FINE ART PROJECTS 🖼️🎨✨
Welcome to my digital portfolio— fine art!
I am an artist most known for my quirky, Y2K-esque designs, but I started doing digital fine art prints initially.
My fine art style is inspired by the faceless, Afro-figurative art of the 80s and 90s. I am heavily influenced by them and particularly an artbook that featured art from Annie Lee, Eric Barnes, and Synthia Saint James.
I like to focus on the colors, the scene, the movement, and not necessarily the faces.
My lens is a little bit different than my influences because I am also a children's illustrator, and like to explore themes of nostalgia. Part of my nostalgia is watching another artist Michael Cariglio (aka Pappy Drew-It) draw with a permanent marker and giving all my drawings a dark black outline to mimic him.
I love trying new styles and techniques and love stepping out of my box depending on client needs.
Thank you for your consideration!
— Dianne O. (Shades of Dianne)
shadesofdianne@gmail.com
CAPTURING BLACK MOMENTS 📷✊🏾✨
I love reminiscing on classic, shared Black cultural moments and elevating them within my artwork.
Something as casual as "Hair Day" (the featured artwork) in our culture is elevated as one of my favorite pieces. This is based off my many hair days as a kid and this would've been around 1997 (because of the clothing I remember).
In college I studied social psychology and anthropology, and we don't realize that these casual shared experiences are our culture's currency and help build our communal identity as Black people.
These pieces of currency never seem like much, but they are a necessity for cultural upkeep and community building. Highlighting them in my art is a way for me to honor their significance.
A POP OF COLOR 🌈
Another technique I employ in most of my pieces is emphasizing highlights and shadow in color.
It creates more movment and energy than your standard shadows— which is the goal for all my pieces.
"Rootbeer with Grandma" is the first piece I used this technique and it is one of my favorite pieces of all time.
CHILD'S PLAY 🧒🏾🧸✨
As stated before, I'm also a children's book illustrator, and I lean heavily into nostalgia. I like to think a portion of my art and art style captures some of the whimsy of being a child and the limitless expanse of our imagination as kids.
Who says you can't wear a space helmet to help with your allergies? (As shown in the picture below "Biggest Cheerleader") Why can't you go to space with a little tiny alien friend? (bottom picture "Space Pals")
And not to sound cheesy, but we all got a large part of our imaginations from what read or were read. This picture I drew of a book-binding customer I had at work reading a book to his kids in the 70s who was now going to read the same book to his grandkids captures that energy.
