Jellyfish

A commission done for a friend
graphite on paper

Getaway

First piece of a personal project that I'm playing around with

Rain, go away after I paint you.

Aubrey Plaza

This woman is all sorts of interesting

Husky year

I've always loved Huskies ever since I rode on a dog sled during a trip to Alaska when I was a kid. I've always wondered about those amazing dogs.

Almost finished working on a series of paintings. But for now, A quick sunset from today.

LA>SF

T

Thinking about technology lately. I missed seeing the Spaceshuttle flyover. Since we are all mostly stationed on the ground, I thought that we would be seeing mostly the bottom tummy of a 747 so I didn't put much effort to watch out for it. Fortunately, friends have been posting pictures of Endeavor all over facebook and making me deeply regret missing out!. It looks like it got pretty low. Looked sexyy. Anyways, slightly unrelated...I've been thinking/wishing/dreaming about a high speed line to San Fran for forever now and just recently heard about Elon Musk's mysterious Hyperlop idea. LA to SF in 30min! It made me want to paint this piece. Also, nothing is publicly known about this hyperloop thing except for the few sentences Mr. Musk spoke of, therefore no one knows how it works or what it's supposed to look like so...HAA I draw what I want! Hyperloop going through California.

New in town

I wanted to do a piece based off my personal experiences. This one is about traveling and the awesome inevitable event of getting lost. Also, the guy holding the map is smart and doesn't want to waste battery on his phone since he's lost so that's why he's looking for directions the old school way.

Yikesss...I suck at blogging. Sorry for the lack of posts and for anyone that came expecting something new. It's been a crazy year. Basically I've been busy illustrating a children's book for a super awesome vfx studio called New Deal Studios. When I know when it's coming out, you will know! Anyways, I took a color and light class awhile ago with the great and legendary Bill Perkins. He's as good a teacher as he is an artist. Solid knowledge and wisdom. He breaks down light and color in such a manageable way when observing and applying. I stitched together my in-class studies that we did after the lecture. I liked how he emphasized NOT letting the temptation of trying to create a cool art get in the way of focus on learning and discovering(which is pretty much what anyone can only do with 40min - 1 1/2h of painting anyways) Very freeing. I think the best exercises were when we had to paint the same setup over again with different lighting. Comparison is enlightening. Some of these are horrible and some are I think OK, but the learning was incredible and it altered the way I think and paint. Actually, the failed ones are exciting for me too because I can analyze what went wrong and figure out what I would do differently now. Weeeee self-improvement!

The Witches' Gathering

This is a continuation of my senior graduation project at Art Center where I Illustrated passages from the book The Subtle Knife. Well... actually, I initially sketched out a rough version but forgot about it until I recently flipped through my old sketchbooks and wanted to flesh it out. OR I just wanted a reason to paint the Milky Way. I title this scene, The Witches' Gathering.

Some more about the piece: The witches live in harmony with nature, but to emphasis the ancient and sacredness of the gathering, I designed the trees and rocks to mirror Greek/Roman architecture in order to evoke emotions those motifs(columns and arches) bring. It's always nice to find the opportunity to fit in a metaphor no matter how subconscious-y it may be. At least for me, it makes the piece more interesting to do(for those out there that call out bullshit hahaha!).

Difficult Goodbyes

I think this is finished...I may tweak later. Playing with a more slick, graphic style here combined with lighting and some textures. Very FUN!!

portrait

A portrait I did for my friend Caesar. Trying out a new direction and style with this.

Caesar is a crazy good photographer and partying with him is always crazy too.
http://www.caesarsebastian.com/
http://caesarsebastian.tumblr.com/

Presentinggg

My friends from high school started a website called campusounds.com. The goal of their site is to promote college bands and music and place where people can see what their friends and other people are doing musically on campuses around the world.

I did this poster to help them promote an event they are setting up called “Campusounds Presents”, showcasing bands from campuses around the NYC area. Check it out if your in the area. $10 tickets! (cheaper than going to a movie!)

Reboot!

Re-commiting myself to blogging again. I'm sorry if I have disappointed anyone has come back to this blog hoping to see new work ever since the last post. Although in my defense, my hands have not been completely idle since then. I graduated Art Center!

Check out my portfolio blog:



benchuangportfolio.blogspot.com




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portraits!

portraiture with david luce was a blast! here are some that i liked, two in class and the midterm. i finished the piece for the final but i want to make more changes on it. perhaps i will put it up sometime later. It was a crazy term, learned a lottt but not much to post, unless you want to see endless pages of storyboards and bad fine art made even worse by reproduction.

figure drawings

One of my first loves in life is figure drawing. This page is in my portfolio too. My recent drawings are in a tidy pile somewhere in my room... I don't think ill be up to another round of scanning anytime soon. Scanning by the ton is a dull, uncomfortable and unending pain pulsating in your head... kinda like a brain freeze.

countryside

a painting i did for my grandparents. its supposed to be a scene of Taiwan's countryside/farmland around where they grew up. yes i know that's a weird looking building in the middle...yes i could have done a much more charming little country house BUT there are actually a bunch of those; its a characteristic of the landscape. Just a little dabbling into Realist painting :) Confused? google it..get some art history in you

Paris

Repost..color still desaturated. i give up

again

Color Theory Final, I'm too lazy to post all the different paintings separately so here the whole display.
Its more desaturated on the blog than its supposed to be, anyone out there know why?... is there a setting im supposed to click or type of file that needs to be uploaded? or is it just my computer screen... i hope its just my screen, wait..yikes,,nvm, that would mean my screen is messed up. i take that back, it's not my screen...something must be wrong with the blog

+ another

Landscapes