Part of my senior thesis project was to do a series of three. I chose to do a series of three portraits, of three women, in three different modes of costume, interacting with three different classifications of animals.
The first portrait is of a woman in a tradition costume. A garment invented in the distant past, worn today for celebrations or special occasions. All three paintings started with photo reference; each model dawned the appropriate clothing, and was photographed either outside or in a studio setting with adequate lighting. The next step was to do a final sketch, transfer to illustration board, and finally, begin painting.
Each painting consists of a liquid acrylic under painting, watercolor, and colored pencil. The second panting is of a a woman in a contemporary, normative mode of costume, or as most people know it–street clothes.
The third and final painting in the series also happens to be a self portrait, to fill another requirement of my senior thesis project. Here I am wearing an obscure, decorative form of costume, or the sort of stuff that most people think of when they hear the term costume.
One of my favor animals since childhood has been the Komodo dragon, but I can’t fit one of those on my arms, so I settled for the Australian monitor lizard instead. It is closely related to the Komodo dragon, and is just as smart, but a lot smaller.
You can view this and other brand new illustrations in my color illustration portfolio.
