#capstone progress

[rachelscpsarts]

IT’S 4AM but this marks like? 2.5/4 done w sketches? I’m really happy w how Robin turned out :) definitely still need to tweak some things w/ Raven though…something is off and I’m not sure what. but for now time to sleeeep

[rachelscpsarts]

While executing the paintings, I mainly updated the progress on my snapchat rather than on here, so now I will be going back posting some of those images to reflect upon them.

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Kingfisher was the hardest to find a literary reference for. However, since I was drawing upon Chinese painting techniques, I tried searching for its symbolism in Chinese poetry, and ended up finding a very intriguing essay on it (here if you’re interested). One of the parallels it covered was between kingfishers and luxury items, which the lotus was considered in medieval China, so I decided to include it in the background. It ended up being somewhat abstracted in composition, but I like how it turned out; it was a good experiment for me. The drying of the pigment on watercolor paper versus traditional rice paper is very different, though, so leaves and petals were a little more washed out than I had intended. 

The only “problem” was that when displaying it, no one knew what a kingfisher looked like, so the bird was less obvious, haha…

[rachelscpsarts]

While executing the paintings, I mainly updated the progress on my snapchat rather than on here, so now I will be going back posting some of those images to reflect upon them.

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Robin went much more smoothly than Raven did. I had a much clearer image in my head of what hers would look like, which certainly helped. The tree in the background was referenced off a picture I took in early spring. I wondered if I should add more details, especially to emphasize the literary connection to the Secret Garden more, but I liked the more minimalistic concept of her image, so I kept it simple. Also at this point, I tried to use some of the techniques I learned from Chinese brush painting when I was younger. This would influence the last two paintings as well.

[rachelscpsarts]

While executing the paintings, I mainly updated the progress on my snapchat rather than on here, so now I will be going back posting some of those images to reflect upon them.

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The process for Raven was definitely the longest out of all four paintings – likely because it was the most ambitious composition and because it was the first one I began, so I was still trying to figure out what I wanted to express with it and experimenting with the paints and methods of applying it. For example, the pattern on the shirt was completely freehand, and thus ended up being less intricate. Originally I had wanted to use gold watercolor or ink for it, but all I had on hand was acrylic, which is a lot less flexible. It ended up working but not quite matching my expectations. I don’t think I quite consider this one finished, but somehow people seemed most impressed by this one out of the four when I displayed it.

[rachelscpsarts]

I redrew this skirt like five times and still not sure if I’m satisfied… but other than a few small tweaks Kingfisher is pretty much done, so gonna move on to Hummingbird soon (welp)