FROM BEGINNING TO END: THE PROCESS
And deciding when it's finished.
Visualizing color, strokes, posture…
After a rough sketch on a 28" by 24" bare slab of wood, I originally envisioned a portrait with a color dichotomy of purple and yellow. After layers of oil paint and some linseed oil, she's someone brought to life with a few simple colors.
"Too Tough To Drown" Oil Paint on Wood. [No reference used]
Landscape toned pastels with an abstract figure.
My latest self-portrait. Originally, the idea was to create multiple faces of myself stemming out of a straight-faced focus. I took photos of myself on my Macbook's Photobooth App, then worked with photoshop to test out what that idea would look like in a tangible form. I painted this 47" by 24" slab of wood with a faint rusted acrylic shade, then with rough strokes, began the central face on top of it with oil paints. I'm drawn to contrast, so turquoise and magenta became the base colors for the portrait. At first, white oil paint was the background. Then gold acrylic paint, but it seemed too yellow-hued and one-dimensional. So, my art teacher handed me a book on Gustav Klimt for inspiration and bought me two shades of gold and copper spray paint, and every day I went outside after school to spray paint the piece and ultimately coated it with about one hundred layers of gloss spray and varnish. Finishing touch - a piece or two of gold leaf.
This is my largest piece, and one of the most challenging. In person, the gloss creates this translucent multi-dimensional effect on the faces - creating this inviting aura and push-pull effect. The painting, for me, represents growth and becoming as a person. Of the multiple facets that create a whole personality. With a slight whisper of a starry effect, the gilded look, and the fixed gaze it's also an assertive stance of this is me, today, and I'm present, physically.
And when someday I won't be, hopefully this painting at least will.
"Antithesis: A Self-Portrait" Oil Paint, Spray Paint, Acrylic, Gold Leaf, Gloss.
Another self-portrait! Simple - 15 minutes, pencil and watercolor only.
A still life in oil paint! Done in my school's art class.
The sixth image in the grid was actually where I had set it aside as finished... then I suddenly took it home one weekend and really finished it.
23" by 23" Oil paint on wood.
Shooting for a poster. The final product is the photograph edited with Adobe Photoshop.
Another self-portrait! Done with henna onto wood, then spray painted my face onto it with layered stencils that I cut out of plastic, and accented with gold acrylic.
The focus of the piece is on the self, surrounded by and intertwined with raw henna designs - a symbol of my culture embedded within me. The rusting fragility of maintaining one's culture, yet trying to achieve that golden balance in becoming myself with the influence of so much else.
A woman in Afghanistan. She's so calm and beautiful!
"Invocation" Graphite on paper. [Reference image taken by Sheba Vohra]
Little class doodles, and pictures of various works in progress.
This is a portrait of Gigi Hadid. Graphite and watercolor on paper, followed by digital retouching on Adobe Photoshop.
A simple hair illustration - learning details, posture, fabric, and color.
Quick time-lapse of the sketch on the right!
Putting compost to use with printed clementine peels…
My art teacher at school told us all to make this piece of someplace special. I chose a winding staircase on the back of my grandparents' house in India…
Brainstormed with scrapped ink doodles of the lawn's Plumeria tree leaves, and then many, many drafts of staircase sketches. When one seemed good enough, I carved it out onto a thin plexiglass rectangle in order to create ink prints of the staircase. Evidently, the prints took multiple tries. One struck right, and the staircase itself began to flower. If you climb the stairs, you'll see everything beautiful from the view above ground.
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