Sasa's Sketchbook 3

Makeup (we love colour!) My submission for Illustration Friday, the theme was 'vanity'. I wanted to play with colors and do something 'half-abstract'. This looks better in real life, the gold and silver paint I used does not really show in the scanned version.   For some reason I really like drawing makeup. Not that I do it often, the above was my third try. Last time I tried was in 2011 when I did an ink brush work that is maybe more 'my style'.   Makeup (2011) Before that I sketched make up in 2008, a quickie by the bathroom sink :-)

    I use these stones as paperweights when I paint. Most remarkable thing about them is that they are totally unremarkable, just ordinary stones I picked from Beijing streets when I lived there. Oh, there is also one toy car I picked from my home street in London.

I have been taking an online course in Coursera lately called Live!: A History of Art for Artists, Animators and Gamers . It has been really inspiring, I have got a lot new ideas on how to approach making images. It has also re-awakened my interest in art history and art theories (which I often find a bit pretentious and boring). The assignment this week was to make a work that takes its inspiration from Velasquez's Las Meninas . In my version I maintained the composition and the relationships of the original painting but replaced the human (and canine) characters by flowers (what else 8-P). Las Meninas is one of my favorite paintings (it has been my laptop screen background for years) so I loved this exercise. I am definitely going to make other versions too, use bit more ink to create dark background and same values than in the original.  (Unfortunately I didn't have too much time to experiment this weekend, busy arranging my boyfriend's birthday party.)