Design Objective:

Digital painting is a foundation for building skills to produce intricate illustrations that can be applied to areas of fine art. The objective is use a computer drawing tablet to produce an original and conceptual artwork in Adobe Photoshop.

Design Brief:

I was inspired by the portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer by Gustav Klimt. I wanted to use pieces of the portrait that I loved and combine it with the bold and traditional colors that Chinese Opera is very well known for. I created a gold-confetti background inspired from the painting and rendered a Chinese Opera dancer in bright red and blue traditional Chinese attire, with intricate gold designs running throughout. The contrast between the vibrant colors allow the dancer to pop out against the gold background. As a finishing touch, usage of shadows and highlights were used for the Chinese Opera dancer’s face, hair, and outfit to create the illusion of volume.

The gold designs on the clothing compliments the background, helping to seamlessly tie in figure and ground. Due to the rich colors, the focal point and figure is the Chinese Opera dancer, while the gold background acts as the ground. The background shows movement and repetition of the square confetti. The symmetrical painting uses a variety of design principles to evoke a modern take on an old classic.