Stargazer, 2008

This was another important piece in my mind because it was the first time I painted the shadows on in this way to create a 3D-ish diorama sort of feel that I always tried to achieve through collage & photography before. I've since used this technique on most of my paintings and it's actually changed my way of thinking about the 2d space.

Before, I found that if I abstracted too far then the sense of form was lost. Which was sad, because I like abstracting. But I also like creating pictures with a believable dimension. This push & pull technique allows me to create non-realistic abstracted characters that can exist in a real space (albeit a 2.5D shadobox space). Still, take a look through my portfolio and you'll find that almost everything has some element of the shadows you see here.

Detail: