Pouring Wine

For the recent Valentine's Day, I had to get a gift for Summer. The easiest gift to get is the free one. I had this canvas sheet where I put a few thousand tiny triangles. I knew I wanted to use a photograph represented with triangles, and finally I found this one with someone pouring wine. Since Summer likes wine, it seemed like a good Valentines gift.

Eiffel

I needed to make a gift for Summer's sister, so I decided to paint a picture. I took one of my photos of the Eiffel Tower from a trip to Paris, split it up into small shapes and painted with a bunch of colors. Voila, Eiffel Tower.

Sisters

Another post tonight of a painting that was a gift. I have two students whom I teach English and science, and they are both fairly small Korean girls. I have a giant trench coat, and one day they both tried to wear it. I got a photo, and I thought it was so great that i had to create a painting of it, in the yellow-orange-red-purple color style. I think it turned out really well, but the only photo I have of it is really blurry. I'll try to take another one.

Break Dance

Here is a painting that was done as a gift. My wife's sister was getting married, so I did the cheap thing and painted something for a gift. She works in hip-hop dancing in China, and she was just furnishing a new home, so I figure a painting of some break dancers would be nice. I basically went online and found a few pictures of dancers, painted them in some kind of monochromatic style, and then did a sort of outline emanating from them. I think it turned out very well.

 

Dragon Lantern

I already gave this gift to my Mother for Christmas, so its OK for me to post it here now. Its a square lantern that I picked up in Chinatown in Montreal, which I wanted to paint some dragons on. I started painting a smaller one, but I realized it was upside down and that I didn't like it. Then I found a black and white picture of a dragon head which I painted on each side and colored. I put of couple of Chinese words on there, too. It's for my Mom's bedroom which she will decorate East Asian style.

Summer

Here's a picture I painted for my girlfriend. It's from a picture where she is posing next to this strange statue in Incheon, Korea. I jazzed up the colors a little bit, and this is what I got.

Tulips

Here is the second in the day of tree and plant related posts. It's flowers. I painted this one for a friend, and I think it turned out OK. It's a little sad that my favorite part of it is the background.

Flower Lantern

This lantern was a gift I painted for my little sister when she graduated from college in 2010. It's pretty simple, just a giant flower on the top and bottom of the lantern. I like how the shading looks on the flowers, but my favorite part is probably the background yellow and orange colors.

acrylic on paper lantern

diameter ~12"

Gorilla

Here's a painting that got really positive feedback when I showed it to people. But unfortunately, it is unavailable because I have already promised it to someone. Anyway, it's a gorilla. I think that the colors I chose turned out really well for it. Somehow green, purple, and gold look good together.

Stripes

Here's another painting I made as a gift. I gave it to my older sister because she let me stay at her apartment when I was finishing my thesis. It's a bunch of stripes, and I really like the colors. I guess the point of it is that the stripes on the left start out at the opposite orientation as those on the right, and then the gradually turn until they are aligned.

African Pot

And now more paintings! It looks like I have around 50 or 60 to post for now, and then I'll post them as I keep on making them. This one is pretty simple, it's a pot that I got in Africa, and then I added a lot of lines around it. I did a lot of that at the time. Anyway, it was a gift for my Mom.

acrylic on paper

Max and Dexter

Here's a painting I made for my sister for Christmas 2009. So its pretty much just a picture of her cats' heads. I was going to try to make it like their heads are popping through some paper kind of like Porky Pig during "that's all folks," but that didn't really work out. It's still pretty cool, anyway.

Drop

I'm just working my way through all of the paintings I have to put up. This one is based on a picture of a drop of water hitting a water surface. I used the contour of the surface and then split it into the block sections, as I did with some other paintings. I think that the geometry turned out well, but the colors aren't the best. I recently gave this painting to my friend Mike for taking care of my cats.

acrylic on paper

11"x 17"

Duel Guitars

This painting I made for my friend who lets me stay with him in NYC about once a year. He would probably let me stay with him even if I didn't bring him a painting, but I do it anyway. The painting is two guitars, a Les Paul and some crappy Fender bass, and then the interaction of lines drawn from the surfaces of the instruments.

acrylic on paper

11"x 14"

Falling

This paintings pretty strange, I painted it for a Christmas present for my little sister. It's a person falling and being stretched at the same time.

acrylic on paper

11"x 14"

The Owl

I wanted to add this picture because I just stumbled on it and remembered how good it is. I just took a picture of an owl and substituted some bright colors instead of the browns. I think the eyes are my favorite part. This was painted as a gift.

acrylic on canvas

11"x14"

Dual Sky Lantern

Finally a lantern! I started painting lanterns when I found out I could get them pretty cheaply in Korea. They are super fun to paint. It's like painting in three dimensions, though its really two, but whatever.

This one features two different colored suns at the top and bottom as well as two different colored trees. It really turned out great for a lantern with the warm colors. I have it to a friend in Korea.

acrylic on paper lantern

~14" diameter

Earth to Sky

I'm starting to realize that I have a lot of favorite paintings, but this one has got to be a top 5 for me. It's supposed to be two smokestacks growing from the ground and pluming smoke into the sky, but it can be whatever you want it to be as well. It was yet another gift to a friend.

acrylic on canvas

Missy in a Rush

This one is another one of my favorites. It's a painting of one of my friends I used to work with when she was running to finish her work.

acrylic on canvas

Bottle Cap

I painted this when I was just trying to think of things to paint. I looked at my table and there was a bottle cap with the light hitting it just right. I gave it to a friend as a gift.

acrylic on paper

11"x 17"