This painting was created for Thinkspace Gallery’s 15-year retrospective exhibition. It was an open-themed group show celebrating the gallery’s life, and showcased over 70 new works of art. For my contribution I wanted to focus on my portrait series that I started years ago. The Mauve Girl is my interpretation of the modern Vietnamese woman, painted with acrylic and coloured pencil on wood panel.
The reason I began the series of portrait work was so that I could focus on colour exploration, floral design and the female gaze. For this portrait I wanted to express my heritage by depicting the Vietnamese woman in a non-traditional light. The painting juxtaposes the everyday female in a modern, translucent áo dài dress with lotus flower tattoos and brightly coloured hair. I kept her expression and demeanour soft while contrasting it with the harsh black lines of the tattoos.
Portrait painting is both complex and simple. Because there’s not a lot of components within it, I have to make sure the facial expression and subtleties of her mannerism are handled with care. The better I treat these little nuances, the more of her essence I’m able to capture.
How I create…
A FIGURE IN WATERCOLOUR AND PENCILS
1 Portrait preliminaries
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Denne historien er fra July 2020-utgaven av ImagineFX.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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PAINT EPIC BATTLES IN TRADITIONAL INK
Warhammer illustrator THOMAS ELLIOTT shows you how to create an epic science fiction fight scene with this step-by-step guide
CONJURE MAGIC ILLUSTRATIONS
Daria Anako demonstrates her process for creating a whimsical piece of art with some spellbinding touches
First Impressions
We discover the early influences that inspired the artist
ZBrush for iPad
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DRAGON OFORCEC
Legendary D&D artist Larry Elmore explains the keys to crafting timeless fantasy art.
DUNGEON MASTERS
ImagineFX marks the milestone 50th anniversary of the launch of Dungeons & Dragons with a look at its rich tradition of illustration
Erik Ly
Gamer's haven Why the artist enjoys a maximalist aesthetic more than the minimalist approach.
2D meets 3D: How the workflows are merging
Interdimensional As VFX and animation evolve and tools become more accessible, Tanya Combrinck asks whether the separation between the mediums is reducing