Summer Skin

Summer Skin

Ink + Digital

2012

The other image I did for Lovechild and posted everywhere else but my blog. I had to go off the theme of Summer and magic vs. the mundane. For me summer is walking home from school on really hot days and listening to the cicadas while I yearn for air conditioning. Once a couple of years ago I saw my very first cicada shell while walking home and it was one of the ugliest things I've ever seen. It really grossed me out.

This whole summer though I've been on the shedding kick where somethings popping out of something else or skin's peeling away to expose new life. There really is something magical about losing your old self to become something new, yet for things like cicadas, butterflies and snakes this process is so common. It's just a stage in their lives. 

Plus, lets face it, every summer we shed our old school/ winter selves for brand new summer skin, fresh and ready for the sun.

I'm also happy that I caught a sort of heat in the picture. To me at least I can feel the summer heat from the picture, almost in that uncomfortable suffocating sort of way. I really want to express emotions and feelings in my art. It's one challenge to communicate a clear idea through a picture and a whole other to express an emotion to someone just through images. 

Left: Original ideas

Right: Ink drawing before digital work

Dreams & Reality

Dreams & Reality

Digital

2012

Image one from Lovechild, a zine created by my good friend/ shrine idol Katherine and featuring art from my other good friends but not shrine idols Charlit Floriano, Melissa Chung and Carina Pudding. 

I had to do an image loosely based off the book After Dark by Haruki Murakami (like, really loosely based). What Katherine really wanted was a feeling of dreams and reality merging together since the book is based on these two sisters, one who is in a coma dream state, and how the difference between reality and dreams blur throughout the story. I've never read the book, but I really should now.

Overall I'm pretty proud of myself, simply for the fact that I never do any sort of landscape/ backgrounds so as a first attempt it's not bad. The picture really shows my technical limits though since I wanted to put more detail into the buildings but a mixture of time constraints, inability and frustration left them pretty basic. And I used the liquidation tool for the fist time and idk if that's not kosher or not but I thought it turned out pretty cool. Hopefully this picture will push me to do some backgrounds since they really do add a whole other level of emotion and value to your picture (that was BS, man whatever).

On the left, my three ideas for the project. I liked the middle on the best, but the last one fit the idea better. Can you tell I wasn't exactly comfortable with the third idea? And to your right was my initial idea, but through Katherine's advice and my brothers... ya, I scrapped the shadow dudes and MERGED THEIR HEADS. So much creepier.

I'll post my second image after tonight because... I have work and driving -u- St. Vincent on my playlist all day long.

Just have the whole Purity Ring album w/e.