Lee's Artlog

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2007- I was under strict deadlines to get my sketchbook and portfolio to ArtCenter by the end of February so time was of the essence. To begin with, I didn’t have a sketchbook, so I had to burn the midnight oil aggressively in order to catch up. I took it as a challenge to see if I had the desire to take the next step. In about 2 months, I generated about 75 sketches, ranging style from artists such as Degas to Joe Kubert. (My schoolwork suffered due to my alternate focus on this project.)

This sketch came from a wonderful book I had called ”The Nude” that I had unearthed from my father’s collection of photography books that he had gotten in the 1970′s. It was a wonderful book and had a strong collection of amazing poses and nudes. I took a fair sampling of work from the photos to work from and it Tranquil arose. By this time much of my dormant skill had returned. Although I had some difficulty with the juxtaposition of the left leg, the sheer speed and tenacity I approached Tranquil with, elevates its final composition as I walked away from it in under 20 minutes. 

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2006- The film Game of Death was a horrible film made to capitolize off of the death of Bruce Lee. A few scenes were filmed for it before Lee’s untimely passing, but the vast majority of the film is stock footage from other movies. It is also incredulously known as the film that used a cut out head in one scene to represent Lee’s. -It was that bad. I had the other films on DVD but decided to work on Game of Death in particular because not only was the film bad, the treatment of the DVD itself was as well.

I went for a mix of ‘Twentieth Century Fox meets Criterion Collection’ with the look. Scanning in a sweater to recreate the yellow jumpsuit, I played it up in photoshop and dragged it across the complete cover. I had to do some searching to locate the kanji for his name and an appropriate photo for the cover, and after some clever movie capturing, it came together nicely. 

  

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2007- I was really having fun exploring traditional ink and wash in its proper element after I had decided to use the right materials. Most pieces, including this one took about 5 to 7 minutes or so maximum. (I enjoy operating under such pressure as then the art I compose takes on an organic style, almost like a quickly growing vine.)

I wasn’t happy with the model at all though. -He lacked any form of muscle tone or definition. Earlier in the semester many students, myself included, became annoyed at having such a boring model to draw. On a few pieces, I refused to draw his whole body, concentrating on such elements as his face or hands.