3rd Basketball artwork

Kobe Bryant
Lee Shu Hui
Pencil on Paper
approx A3
14 November 2009

Kobe Bryant is awesome!!!!

This piece of work is meaningful to me because I'm a fan of Kobe Bryant. I started reading about him in the sports column of the newspapers in 2009. So this was done when my fandom was at its peak. I still admire him a lot though.

One point I'm not satisfied with is how I drew a very resolute thick line near his shoulder, which to me kills the realism of it all. But i can't change it anymore - considering how my sketchbook got thrown away.. and all that's left are the digital remains of it... ): r.i.p. One thing I struggle with is - when an artist has signed the date on the work, wouldn't going back and changing it later on compromise the integrity of the date written there? But then again, doesn't the artist have the discretion to change the work if it belongs to her and her alone?

I think I have a deeply rooted strength in sketching. But very humbly I acknowledge that there are still points for improvement in my technique, and perhaps I may never attain to the greatest perfection in pencilwork in the near future but perhaps practise may help me.

I remember depicting the muscles on his arms were tricky, because in the picture there wasn't really a distinct line - yet there were faint lines on his arms that were slick with his perspiration. (this sounds gross) I didn't really want to colour his arm and erase in the highlights, so i just used lines to represent the muscles on his arm. If I were to do this work now, I would approach sketching the arms in a different manner - I would be making softer side-to-side brushstrokes into the paper.

This piece of work was exciting for me because this was the first time (I think) I'd ever sketched in such a delicate style before - like a milestone I'd reached in artistic achievement. (Usually, in those days, my style was rough, hard pencil strokes. Sketching anime guys helped me with learning to sketch softly) Prior to this - or during this time - I was really into manga, so I didn't sketch realistically for a really long period of time. Instead I sketched manga guys. Before attempting this work, in May and June (this artwork was done in Nov) I sketched Kobe Bryant from pictures I found. The growth in my ability from then to here in November is astounding. I'll upload them to show the change.