After the restrictions and closures of the pandemic began to lift, I was eager to return to my neighborhood coffee shops, where I could finally sit down in a public space and experiment artistically with the human form. To get started, I found a piece of printer paper and began sketching a pencil draft inspired by Masaccio’s fresco painting, “Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise” (1428). Masaccio’s techniques were groundbreaking during the 15th century, so much so that his work was copied by many Renaissance painters. In the same year that he would finish this painting, he would die suddenly at the age of 27. According to a legend, he was poisoned by a jealous rival painter.
In this image, I aimed to visualize the chiaroscuro techniques that Masaccio pioneered, first through graphite and later by translating it into digital painting to see if the technique retained its depth and definition in a modern medium.
