three artists

Jenny Saville
http://www.gagosian.com/artists/jenny-saville/

Saville was born in England in 1970. She has exhibited her work worldwide, and is well known in the US and in Europe.  She currently lies in Oxford, England.   

I want to study Saville because I really like her painting style.  I think her style is a more exaggerated version of mine. I like how her strokes are loose and abstract, yet how she still focuses on details such as eyes.  I want to incorporate some of her style into my upcoming piece, whatever I decide to paint.  I'm sure I will either be focusing on a portrait or on a figure, while emphasizing my brush strokes.

Simon Birch

http://www.alivenotdead.com/simonbirch

Birch was born in Brighton, England in 1969.  He is a self taught painter.  Birch has lived in Hong Kong since 1997, and is a well known DJ and graffitti artist (cooOOoolll!) I learned on this site http://www.hongkonghustle.com/art-design/483/simon-birch-painter-hong-kong-art-exhibit-out-of-darkness-louis-vuitton-gallery/#more-483 that Birch is a recent cancer survivor too! This dude is the man.

I really like Birch's use of drips, and I actually tend to incorporate them in my paintings. (Or tended. I haven't painted since high school...which was only like 5 months ago, but it feels like longer)  I like his use of color.  What I like is that we know that human skin isn't green or blue, and doesn't have flecks of red, but that doesn't matter because it's all about the value.  I want to do that in my painting, along with the drips.  I'm not that into painting realistically, and both of these styles are what I identify most with.

Kareena Zerefos

http://www.escapeintolife.com/artist-watch/kareena-zerefos/

Zerefos' work plays on whimsical fantasies of childhood and the make believe. She graduated from the College of Fine Arts, and she works in a variety of media.  She works on projects for music, fashion, and advertising along with her career in the fine arts.

I'm upset because I couldn't find a bunch of her pieces that I really loved.  They were a series of portraits of women, and their faces were  realistically drawn with pencil and their hair was ridiculously painted in watercolors with bright colors.  I really liked the contrast of realism and abstraction.  I don't know that I want to include this in my work, But I really liked her painting style, and I wanted to experiment with water colors in that way.  I also really like her use of watercolor in the first image I posted of Zerefos' work, and I tried to mimic that in my comic.  I don't feel that watercolors are my strong suit, but it was fun experimenting with them, and I always enjoy using them.