I am an artist who explores various perspectives of contemporary celebrity culture through portraiture. I am fascinated and inspired by the music, aesthetics, dances, colors, flashing lights and personalities of these stars, however simultaneously I question –what is the cost of fame, glamour and appeal that are presented through this form of pop culture? What do they sacrifice in terms of being on the other side of the experience –by performing and creating music for the public and their fans? I realize there’s more to K-pop and Korean entertainment culture than merely the surface: the influence of K-pop to the world currently proves that music transcends language and speaks in different ways to positively affect its audience, motivating people to either want to become like them, simply enjoy the music and dancing, or be inspired and want to create something from it —I belong to the last category.
This piece started off as a digital art challenge I created for myself during winter break due to the fact that I mainly make art traditionally and spend less time creating artwork from scratch digitally. I wondered if all this time I’ve been painting portraits on canvas, would I have the skills to create the same realistic effect 100% on Photoshop with a graphics tablet? I aimed to test my own skills in comparing traditional painting to digital painting; this project started off as a black and white tonal portrait, then I proceeded to add color and finished with the highlights.
