Art Diary #1 ~ Daechwita Impressionist Study
My study during the gestural stage
My recent painting comes from a couple different goals of mine lately. Firstly, I’ve felt a wave of inspiration from Impressionist painting after seeing the Monet and Venice exhibit and really wanted the chance to apply what I’ve learned from my observations. I also felt the call to paint in general and wanted to do a fun and quick study to jumpstart my engine.
This was a spur-of-the-moment painting I did. I really just wanted to paint and not to bother with planning anything in depth out, which landed me with choosing a still from the music video for Daechwita by Agust D aka Suga from BTS. I guess this goes under the fanart umbrella— which discussing fanart and art could be a fun topic for another day. But I felt like sharing some of my thought process that got me here. I suppose this is more of an art diary.
Still from the Daechwita music video, Agust D
As for this particular still, the main appeal for me is the bamboo hat Suga is wearing. When I first saw the video, it instantly reminded me of a painting I made a while ago of a girl in traditional hanfu, including a somewhat similar hat. A huge interest and influence in my art is traditional arts and crafts mainly from China but other Asian countries as well, so I felt drawn to the overall nod to traditional Korean culture in Daechwita. I especially enjoy the use of traditional elements when intersected with a modern setting.
I wanted to experiment with an Impressionistic style of painting— looser strokes, pushing the colors, and a greater sense of atmosphere above anything else. I think I did not bad!… To be honest, I’m really happy with this painting and enjoyed the process, which probably prevented me from pushing even harder on it. I think I got to a point where I was pretty satisfied and said ok that’s enough. But also, I didn’t want to fret on it that much either and be overly perfectionist.
I finished it in about 3 hours and I think that’s pretty good— trying to think fast, but still intentionally. My biggest focus was on my color usage. After studying some Impressionist art, I wanted to have that same colorful sense. Despite the reference being somewhat muted, I wanted to take that and punch it a little more. I did this mostly with the underside of the hat, laying on yellow ochre basically straight on. I wanted it to have a natural orange-ish glow. Most of my other color choices in the paining were to help that color pop out more. I think I could’ve pushed the colors a little further and maybe introduce more, but that’s a note for next time.
My finished study framed
In the end, I think I am most happy with the general atmosphere the painting achieves. I like the mysterious vibe, the obscured face, and the blurry background. I think it creates a lot of interest that makes me want to look at it for longer and wonder what’s going on— even though I know! Originally, I thought that I would do something similar to the thumbnail of the video that focused on Suga’s face, but I felt less room for the blurry Impressionistic improvisation. I didn’t really want to focus on if it resembled someone or not, but capturing it via vibe, but those who know, will know. So— a good stepping stone for future projects and a dedication to a song with a great energy that I wish to channel more.
