Color design

The subject of this piece is Yuri from Yuri on Ice painted realistically in black and white with a blue t-shirt. The background is an ice skating rink with advertisements. I made this by sketching out my design with pencils, putting painter's tape around the edge, and painting (for the most part) from the background to the foreground. I chose to create this specific artwork for several reasons. First, I've been wanting to paint a face in black and white to work on understanding how to paint shadows without worrying about skin tones. Second, I wanted to take a cartoonish (anime) face and create (semi) realism. Thirdly, I had just finished the anime "Yuri on Ice" and I really liked the art. Given all of that, I thought that this design would incorporate the colors effectively. When I made this piece I used line to show shape. I used color to show value, and value to show form and texture.

This project changed and evolved a lot. It started out as a sketch in my sketchbook. Next, I sketched my design on the canvas. After that, I painted. While I was painting, I started over on the face many times. I started off with the eyes and nose too high, and bad shading. When I fixed that, I realised that I needed to start over. When I started over, I was really happy with the results, but then I tried to add glasses on the face, and ended up re-painting the face again (too quickly). I realized that I had done the cheekbones badly and the eyes were not symmetrical, so I fixed them. Then, I fixed the neck using a reference because I just had a plain gradient.

The idea of this artwork it that the boy is Yuri from Yuri on Ice, and he is at an ice skating rink (the color is an advertisement on the wall like at an ice rink). This relates to my life because I've been wanting to paint a face in black and white for a long time, and I just finished watching all of the Yuri on Ice episodes. One thing that I learned from this is that it can be easier to use on tiny brush for everything. If I could go back and change it, I would fix the following:

• Several pieces of the face aren't blended completely.
• The background doesn't look realistic.
• The green colors have too much blue.
• The measurements aren't perfect, so the blocks of colors are different sizes.
• The mouth shape is badly done.
• The eye shadows aren't symmetrical.
• The ears aren't symmetrical.
• The blocks of color have patches of white paint in them (not entirely my fault; my little brother smudged my paint).
• The cupid's bow above the mouth looks weird.
• The neck isn't blended well.
• The hair looks blocky.
• The painting looks nothing like Yuri.