Sekaido - Get!

Much thanks to anyone showin support last month for the Sekaido comp, unbelievably I'm walking with a prize! 

The exhibition will be held in Ueno, Tokyo Musashino art gallery September 9th to September 15th for anyone in the local area.

Retrospect - Sekaido 2012-14

Always good to take a glance back.

2014 - Temp Tetris
Pixels and pixelation were my focus this time round, although failing to achieve the effect I was hoping for (Tetris blocks raising from the ground up), managed to leap forward in complexity from previous years' pieces.

2013 - Shepherds Delight
Wanting to demonstrate something a little more complex, scrunched balls of cloth in a bugs eye view perspective was challenging enough. Gained a lot from this piece but ran out of time and couldn't achieve the depth I'd hoped for.

2012 - Morning Glory
Going on the theme of rising, visualizing the ground lifting in ribbons. Due to a lack of time, money and most most importantly skills, had to keep things very simple, sticking with a very limited pallet. 

Sekaido 2014 - Final

Fuuu! 

One lesson I learnt this time round was to really get comfortable with working on a larger scale. Last year was still overwhelming, this year not so much.

A little on the bright orange side but you live and learn. Being a central piece her main role was to add perspective and depth to the piece but having a vibrant skin tone works too.

Happy with the way the colors turned out, really wanted a strong dark-light divide but knew that black would be too heavy for my stuff.

Overall - happy.

Sekaido - Day 10

Still about 10 hours away from being presentable.

Sekaido - Day 6

Still away off completion, looking to establish the base three or four colors for the Tetris blocks and work outwards from there.

Sekaido - draft deadline

And just like that, you've got to know when to put down the pencils and pick up the paints. Far from perfect but it's solid enough at this point to work over.

The perspective is a little off but a deadline is a deadline.

Tetris drafting 2

Mock ups came out good enough, it's time to get on with the final piece.

Sekaido - day 2

Not a huge leap but getting that initial perspective is always rough.

 

 

Using a guideline would be much simpler but I'm not looking for geometrically accurate drawings (cos where's the fun in that?).

 

Working outwards should be plain sailing from here but I really gotto get those paints down.

Sekaido - day 1

Day one - just laying the foundations. Getting the perspective down was pretty smooth sailing, pixels up next.

 

Finding a strong foreground visual was pretty tough. Going with the theme of digital dreaming or digital deterioration was always the concept but having a human element always draws the viewers attention.

Sekaido - Bugs Eye

Missed a trick last year relying on my limited perspective drawing for the final piece. Always been into the concept of small looking up.

Sekaido Slices - Drafts

I'm a little slow on the off take this year but a one month deadline on the annual Sekaido comp means  it's crunch time.

Just some sketching and acrylin to see what's good.

Slicing and Dicing

Settled on a theme, time to get pencil to pad.

After a bit of experimenting with grids, dabbled with the sliding pixels.

Cubes add depth to the work - previous attempts pixelating visuals into 2d didn't work out. 

Maybe it's getting a little muddled, but dripping and drooling is gonna add to that floating effect.