Stone Angel: Revisited

What is this? A blog post?! I’m not one to journal out-loud and share a whole lot online… but I find that it’s kind of difficult to portray each and every creative endeavor I make as time goes on. Sometimes they don’t quite fit any of the portfolio categories I have on this website. How do I share some event I helped to organize in a video game or a work that I’ve revisited after a few years have gone by? Well, this is how.

Now, a few years ago (2020) I enrolled in some Schools courses after I graduated from Oregon State. I had so much pent up creative energy but no where to put it as there was a pandemic going on. I had noticed that my creative skills and fundamentals needed a refresher so that’s why I set on to do a year long self-orchestrated program using the courses available to me.

These courses were taught by legends in entertainment and art industries, though the first one I took that centered on drawing fundamentals was a nice reminder on contrast, shadow, basic color theory, what have you. Most times after sitting through courses I was prompted with a homework assignment. One of these times I was tasked with taking the contrast up a notch with a stone angel. This was an exercise in trying to work proportions right, to exaggerate contrast, and to refine my drawing skills.

At the time I was blown away at my ability to imply form with subtle changes in gray. I had created something that had definition! For a while this was my desktop background because I was baffled by it. As time went on and I got a few retail based jobs to stay within the work force I realized that oh no— I have been letting my portfolio slack a little bit. I decided to do what I see a lot of artists do: I revisited a piece of art from my past two years later. I admit that I had been drawing digitally as time wore on, they were more personal works with a favored brush.

This time around I decided to emphasize a subtle use of color but only after working in an off-white and dull base. Color balance is my best friend and sometimes I overuse it, so I spent hours, days, on trying to be more subtle about color changes and value subtleties. He’s not a perfect 1:1 of the reference, but he wasn’t meant to be in the first place. Overall I think he looks absolutely beautiful and if I may say— he’s had a glow up over the years!