Super Mom!

Had this idea in mind and finally decided to tackle it for Mothers Day. It was definitely a challenge cause I had to step out of my comfort zone and try something different from my usual (simple) works. It's my first time painting an interior environment so it was hard for me to decide on what palette I wanted. My original intent was to do a night scene which would've fit the story better, but that would require a cooler palette. I wanted something warmer so... morning it is! Tried not to overwhelm myself with technical details but at the same time I didn't want things to look "off". The struggle was real with this piece and it made me realize I still need a lot of practice when it comes to painting!

On the bright side, I've signed up for Schoolism's subscription and can't wait to start it!! I totally miss learning with some sort of guidance since I've been feeling a bit lost about advancing my skills after graduation. I'm trying to push myself to step out of my comfort zone but it's hard without some sort of guidance...

Originally intended to save a desaturated version just to show my values but then I thought it would be fun to keep the outfit colorized.

Golden Days

Close Up

Finished this one a few weeks ago! Been posting on tumblr but there's still something nice about blogspot although nobody uses it anymore. Maybe its because I've always been into this old school style blogging (like back in my xanga days) so I feel more comfortable sharing things in detail here.

Anyways, I was stuck on a complex piece so I decided to take a break from it and worked on something simple and minimalist. I was actually inspired by a few a simple photographs with gorgeous lighting so I decided to illustrate it with a little story I envisioned on my mind.

I realized that minimalist drawings are actually very challenging since most of us tend to naturally over-draw. It requires an eye for design and definitely some very strong foundational and technical skills to be able to strip everything away while knowing what to keep. Although this piece looks simple, I struggled quite a bit when it came to questioning myself what to keep and what to eliminate. Overall, im not sure if the feeling of the piece translated as well as I had envision but I got to a point where I knew I should stop. Maybe I will rework it in the future but here it is for now!