When I came back from Odiyan this summer I was aching to get into some painting. I had a sketch in my book of this character, the lovely blue-haired anime girl, and had been meaning to give her a more serious treatment on canvas. This was the first painting I put together since my return.

Not too long afterwards I managed to get it hung at a local Port City Java cafe, about two blocks away from where we live. I did forget to photograph it before hanging it up there and it wasn't until just this week that I remembered to go down there and take the picture. So here it is, With Open Eyes, acrylic on canvas. It's 16 in. x 20 in., so not as big as some of my previous work.

I've promptly uploaded it on Minitokyo and a new local art community website I joined up recently called This Is Viral. Ning. Check out the Minitokyo page here, or at This Is Viral. Ning here. I strongly recommend viewing the larger version for better detail.

As I wrote on MT, my intention as of late is to bring more focus to individual parts of the anime face in an effort to discover what makes them so compelling to me. By focus closely on one element at a time I hope to discover how it can generate its effects alone, without necessarily being part of the entire face.

Granted that this piece is a slight step back in terms of focus, especially if you compare it to Tears. However, the focus on the eyes in this piece still shows their effectiveness to me. Rest assured, more images are to follow in this exploration.