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Watercolor: Eleanor

Posted on March 9, 2010 at 1:42 am, in Photography & Art

Sorry for my absence; about two weeks ago I hit a sort of “low” and due to severe insomnia/weight loss I deemed it best to focus on recovery (aka lots of mcflurries, crying, and Haruki Murakami) rather than blogging.

And in the end, I bring you a well-timed painting that I think adequately reflected my mood during the time in which it was painted. This time, I remembered to take photographs of my progress. As always, the painting is not quite finished, but it is definitely at a point worth posting.

1
The yellow is liquid resist, which is used to a) preserve extremely white highlights (since the paper will ALWAYS be the whitest highlight… even whiter than gouache), and sharp edges (in this case, for the gold clasps and the suspenders).
Workdesk includes: watercolor palette, coffee cup of water, pack of menstrual relief pills LOL, and more nonsense…

2
Peeled away some liquid resist to tackle first suspender, and laid down first wash of skirt. This is where I started freaking out – the black came out TOTALLY cloudy and definitely not what I had in mind. Realistically I should’ve expected this but I was somehow hoping for the sheer tulle of the skirt to automatically paint itself. Also added: darker skin shading

3

4

The current product, which is still not finished:

final

And for those interested, the photo reference:

la belle dame sans merci

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Paintings: Jas, Julia

Posted on February 28, 2010 at 5:47 am, in Photography & Art

Jas
Jas

julia
Julia

Love Jas, but Julia did not turn out as planned. Hopefully my next one will be better!

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Tell me something sweet…

Posted on February 17, 2010 at 5:43 am, in Photography & Art

8 random things...

Come March 1st, I’m dying my hair red again – I miss the shade far too much. This is an old picture that I never got around to uploading, taken with a Pentax ZX-60 and 35mm film.

I’ve been feeling terribly down in the dumps lately. Tell me a nice story, or post pictures of kittens!

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Snow Day

Posted on February 16, 2010 at 12:45 am, in Photography & Art

Firstly, I want to thank the following people for their comment on my last post. I haven’t had time to install a comment response system so here’s my thanks to: Kate, Ariana, Ashley, Laura, Lauren (who just finished a weekend at Katsu~ SO JEALOUS!), Celina, Satpreet, Alison, Lizsu, Indie Mom, Valeria, 3 Stinky Boys and Me, M. Dominic, Hannah, PinkBow, Moi Je Joue, Jinah, The Photodiarist, Mila, Aimee, green ink, Bailing, & My Fash
(Wow, that took a while!)

Last week, North Texas was hit with a beautiful, powdery, storybook snow that lasted for the better part of two days. I managed to snap a few photos of the scenery:

Snow

Snow

Snow

I stayed warm with leather pants, a big, black vintage fur coat, and my Target boots (though unfortunately I didn’t get a picture).

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In-Progress Watercolor, girl at chair

Posted on February 9, 2010 at 7:22 pm, in Photography & Art

In-Progress Watercolor

Piano

This painting is still a work-in-progress! When working with watercolors, I have such a difficult time pushing dark values because I fear putting down something that I can’t take off the paper. So I predict about ten additional layers of paint with this one, haha.

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まぐろ (ma·gu·ro)

Posted on February 3, 2010 at 12:11 am, in Photography & Art

Sorry that I’ve been terrible about posting lately. Uni has resumed and of course I’m swamped with work and reading. Here’s a painting that I finished on Monday:

Maguro

Maguro
(Closeup)

It’s entitled 鮪, read “Maguro” (the Japanese word for “tuna”). It will be part of a series of at least ten paintings that I complete throughout the semester, related to women’s sensuality. I was kind of underwhelmed by this one, but you know, you win some you lose some. Hopefully my next painting will be better.

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Thank You!

Posted on January 13, 2010 at 6:15 pm, in Food, Photography & Art

I’m late for work but I just wanted to make a really quick update: Thank you so much to sfgirlbybay for featuring me as her Tuesday’s Girl! When she asked me a few weeks ago, I was so excited/flattered that I couldn’t wait for the twelfth! Go take a look at her wonderful style/living blog~

Heart Bokeh

My sister finally returned from Vegas with her beloved Canon Digital Rebel. I’ve been waiting to try a bokeh heart filter on her new 50mm lens for a while now, so I grabbed my Miu Miu bag and started playing around. This one was my favorite, even though it’s hard to distinguish any details. Will have to practice with this technique more!

Cinnamon Rolls

Now back to lunch (yes, cinnamon rolls for lunch – don’t you love uni?)

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A few things…

Posted on January 5, 2010 at 6:07 am, in Photography & Art

I still haven’t gotten around to updating my links, so please go ahead and leave yours if you would like to be included in the links list. Ever since moving servers, I haven’t had the opportunity to change them, but hopefully I’ll get around to adding them at the end of this week!

winter day

My friend lent me this book by Tillich, and it’s proving to be a great start to my resolution of reading more this year. Oh yes, this is basically what I do all day when I’m not at work! I lounge around and read. :)

new

I also bought some new angora socks from Target in cream & black! Buying foot and legwear, such as socks and tights, is one of the nicest feelings ever (next to a brand-new set of American Eagle boybriefs)!

I also bought myself a paid Flickr account, which freed up a lot of photos that were hidden from view (since I far surpassed my 200 free images). The following were taken with film! I simply love the quality of it, which cannot be replicated with digital no matter how much photoshop is applied.

san-xのたれぱんだ
たれぱんだ~

Piano
Back when I had red hair

Mark, Santa Monica
My boyfriend in Santa Monica, California

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Recent Watercolor Paintings

Posted on December 8, 2009 at 8:13 pm, in Photography & Art

Here are some recent paintings I’ve done for my watercolor class. I received the highest marks on all of them, and even had a few of them on display for a while, but seeing them on my computer makes me so upset! So much is lost when a painting is photographed and edited for the web. Before I stick ‘em in my portfolio, I’ll be sure to photograph them during a brighter time of the day. BUT! Until then, here’s what I’ve been up to lately.

Diptych
Click to enlarge.

For a diptych assignment, I juxtaposed two photographs I’d taken, and decided to paint a light study. I don’t consider myself an impressionist; I prefer painting objects rather than just light. However, because watercolor is such a transparent media, I do enjoy giving a lot of attention to light and the way it plays off of surfaces and people. I was particularly upset with the way this photograph came out, because the colors are uneven (both images in real life have an identical color palette).

DiptychCloseup

At the moment, I’ll only offer a preview of this series, as the photos were just TOO dark. A few weeks ago, I had to paint three paintings (simultaneously) in a series. For this particular one, I chose my father’s old football helmet (circa the turn of the 20th century). Although these paintings were composed using a camera, I was able to reference the actual subject as I worked, which helped tremendously when I decided to bring in non-local colors and textures.

Football helmet

football helment
Closeup of my favorite from the series.

For my final project, which I’ve just proposed today, I’m doing a painting (scaled 90inx22in) in the style of an ancient Japanese ink painting. The Japanese are known for pioneering a method of painting perspective, known as “atmospheric perspective.” This particular style creates depth by employing washed out colors and blurred objects in the background, with more detail and contrast in the foreground. I’ve also written a short haiku in Japanese to match with it. I’m still working on placement of the text and composition, so any suggestions and criticisms are welcome!

Fox in the Snow
Click to enlarge.
雪の中
で狐、あいつ
嘘作る
fox in the snow, that rascal tells lies
Haiku is also a work in progress, but this is draft and the gist of the painting

Closeup

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Bundling Up

Posted on December 5, 2009 at 5:30 pm, in Fashion, Photography & Art

A few days ago, snowfall hit Dallas pretty unexpectedly, and although it melted just as quickly as it fell, the freezing (or just above) temperatures have persisted. Winter came, literally, overnight. I’ve actually had to start bundling up, which is something of a hassle.

winter sun
Faux fur coat, $19 from Patricia Field (last winter)

Fox in the Snow
A watercolor illustration-montage I’m working on, entitled Fox in the Snow (inspired by the Belle & Sebastian song)

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