubborn to stay on this path you've chosen.. but never decadent."

skull cast

2011-03-05T22:41:00.001-05:00

5 hr block-in, woot
graphite on vellum bristol.

march block-in

2011-03-04T13:37:00.002-05:00

graphite on cream-colored vellum bristol.
will transfer this onto a thicker 2-ply bristol

daphne (fini)

2011-03-02T00:58:00.004-05:00

daphne

2011-02-23T00:21:00.000-05:00

..one more night to go!

cast drawing

2011-02-05T22:35:00.005-05:00

this eye.
has been driving.
me.
crazzzzzy

no wonder da vinci practiced drawing a simple egg ten thousand times.

half light

2011-01-28T13:19:00.004-05:00

pedro, closeup: 1, 2

Happy 2011!

2011-01-02T02:06:00.005-05:00

illy for ET

filip

2010-12-30T15:57:00.004-05:00

december cast

2010-12-15T15:35:00.007-05:00

the irony: cast feels infinitely more difficult than portraiture. shows you how little i know.. back to the basics it is.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

2010-12-01T15:39:00.013-05:00

Artwork for writer Evan Mantyk's poetry book, "Sir Gawain's Quest: And Other Poems" which is now available for purchase on Amazon.com.

andres

2010-11-24T13:49:00.002-05:00

andres

2010-11-07T17:49:00.006-05:00

getting faster with block-ins. during breaktime, andres catches a paragraph or two from Lao Zi's "Dao De Jing".. we've extended an hour.. and most of the students this month are from the core program. me like

abigail

2010-10-24T20:39:00.007-04:00

modern classicism

2010-10-08T13:53:00.003-04:00

[edit:]

a general block in | first week of modeling the form.

our model for this month looks like she just stepped down from a Leighton painting.. grecian-like hair, soft but solid features. and my first time drawing profile... now to paint, or not to paint?

portrait

2010-10-01T02:35:00.003-04:00

block in / drawing.
graphite on smooth bristol paper

like two ships in the sea..

2010-09-17T11:04:00.004-04:00

ink on watercolor paper.

"A Summer Evening in New York"

2010-09-02T14:13:00.006-04:00

"After dinner, I tool a short walk to Washington Square Park, perhaps the most famous and active park in the city, visited every day by thousands of people. Here come tourists, neighborhood folks, misfits, artists of every kind (including con artists), and a modern curse, drug dealers and buyers. It is a truly strange but wonderfully attractive mixture of people.

I had started walking toward the center of the park when I heard some wonderful jazz music coming from an alley. As I approached, I saw a trio of a drummer, a double bass player, and a saxophonist performing. There was a relatively small but appreciative audience.

A cool breeze coming through the tall trees, a full moon, and an old-fashioned looking street lantern made it all look like a Magritte painting, an additional bonus to a special night..."

- "A Summer Evening in New York", Dr. César Chelala

Demos at the Salmagundi Club

2010-08-31T03:12:00.019-04:00

So much character can be assumed by viewing the contents of a person's room, the insides of a purse/bag, or seeing how one designs a space… Similarly, an artist's technique/philosophy reflects in the studio space, palette, lighting, color and composition, all of which embodies one's own life experiences. There's a bit of story marked in everything, everywhere.

When I took screenwriting, we were once given an assignment to sit in a cafe and people-watch, making brief character studies based on what could be gathered about a person based on his or her physical outset, simple mannerisms etc. With that in mind… watching an artist at work is the magnification of that depth. Once the mode has been switched on, you (the artist) are completely focused, the surrounding world has been put on mute and nothing else is active except for you and your subject.

Now to observe a creative who has fallen into that zone…

David Kassan

… is a Brooklyn-based figurative painter, whose work I first discovered from a finger painting he did on the iPad that exploded on the internet; then, having followed him on Facebook (stalking has its advantages), I heard news of a drawing demo he would give at the Salmagundi Club. The Club is also where last year's International Chinese Oil Painting Competition was held so… yes, filled with memorable nostalgia, I convinced myself it was necessary to attend. In fact:

Look to the left!

With 3 hrs on the clock, the tools used:
- PanPastel in black
- #4 soft tool (similar to a palette knife)
- Faber-Castell Charcoal
- Generals' White Charcoal
- on Daler-Rowney Canford Cardstock Paper (in gunmetal gray)
- set of binoculars

During the first break, everyone rushed up to take notes of the materials. If it weren't for my large, rugged size, I could have been trampled on :O

I never thought to use soft pastels for a black-white drawing, but it does push the drawing into the paper, and sticks better than vine. After the large block-ins, David blurred the drawing (with the brushy tips of a Kolinsky sable) to push everything into the paper and develop an atmosphere. Then using white, he hatched the cylindrical form of the face - very similar to the way he also paints. This additive/subtractive process was done back and forth, blending the forms to a heightened realism. True to his word...

"Think large, but at the nuance of the large shapes, the subtlety of how forms intervene, overlap…"

Steven Assael

Steven Assael has often been introduced as the greatest American realist of contemporary art, but is and may always be in my eyes, a rock n roll contemporary Velázquez whose style of throwing on paint has pushed the term "painterly" to suggesting craftsmanship, based on his success in the art world today. Yet looking at what's become of contemporary art, spectacle often exceeds the emphasis of spirit and technique, and this was my feeling when I watched him in his portrait painting demo. He was bold alright, his body seemed to dance with the brush in his hands...

...But when that large slab of titanium white first plopped onto the dark red canvas, oil medium dripping down the canvas over the thick build-up of paint.... scattered groans echoed through the audience, including whatever raspy sound came from the back of my own throat - because that was not how your average realist painter paints. The woman sitting in front of me had sunk to the bottom of her seat, half her face covered by a jittery hand as if the very sight of paint being flung, canvas acting as a palette, completely traumatized the eye.

A messy blob of old and new paint:

Two sessions later, from that muddy umber-green shadow emerged a believable form, and through the movement of the quick brushwork, the colors in the face seemed to glow to life.

Here are some lovely hands. From his painting displayed in the "Hard Times- An Artist's View" exhibit at the Salmagundi.

new anatomy books

2010-08-30T13:12:00.011-04:00

naturally, as soon as the package came, i ripped apart the box with my bare hands.. and geeked out to my heart's content. Gallery Nucleus has been supplying sketching course reference textbooks [link]. Contained within are really beautiful drawings, mostly done in charcoal and graphite, with text descriptions (that I can't read) in Russian and Chinese.

in any case: skull-study first!

ET Writers column

2010-08-29T13:52:00.004-04:00

head sketches for a new column in The Epoch Times paper. some fine looking journalists, yah?

so...

2010-08-23T22:20:00.007-04:00

i'm still makin' art.
brace yourselves

Emily Dickinson

2010-07-30T02:06:00.005-04:00

"Enchanted by Flowers: Emily Dickinson..."
Illustration for the Epoch Times, 07/30/10

Ink and sumi

Gustav Mahler

2010-06-23T03:29:00.002-04:00

Gustav Mahler: composer of the sacred and profane.
Illustration for The Epoch Times, 6/23/10

Charcoal/PS

écorché

2010-05-06T04:31:00.005-04:00

...c'est fini. (whew)
having built an armature, molded bones, memorized bones, studied every muscle origin and insertion... i will now prepare for the inevitable: falling out of the anatomy zone and forgetting it all.

Real Estate illustration

2010-04-14T14:18:00.006-04:00

The Epoch Times: "Homeowners Who 'Strategically Default' Are Under Moral Pressure" by Charlotte Cuthbertson

skull: anterior, posterior, lateral

2010-01-14T14:30:00.006-05:00

anatomy studies for écorché @GCAA

breaking down the cyberwall

2009-12-01T16:06:00.002-05:00

Communism destroying Icons

2009-10-01T11:04:00.002-04:00

last night walking home I looked up to see the building of King Kong, Sleepless in Seattle, bathed in red & yellow, "celebrating" 60 years of China's Communist Party atrocities. ...what has the world come to.

"Empire Turns a Disgusting Hue"

"Blood and Treasure.."

"Empire goes Yellow & Red for China; Outrage Ensues"

"American Icons Serving the Party"

GCAA

2009-08-31T20:41:00.005-04:00

[closeup]

portrait drawing/painting workshop with Camie Davis

illustrations for the Epoch Times

2009-08-18T23:14:00.003-04:00

[article link]

The Women of Masanjia

2009-04-30T20:25:00.007-04:00

inspired linocut:

48 x 60", oil on canvas

on display @ Regina Miller Gallery in Pittsburgh, May 1-17

“The Women of Masanjia” captures an incident that occurred in October 2000 when 18 female Falun Gong adherents were forced into a jail cell of male criminals. Even in the face of brutality, the prisoner of conscience stands defiant, and bears an uncompromising courage.

The human spirit – the pathos, hope and emotions in life – and the divine spirit – that which transcends all these notions – are to be communicated in a way that is accessible to all. Successful images should embody and transmit this spirit.

Purity

2009-03-18T17:37:00.011-04:00

48x60" oil on canvas

over the summer I submitted this piece to NTDTV's International Figure Painting Competition and placed as a Finalist; we exhibited at the Ukrainian Institute of America in NY. look for me under my chinese name! (紫薇)

portrait

2009-02-24T22:54:00.010-05:00

emily at popomoho
16x20" oil on canvas

"every girl goes through a photography stage. you know, like horses? take pictures of your feet." - lost in translation

well, so lives this portraiture phase.

monochromatic

2009-02-07T21:30:00.003-05:00

& svelte: miss olga
48x48", oil on panel

happy new year!

2009-01-01T23:53:00.001-05:00

stay warm & be good. :)

sketchez

2008-12-09T12:20:00.002-05:00

24x36" pastel / 18x24" char-kole

self-por

2008-12-08T19:29:00.005-05:00

mucha-inspired...
graphite, 60"h

last day w/ myron

2008-12-04T00:42:00.005-05:00

18x24, char-kole

leg studies

2008-11-24T19:13:00.003-05:00

18x24, char-kole

the borgesian labyrinth

2008-11-22T00:07:00.011-05:00

30x40" oil on canvas

age/birth

2008-11-21T18:41:00.004-05:00

18x24 ingres paper. conte, graphite, pastel.

borges

2008-11-13T02:36:00.001-05:00

this def photographed interestingly...

9x12" mirror, oils.

muscles / anatomy of arms

2008-11-12T18:29:00.001-05:00

18x24" conte

un homme et son chien

2008-11-11T19:11:00.000-05:00

18x24" conte

anatomy studies

2008-10-27T21:42:00.000-04:00

vine charcoal / ink washes 18x24"

scheherazade

2008-10-11T16:40:00.007-04:00

of Pari Benu in scene from Adventures of Prince Achmed (animated by Lotte Reiniger)

whole painting: 48x48" oil on canvas

torso

2008-10-09T04:54:00.001-04:00

18x24" conte

pelvis studies

2008-10-06T16:59:00.001-04:00

after claudel's l'abandon

2008-09-24T18:40:00.001-04:00

36x72(?)", charcoal on paper.

"In my sister's group, spirit is of the essence: the man on his knees; he is pure desire, his face lifted, yearning, clasping that which he does not dare to seize, this marvellous being, this sacred flesh which, at some higher level, has been bestowed on him. She yields, blind, mute, weighed down, succumbing to the gravity that is love; one of her arms hangs down like a branch broken by its fruit, the other covers her breasts and protects this heart, the supreme sanctuary of her virginity. It is impossible to imagine anything more ardent and at the same time more chaste"
- Camille's brother

fig drawing

2008-09-22T19:10:00.000-04:00

18x24" charcoal.
myron, who's also seen here.

dunhuang sketch

2008-09-18T23:29:00.001-04:00

graphite; part of 36x72" gessoed brown paper.

figure studies

2008-09-17T17:35:00.001-04:00

18x24", charcoal

figure drawing

2008-09-15T04:15:00.000-04:00

"hallelujah!" :)

18x24" charcoal

fig.drawings

2008-09-11T19:19:00.000-04:00

18x24" charcoal

"forbearance"

2008-09-08T18:52:00.000-04:00

self portrait as 忍／ 36"x72", charcoal & conte on brown paper.

french horn

2008-06-04T01:06:00.004-04:00

for anyone interested in reclaiming the purity and goodness of classical art, this is possibly the most exciting opportunity you'll find:

2008 NTDTV Chinese Int'l Figure Painting Competition

check out the rules and regs here.

after much time later

2008-05-19T13:14:00.000-04:00

(see sketch)

oil on panel, 24x24"

..and to leave you with a glimpse into Bouguereau's lifestyle... :)

"Every morning I get up at seven without fail and have breakfast, then I go up to my studio which I don't leave all day. Around three o'clock, a light meal is brought in; I don't have to leave my work. I rarely have visitors, since I hate to be disturbed. My friends, though, are always welcome. They don't bother me, I can work even when it's noisy or while they're chatting. When I'm painting, I don't pay attention to anything else."

"One is born an artist. The artist is a man endowed with a special nature, with a particular feeling for seeing form and color spontaneously, as a whole, in perfect harmony. If one lacks that feeling, one is not an artist and will never become an artist; and it is a waste of time to entertain the possibility. This craft is acquired through study, observation, and practice; it can improve by ceaseless work. But the instinct for art is innate. First, one has to love nature with all one's heart and soul, and be able to study and admire it for hours on end. Everything is in nature. A plant, a leaf, a blade of grass should be the subjects of infinite and fruitful meditations; for the artist, a cloud floating in the sky has form, and the form affords him joy, helps him think."

Story of Yu Zhou

2008-04-29T20:48:00.004-04:00

etching, 18x24"

with the Olympics coming up, China's human rights crimes have become even worse. this etching is dedicated to the recent tragedy of Yu Zhou, a Falun Gong practitioner and well-known folk singer who was persecuted to death only ten days after his arrest.

his band's MV:

male nude

2008-04-24T00:58:00.003-04:00

last day, i'm DONE!
(goodbye NYAA..)

20x24", oil on canvas

male/female anatomy drawings

2008-04-24T00:47:00.001-04:00

this was my weekend. <3
23x29", pencil and pastel

still life..

2008-04-04T00:32:00.000-04:00

14x18" oil on canvas

huang xiang

2008-04-01T20:03:00.003-04:00

23x29" aluminum plate, Huang Xiang

anatomy studies

2008-03-29T11:08:00.000-04:00

which figure to use?