My Nudes

The female nude is the most beautiful subject that I happen to be so fascinated in. Here are some of my work in this genre done in various types of media. Go to My Paintings for my work in oils using some nudes in a different context.




Blonde Nude. 12" x 15", Mixed Media (watercolor and pastel oils) on Illustration Board, December 21, 2004. Another nude study I experimented with pastels and watercolor combo. I'm particularly interested in figures under bright sunlight. The shadows and highlights make for interesting colors and contrast in the composition.




Reclining Nude. 8" x 12", Pencil on Pastel Paper, August 22, 2008. A friend came over and spontaneously asked me to draw her--uhm, nude. Who was I to say no? Fine, fine... here she is in full naked glory. And oh, I used a 500-watt spot light to bring on the shadows.




Reclining Nude, Asleep. 8" x 12", Pencil on Pastel Paper, August 22, 2008. The same friend who posed above, from a different angle. This one's more relaxed than the first pose. Yeah, you probably thought artists have boring lives--well, think again.




Morena Nude. 18" x 24", Oil Pastels on Textured Paper, September 2003. The darker shade of Asian skin (apart from the other Asian skin colors) is indeed very interesting to render, especially in a nude figure. It's what we Filipinos call the 'morena complexion'. It can spark off highlights that are mostly unnoticeable in Caucasian fair skin, and is more subtle compared to the pronounced contrast found in African dark skin.




Unfinished Nude Study. 10" x 15", Mixed Media (pastel oils and watercolor), December 2004. I don't remember where I got this but I'm sure it must have been from a picture. I don't remember having a live nude session with this model.




Nude Study. 12" x 18", Color Pencil Study, December 12, 2004. Another product of my mindless doodling, trying to master my technique in the female figure.




Entwined. 12" x 13", Pencil Study, February 14, 2008. This is the first time I've ever attempted to sketch a vivid dream and I can say it's about 80 percent accurate! Unbelievable! I hurriedly did this study as soon as I arrived at the office after lunch, around 6-8 hours after the actual dream. I'm going to paint this in oils and it's going to be on a 36" x 36" canvas. Now you can call Freud and let him analyze this! And no--they are not making love. They are simply lying sideways on the sand, seemingly comfortable against each other.




Neo-Baroque Nude Study. 15" x 20", Mixed Media (watercolor and color pencils) on Illustration Board, October 2002 (unfinished). I based this on Peter Paul Rubens' famous painting Rape of the Daughters of Leucippus but just for purposes of study, I added a third female figure and removed the second male, thus deviating from the original theme. I never got around to finishing this piece because I got caught up with other things then. But I still am going to finally do this in the next few weeks if I have the time.




Detail from Neo-Baroque Nude Study. This is a closer look at how I began with the details in the faces of the figures. I'm actually proud of the textured pencil strokes that make up these mini portraits. I must confess that I began this piece around the time when I had just viewed the critically-acclaimed Guiseppe Tornatore film Malena way back when I still taught film appreciation and television arts at USC. So it is quite obvious that the faces of the figures in this artwork are that of the sultry Italian sensation Monica Bellucci, who starred in that film.




Sleeping Nude. A nude watercolor study from a sketch I did with a live model. I know this one looks strange without the textured look of the rest of the artworks in here. I was still trying to find my most comfortable style of rendering the skin tone back then.



Angel in Pencils. This piece is actually the first test I did in color pencils, trying to see if indeed the lowly color pencil is a capable tool in producing impressive results as a stand-alone medium. It was a surprise to find that I actually loved the texture and color it added to my palette! This made me explore some more into watercolor/color pencil combinations. The rest of the sketches in this site can speak for themselves.

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