illustration friday: midsummer night

A few months ago, I took a bunch of random pictures on the High Line of all different people.  I knew I wanted to do a painting based on one of the pictures because their gestures were great.  They were sitting on a bench in the picture but I made them lay on a make-shift raft made of mattresses and fabric for the painting.  I thought of putting lanterns in the sky because thousands of them were released a few days ago in Poland to celebrate midsummer.   Hernan Bas was my inspiration for this painting. I really admire his paintings for their elegance and color.

amy winehouse bird

This is Amy Winehouse as a bird called the Loggerhead shrike.  The bird has black around the eyes like Amy's eyeliner. Unlike the real bird, the Amy bird stores her eggs in her big hair nest.  It was my first time doing jagged edges on the side.  Since peeling the tape off  is one of my favorite parts, it was fun to make that "ripped look" which I thought represents Amy's personality more than a straight, crisp, edge.

Illustration Friday

                                                                                       Word: Launch

I took a picture of these 3 people on a bench when I was walking next to Macy's on 34th street.  At first I passed them and said, "that would be an awesome picture" but I kept walking.  Then, I walked back like a nerd and took a picture of them as I was walking so they wouldn't see me.  I decided to incorporate the people in this painting where they are launched by a fish boat across the tropical sea with a view of cotton candy sky.

asleep

Illustration Friday entry: ASLEEP

I decided to paint a leg with pins and needles that fell asleep instead of a person falling asleep. I had fun with this one but would still like to go back and fix a few things.