Artist's commentary
Krita 5.0 – Kiki with a Parasol (2021)
This splash was initially a color study of Monet’s Woman with a Parasol. At the end of 2020, I learned that Krita would display a bigger version of the splash on Hi-DPI screens. The previous splash lacked the detail under such high resolution. Upon this point I had been using a minimalist approach to focus on the basics. But to privide a nice-looking Hi-DPI splash, I had to introduce more sophisticated techniques back to my works. The new approach allowed me to explore designs that wasn’t possible before. To live up to Kiki’s “Cyber Squirrel” name sake, I gave Kiki a more convincing robotic body with lots of exposed mechanical frames and joints. Translucent parts were applied to her hair, ears and tail. Her costume is the marriage of traditional maid attire and futuristic flashy materials.