Sunday, July 19, 2009

Children's Portrait

My personal portrait assignment has been completed!
A client hoped to have a portrait drawn with a green field background but not limited to a specific place. Clothing and color textures were free to be coordinated by me. I worked on composition, including the person's height, arm position and color texture. I kept close contact with the client, ending up with mostly retouching other aspects than the face. I'm happy to hear she likes it very much.


European pastel with dry weather is my favorable scene such as "Les Enfants du marais" "Le château de ma mère " or "Il Postino". I'd really like to visit there because I have been to France only once more than ten years ago. I remember the Notre-Dame Cathedral, Louvre Museum, Orsay museum, Castle of Versailles, and Sevres Ceramics Museum very well. Paris looked fascinating to me.



I would like to take a new trip, which would show me the texture each place has. That would be helpful for me to draw wonderful pictures. Since I went back to Japan last year, I am planning to take a short trip to see some beautiful scenes this year.

Copyright © Chihiro Yabe. All rights reserved.

If you would like to see more a big picture, you can see the Fricker's.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Group Show News

Last week I stopped by the gallery where my art work is being exhibited in a group show. Unfortunately, I missed the reception party. When I saw my work hung up alongside the work of many others, it helped me learn a great deal in seeing my own work from a different perspective.

I recognized some of my future challenges through this viewing of the show. For the next assignment I will be working on increasing the impact of my work.

The exhibit will be on display from May 3 through June 14, 2009. It would be wonderful if you dropped by the show in Watertown and let me know how you felt.


”Anticipating the Spotlight”
Copyright © Chihiro Yabe. All rights reserved.

James King Bonnar Show
65 Main Street,Watertown, MA 02472



Thursday, February 26, 2009

Exhibition News

The new member show is on! One of my illustrations is being exhibited. There will be a reception on March 24th. The show will close on March 27th. Feel free to visit. I would appreciate it if you let me know how you like it.





"Her Small Universe"
Copyright © ChihiroYabe. All rights reserved.

Scandinavian Living Center
206 Waltham Street West Newton, MA

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Illustration West 47

This year is off to a good start. My work was selected into the Society of Illustrators of Los Angeles Annual Show. The winning entry was "The Coming of Spring with Tea". As I've been focusing on originality for a couple of years, I was not so active in participating in competition. My current goal is to publish Beatrix Potter and Tarsha Tuder.

Even while I thought my illustrations needed to be widely seen, I had no clue how to begin. I ended up concluding the shortest way is to challenge competitions as actively as possible. This is the first trial for me to submit my illustration to competition. My illustration is somewhat classical so that I'm wondering why my works could not beat others.

With that said, I am so happy to hear one of my works was selected this time. Dreams may be coming true? The accepted work will be displayed in an exhibition at Gallery Nucleus in March at L.A, and the Society of Illustrators' website in the spring.





Copyright © Chihiro Yabe. All rights reserved.

Friday, January 9, 2009

New Illustration

This is an illustration of a mother and her daughter sitting in a cafe after school having a very happy time. I painted this with a bright feeling. Since Japanese kids don't need to be transported between lessons and home, we don't see such a scenes in Japan. But this is typically seen here because kids in the US are taking rides to go back and forth, as my family does. This is a valuable time to share some space with kids.


"Coffee Time"

Copyright© 2009 Chihiro Yabe All Rights Reserved.

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Winter Show

I joined a local art association. One of my illustrations was exhibited at the winter show. The rose painting here was drawn last year. I could not submit a new work because it would take time to frame. I should be ready at all times by framing all the works for exhibition as I complete them, but it costs a lot, so there are many "unframed" works unless they are sure to be displayed.

I'm happy to unveil the rose anyway because it had not been exhibited before.

Copyright © ChihiroYabe. All rights reserved.

Bright Roses


EYE ON NATURE
Jan 6th throw Feb 26th
Auditorium of the Newton Culture Center
225 Nevada Street, Newton(the old Carr School in Newtonville).
9:30am to 5:00pm

Friday, December 5, 2008

Children's Portrait

The portrait is done finally before holiday season.
One thing we need to pay attention to when we draw from a photograph is that photographs deliver very small images when the background object is located even a little bit further from the main foreground subject. That may make my sketch into a mess.


I remember the scene where my daughter has a dandelion stick to the hair. Dandelion reminds me of spring which leads to dogwood, which are put into the background. The season must be blooming May. Dogwood is set out in the background evoking late spring Boston.

As they wore swim suits in the photograph, I borrowed an image from the J-Crew catalog, which helped a lot because I don't have son.

Copyright © ChihiroYabe. All rights reserved. 12" x 16"(in)

Now they look cool? Hopefully Yeah!

*This drawing is posted in my web page with permission of the client. Thanks for the order.