Ophelia #5

And now we have what Ophelia is famous for: drowning. Ophelia drowning (or about to drown) are the most common images of Ophelia, so I wanted to use a different view point and a more dynamic composition to set mine apart.

The sheer garment she's wearing is problematic since I had to make up a lot of the folds. It comes off as more of a stylization of fabric, in my opinion. It's something new and different, though, so that's good. The bubbles were also very hard to render realistically. I like the idea of things underwater, but my executions are never very...watery. Her face isn't quite right, despite working from a photo-reference. I do like her hair, though.

Watercolor on cold press.

Ophelia #4

The title of this piece is Rue. Ophelia stands at the body of water she will eventually drown in while holding rue and reflecting (literally and metaphorically).

Out of all the Ophelia pieces, this one probably has the most thought put into it. I was reading a lot of essays about Ophelia to get ideas, and many people thought that Ophelia was pregnant. When Ophelia is mad and handing out flowers, each flower has a symbolic meaning. The flower Ophelia gives to herself is rue, which in Shakespeare's time was used for abortions. The word rue also means regret, which I think is an appropriate emotion for this scene. I made a reference to the Arnolfini Portrait in Ophelia's dress in order to suggest her pregnancy.

Watercolor on cold press.

Layers

So this assignment was about layers. We needed something from our past, something from our future, a pattern, and a historical reference. I wanted to incorporate all of these in a coherent and fairly straight-forward way, since I'm not so great at more abstract images. The pattern and historical reference are the stained glass window, the past is me as a kid, and the future is the piece of origami I'm folding.

This piece is another self-portrait...that just sort of happened by accident this semester. The concept is me as a kid being bored in church (as I always was) and amusing myself. I'm actually glad now that my parents made me go to church, because there were so many beautiful and colorful things to look at and make up little stories about in my head. It was a really good creativity exercise.

Watercolor and ink on canvas.

Self-Portrait #2

This was actually for an assignment where we take an artist we don't like and make a painting about their conceptual territory in our own style. I chose R. Crumb. There are actually things I like about his work, but that 70's pen and ink style drives me nuts.

I think Crumb is best known for his brutally honest depictions of himself, so that was my concept. I wanted to show that there are parts of myself that aren't seen on the surface, and that these parts aren't very pleasant. I wanted to overlay strips of dull, monochromatic color to represent those unpleasant parts. I also wanted the layered paper to show a kind of flimsiness, since I often feel rather flimsy.

I like this piece, even though I don't think I really nailed the concept. In the picture, you can't really tell those three strips are actual physical pieces of paper glued on another piece of paper. And since the effect is lost, I could've just done it in photoshop and saved myself the trouble. I'm glad I did it this way, though. I like making things with my hands. I did have to tweak the middle strip in photoshop, though, since it was pretty misaligned at the bottom.

Watercolor on hot press.

Branching

Another anatomy piece! As you might've guessed, I wanted to draw parallels between the way our veins and arteries branch and how that same branching often occurs in nature.

I really like this piece. I like the way the colors turned out on the tree limbs and all the little details are really fun to look at. The one thing I don't like is how I couldn't get the sky to blend very well at the bottom.

Watercolor on hot press.

Self-Portrait #1

This piece was for a self-portrait assignment. The concept isn't actually about thinking of myself as a target. You'd think I would've noticed that it could've been read that way before going ahead and painting it, but that might not have stopped me anyway.

This painting actually deals with imagery from my childhood that I associate with my father. The concept is about identity and how I have to reconcile the parts of my father that are also parts of myself.

I'm rather stubborn, so even though we painted on canvas for this class, I used watercolors. It actually had some positives (like being really easy to wipe off) and created some interesting textures. Unfortunately, the photo picked up some glare.

Watercolor on canvas.

Albert

The third and final installment of the iconic images/anatomy series. Despite the fact that I had a lot of fun rendering a brain, I'm pretty luke warm to this piece. I don't like working without a concept, and this piece has zero. The technical execution is also pretty bad.

Having the face be sort of transparent to show all of the brain was risky, so I'm not really unhappy about any problems concerning it, but the hair is really bad. I'm usually not that bad at rendering hair either, so I can't really excuse myself. And his mustache looks like a purple caterpillar.

Watercolor on hot press.

Ophelia #3

This piece is about Ophelia losing her grip on reality. My illustration professor gave me the idea of showing her backstage in a theater. We can't forget that Ophelia IS a character in a play, so it's rather clever to show her divorce from reality as her sort of breaking the fourth wall during the play. She's also arranging the flowers she's about to dole out.

The blending is a bit better in this one than the last piece. I'm mostly disappointed in how Ophelia turned out. I had a really great reference for her crazy face, but it just didn't make it through (probably because I work so small). I also wish her hair had been more disheveled. The flowers also read as too dull.

Watercolor on cold press paper.

Rosie

Second in the iconic images/anatomy series. Rosie pulls back her sleeve to reveal the muscles in her arm.

I know it's probably because I didn't live during WWII and I'm a girl, but I've always read the Rosie the Rivetter poster as empowering to women. So this was kind of literally showing the strength Rosie is advocating women to muster up. I also think it's funny that I rendered the flesh of some one who doesn't actually exist.

Watercolor on hot press.

Ophelia #2

This piece shows Ophelia right after her father has died. The three empty doorways represent the three men in her life that are now gone: Hamlet, Laertes, and Polonius. I really wanted to drive home the point that she's ALONE.

This painting gave me a lot of technical problems. There are lots of layers that needed to be blended together, which is never an easy task. It's just hard to go back in to a blended area and try to re-blend with more paint.

Watercolor on cold press paper.

Marilyn

First in a series of anatomy studies. I wanted to do fun or interesting images that incorporated human anatomy. I thought using famous or iconic photographs would be kinda nifty, but I couldn't really attach a concept to it. So despite however obvious it seems that this is a painting about celebrity or self-image, it's really just me having fun painting a skeleton.


Watercolor on cold press paper.

Ophelia #1

This is the first in a series that focuses on the character of Ophelia from the play Hamlet. This piece takes place at the beginning of the play and shows how Laertes and Polonius influence Ophelia's identity. It is meant to take place at Ophelia's vanity, hence the reflection. I think the symbolism is pretty obvious.

This piece is much larger than I usually paint, and on hot press, which I don't like using. Also, I couldn't for the life of me get Laertes to look right. I re-drew him several times, but had to give up once the paper started to get icky. I like how Polonius' face turned out, though. And even though it's a bit bizarre, I like the colors I used for the flesh tones. I wanted an eerie feeling, and I think that comes across. The clothes are abysmal, though.

Watercolor on hot press paper.