This was one of the most tedious pieces that I've worked on. I tried many types of brushes and patterns for each area to get just the right texture for this owl. Working from the eyes and outward, I created a very basic structure of where all the coloring and patterns will go, and worked around the guidelines. It was very satisfying seeing this slowly come together.
The rose is covered in frost, and I wanted to recreate it with my skills and abilities that I had back in high school. I first drew the basic shapes of the petals and the background, and started to detail the look of the snow and frost. From what I remember, it took nearly six to eight hours creating it, and I felt so happy with how it turned out. To make it more dimensional, I also added blue accents to accentuate the white and red of the picture.
The succulents were from my grandma’s garden, and the day before it had just rained. The succulents had tiny dewdrops on it, and I took a picture of it to recreate it. I wanted to practice using light colors and seeing how it would work when making dewdrops that were just as bright.
This painting is a picture of the bay bridge. This really challenged how I would keep the perspective of the cables. This was also my first time creating lighting from rearview cars, so this picture gave me many opportunities to challenge myself. The blue at the top of the bridge was because I took this picture in a car, and it captured the blue tint above.
This was a commission from someone close to me who really loves fishing. Pictured above is this person's boat with them fishing along with their friend. I really wanted to capture the reflections of the boat in the water, which really tied the entire piece together.
Texture was a huge part of this piece when making this. The big focal point is the eye, so I wanted to capture as much detail as possible, and slowly work my way outwards. I love how the scales are accentuated through the shadows and highlights of this piece.
When I was in downtown San Francisco, there was a motorcycle parked by the curb, and I couldn't help but look at the gears and engine. I created this piece because I wanted to practice my skills in painting metal, and see if I could make it realistic.
This is one of my favorite pieces, as I was experimenting with color on black paper for the first time. I really loved the way the flowers stick out, and how the snake is only accented through minimal color while using the black paper as its skin. I knew that shading these objects will appear different compared to regular white canvas, so it was a fun project to try.
The water photo was made with gouache, and it is one of my favorite water pieces that I’ve created. It took a lot of time layering the different colors, putting the dark spots first, and layering the water with blues and greens and finally putting the white details to create the disruptive waves. To make it more interesting, I would leave lumps of paint on some of the big waves to give the painting more dimension.
This image presented itself with an interesting challenge. I wanted to capture the ripples and texture that water leaves behind when it pulls the sand back into the water. It took took a lot of references and practice to perfect the tiny divots and highlights within the sand.
This eye was from a reference I was practicing on. I wanted to practice skin color, and color correcting, so it was fun to see this piece come to life. I tried not to put too much pressure on myself when creating this, and I am really satisfied with how this came out.
This picture is actually referred from one of my own photos in the photography section of my portfolio. I love the way water looks, and I was practicing a new technique with painting water. I really like how the life saver stands out against the blue, and how the colors compliment each other without clashing against one another.