ultimate wish series: hanh celebrating in the tet parade

This is the first in a series of portraits where the theme is based on the subject's ultimate wish. In this case, the subject is my wife, Hanh. I gave her some time to think over her wish and in the end after a few starts she decided she wanted to be celebrating the Vietnamese new year as the Queen of the parade.

From this info I began compositional thumbnails and research on Vietnamese tradition which led to this one sketch of the piece. A work in two parts, Hanh in the parade on right and left below a representation of the Kitchen God about to ascend and report on the family's kitchen habits from the previous year. I was investigating incorporating Vietnamese tradition by adding the Kitchen God. In the end I decided against using this as part of the piece, I may revisit it. Included however are motifs referring to the traditions. These motifs include the lions, costumes, flowers, firecrackers among others.

While working out the composition, I also worked on studies of Hanh. I asked her to pose for a total of 3 hours. I also worked from props (lions, lanterns, flowers and costume). I used this information and some photographic references to create the final piece.

This is a very special piece because the subject is my wife. It is also the first in the series and the first time I used color pencils. I have learned an immense amount from this piece and will put this knowledge to use for each consecutive piece, each building on the last.