September 27, 2023
September 26, 2023
Road accident
This is an imaginative drawing inspired by a real event.
I tried to finish it within the time constraint at the end of a long day so I did not spend much time on the less important details, such as the dent at the front of the car that would add more dramatic effect.
September 25, 2023
Highly-processed donut
We all sometimes doodle, but this is probably my first doodling (instead of more intentional drawing) in 3D.
September 18, 2023
Wingless fly
Ever since I was a kid I liked to catch a fly live, carefully remove its wings, and observe it crawling around.
For this one, I use Adobe Firefly to generate the background compost image consisting of banana peels, mandarin peels, and egg shells, and then draw and animate the fly on top of it.
September 17, 2023
The art thief
This is a compact and yet engaging book about the most prolific and efficient art thief in history.
To understand such an extraordinary individual, his deeds, and the shocking ending, it is important to know his “state machine” – how he perceives the world, his relationships, incentives, and actions.
To reconstruct this state machine, the author interviewed the thief in person and also talked to people who knew him, including his small circle of friends and family, his victims (e.g., museums, antique stores, and auction houses staff), psychoanalysts, and law enforcement officers.
The book also describes the history of art market and theft (e.g., Picasso commissioned a theft from Louvre early on and then became the most stolen artist later), and the author’s own journey in writing this book.
Highly recommend, especially for those who are interested in art, psychology, and crime.
I probably will see things differently during my future museum visits.
Instead of stealing artworks and put them in an attic for personal peruse, I dream about the opposite: sneak artworks created by people I know into museums so that they can be appreciated by more people and better preserved by art professionals.
September 15, 2023
Met invitation envelope
I don’t know why a museum in NY would want to invite someone living in CA to be a member – maybe there are CA folks who spend weekends in NY?
But the photo on the envelope did give me some visual idea about how things might move there.
September 12, 2023
Morris Hirshfield
I learned from this exhibition that Morris Hirshfield was a self-taught artist who started painting at the age of 65, with a unique style of non-traditional proportion/perspective and strong emphasis on textures and patterns.
In the same exhibition are works by several other self-taught artists who also have unique styles and some also started very late (like “Grandma Moses” at age 78).
On one hand, it is never too late (or too non-conventional) to start something new.
On the other hand, the start is likely more gradual than sudden, with a long period of incubation.
In Hirshfield’s case, his career in the garment industry has an obvious impact in how he applied patterns in his paintings.
September 10, 2023
Path-in-place effect
Also known as zero-velocity path, this is a feature in Adobe Fresco that allows the creation of a path as a single point, so that the corresponding graphical sprite is not moving but can vary in other ways such as size and orientation.
Dress profile
When I first saw this dress image in a thumbnail I thought it is a profile drawing only to find out it is actually not upon enlarging, but the idea of how much a profile view can convey the style of a dress (or many other things) stuck in my mind and I drew it here.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/2doll4uM1h0