My soon-to-be mother-in-law is obsessed with Taiwanese pop star Aska Yang. She spends hours every day in a chat room on a fan site, and has even gone all the way to Taiwan just to meet some of these other fans. An extra bonus was that she somehow managed to have dinner with Aska himself while over there! Anyway, when I go to Pittsburgh for the wedding next week, it will be my first time in her home. As a gift, I decide to do this painting.
One challenge for me is that I don’t really know what Aska Yang looks like. Photos found on the Internet are often too low res, and since people tend to look different in every picture, it’s hard to know where to start. Stars are often glammed up, and the photos themselves are often touched up, which makes it even more difficult. Since Mrs. Cheung has seen Aska up close and personal, she REALLY knows what he looks like, so there wasn’t much room for error. The other problem is that I didn’t want to work from just one photo because I wanted the composition of the painting to be somewhat original. I’m not worried about using a copyrighted picture for a painting if I am not selling it, but just as a matter of respect for the photographer, I don’t ever like to copy exactly. Also, there were things I liked and things I didn’t in each of the pics I came across. I ended up painting his neck and jacket pretty much from imagination, and I am not really happy with the way they came out. I could have done better if I had more time, but once I get into trying to fix every little thing that bothers me, it never ends. A painting would never be finished if I didn’t force myself to put the brush down and walk away. Overall, I am pretty happy with how the face came out, though. Hopefully, my mother-in-law will think it’s a good likeness. If any of you happen to know what Aska Yang looks like, please leave a comment here telling me what you think.
Tags: Aska Yang, Taiwanese pop star
Wow, Ry, this is amazing! I actually don’t know Aska Yang, or what he looks like in person, but from the images I’ve seen on the internet, you’ve definitely captured something. And it is a super nice portrait, regardless of how exact he might look like the pop star. Makes me kinda want to find a new crush so I can ask you to make a portrait, too. ^____^
First of all, congratulation! Wishing you a very happy married life.
You do a great portrait. Is this painting based on the photos of Aska Yang’s studio album – Dove.
Here are the albums of Aska Yang’s blog and his official site – http://www.wretch.cc/album/nonodarling
http://www.onlyaska.com/album.html
You can check to see if your work match the real photo.
Once again, wishing you a wonderful wedding and, blessing you both happiness and love forever.
Thanks! Those links have a lot of great stuff, and I wish I had them when I was doing the portrait. I ended up just “google image searching” until I found pics with high enough resolution. I didn’t even get a good look at the main sites where the pictures originated from. I’ll attach the pics I ended up using when I am back on my own computer. They aren’t on the laptop I am currently using. My mother-in-law liked the portrait, so I’m happy!
da best. Keep it going! Thank you