What I'm painting right now

right now -
I'm doing a study of Xu Beihong's "Slave and Lion"
The original painting was done in 1924
and it was auctioned by Christie's in Hong Kong at 53.9 million HK dollars (6.9 million U.S. dollars)
a record high price compared with other Chinese artists' paintings worldwide.

Here's the pic of the original painting
I saw this on a magazine and I just fell in love with it.
but what I do is I cut out the slave and only paint the lion and the cave w the colorful background.


honestly... I started this painting in 2007 and left it untouched for 2.5 years....
and now after fiddling with it for 20 hours ;p.... it's finally done :)
not perfect.... still a lot to learn....but it was a learning experience n I'm quite happy with the result

sometimes I love the colors on my rag paper towel


The pallette after washed and scraped ;p


anddd.........
I have my canvases all lined up for next projects
next is lion head
next is loose portrait of a lil girl
next is fun painting, becoz the canvas frame is dented and I just wanna have fun dabbing paints and playing with colors
can't wait for that one :)

Tips when you're frustrated in painting

Since I'm still learning,
I find myself in a situation where I don't know how to paint this and that
"how do I do this ? do that ?"
"Ooopss !! "
"Nooo... what have I done ??!!!"
and sometimes it just got so frustrated when you have no one to turn to

So
this is what I do :
- I take time off
Go out, do whatever, have fun and not think about the painting
- I go to youtube looking for painting technique video
- I look other people's paintings that I love
(gallery, books, etc)
- I go to art forum , in this case www.wetcanvas.com

After a while, I started to reflect on what technique I can do to improve the painting
I'll be like, "hey.... this should work" and "ooo yeaa... I can do that to achieve that effect."

and at the end of day 1
Motivation is back and I'm ready to paint again :)

Arts and Artists I love

http://www.robertbateman.ca/art/rbop/rbatemanonpainting.html
http://www.robertbateman.ca/art/rbop/fiveeasypieces.html
good inspirational read :)

http://www.terryisaacsart.com/
I have his book on acrylic painting technique "Painting the Drama of wildlife"
a good one

http://wildlifeart.wordpress.com/
or www.jasonmorgan.co.uk
amazing wildlife artist - oil painting
WIP in his blog

http://www.epicart.net/
man, that tiger looks like a photograph

Pochi painting WIP

My last painting was 3 years ago....
crazy huh....
anyway...
this is a painting that's long overdue
I posted that I was going to paint this one on Dec 19th 2007
and it's now April 2010
wihuuuuu......

okay......
so this is Pochi Poronchi
(the reference pic)


and this was left like this for around..... 2 years ?
oh my


okay.... so I recently started painting again
Day 1 (3 hours)
adding in some color inside


did the eyes and the spray bottle
I've never done still life, so with the spray bottle, I was struggling with the shape and how to make it look plastic-ky


Day 2 (3 hours)
added more background color
it was ultramarine blue + dioxanine purple + titanium white
it took me quite some time to do the background
I'm re-learning the basics of acrylic.....


a little zoom



Day 3 (2.5 hrs)
adding fur details
I'm starting to get frustrated here....
how do I do this ? how do I ? how ? how ? how .....




Day 4 - didn't paint

Day 5 (5 hrs)
finding courage and continuing with it

yeppp.... 5 long hours of trials and errors and experimenting and figuring out this and that

the result :)

I know it may not look finished...
It feels like it's a cut and paste object placed on the canvas
but I really like the color of the background and how it gives a flowy feeling
I seriously find the flowy purple soothing to look at
and I don't want to mess it by adding shadows
and honestly, I'm scared to ruin it ;p
So I'm leaving it like this for now....
This is just to get me started painting again, I don't want to put too much pressure on myself
I was quite pleased with the result :)
I know it's not perfect and the object may be a bit too small in proportion to the canvas.
and I need to learn more about how to paint fur
but for now.... I like it :)

closer look


I'm always open for critiques and suggestions :)
feel free to comment :D

Pochi & spray bottle
Acrylic on Canvas (50cm x 60cm)

Dried Acrylic paints

ahoohooohoooohuuhuuu :(
I have a jar (474 ml / 16 oz) of TitaniumWhite Finity Winsor & Newton that has dried up :(
I bought it years ago.
It's kinda rubbery now and if I use an old brush and fiddle with it for a while, I can use it, except it may have tiny clumps here and there.
that's US$20 wasted :(
I searched the internet whether there's something I could do to save it, but I couldn't find any solution, so in frustration I poured a little bit water on top.
I know, but it gave me a peace of mind "at least it'll stay 'moist' under that water now"

Maybe I'll use it for a 'fun' painting, crazy impasto ;p
white on white
or pastel colored painting
we'll see
UPDATE :
I used a pallette knife and
I just pressed the paint with the pallette knife onto the canvas, kinda like using a gesso
and it works :)
of course it takes time to spread and smooth the paint onto the canvas and just keep going until it's all even.
if you have some spare time, it's actually kinda fun :)
so this way, I get to use my "dried-up" white paint

seee :)

on the other hand,
I have another glass jar of Liquitex Titanium White (the flowy one)
which I couldn't open for years
so I actually managed to open it...yeayyy
How ?
Heat water in a pan until hot enough... not boiling
put the glass jar upside down for a while, not too long though, just to make the Acrylic that's dried up inside the jar to soften up a bit so it won't seal shut the lid anymore.
then take it out of the water
leave it for a while if the glass jar & lid are too hot to touch
you might want to use a thin surgical glove here
then... twist the lid open and voilaaaaaaaaa !!!! :)
so happy I got it open
then wipe or pull the softened dried acrylic that's been "gluing" the lid to the jar
yupp... that's why u need the glove so you don't get paint all over your hand :)
that's it :)
easy and the paint is still good and flowy :)
just like brand new

Acrylic paints

I though I could find Finity Acrylic paint from Winsor Newton at bookstores but I couldn't find them :(
(they only carry the Galleria line)
then, d'oh.... I just found out Winsor n Newton have a new name for their Artist line, it's now called the "Artists' Acrylics"
(it was Finity Artists' Acrylic before....so they just omit the name Finity)


Anyhoo
I bought all my paints long time ago and luckily most of them haven't dried up yet otherwise I'd have to spend quite a fortune buying new paints.
coz.... I don't really mix color ;p
I know some ppl can mix and obtain every color just with 3 basic color, red, yellow, blue
but I can't and honestly, I just love looking at all the different color in my collections.
I know I know, they're not to be looked at, they're to be used in paintings !!!

but either way... it's kinda hard to get Artists' grade paint here, not that I'm a professional artist or anything, but if I'm gonna spend roughly the same price, why buy the student grade ?
I know the student grade are probably safer because they're "non toxic" but the ego in me just want the Artist grade paint. ;p oh well.

but good news....
I called this art supply store and they can deliver....... yippieeeeeeeee
we don't have a lot of art supply stores like in the US.... they're rare here ;p
I can go to the store myself but traffic is super crazy and I don't want to spend hours in the car
So....... problem solved........ will be getting my paints in..... errr............ 4 days ? let's see :)
I need Burnt umber, Burnt Sienna, Mars Black, Permanent Rose

In the mean time,
(not advertising for Winsor n Newton, but this might be useful because in the beginning I didn't know which color to buy)
Here is the recommended basic palette for Artists' Acrylic by Winsor Newton :
Lemon Yellow, Azo Yellow Medium, Cadmium Red Light, Permanent Rose, Permanent Alizarin Crimson, Ultramarine Blue, Phthalo Blue Green Shade, Phthalo Green Blue Shade, Raw Umber, Yellow Ochre, Burnt Sienna and Titanium White.



If you want to use just three primary colours they suggest
Azo Yellow Medium, Phthalo Blue Red Shade and Permanent Rose.

More here :
http://acrylics.winsornewton.com/en/usingartistsacrylics/colourpalettes/

I didn't remember what color paints I bought when I started out but I researched and researched and I just got kinda lost, but then I bought a few colors that was recommended by artists or by the paint manufacturer, and after a while, little by little, I just bought more because I thought I might need them, in the end, I think I got all the colors I need :)
at least for now.

How to clean up the brushes and tube caps here :
http://acrylics.winsornewton.com/en/usingartistsacrylics/cleaningup/

No matter what I do, my brushes don't really get cleaned thoroughly, I mean, they're still ok to use, but not clean clean, maybe I have a monk-ish side ;p
that's why I prefer cheap brushes, I don't feel guilty if I ruin them and I'm still experimenting at this stage, so :)

btw, I have Liquitex too, but they're harder to find here.
they're just as good, I think
and I've read that they say how you're not supposed to mix different paint brands because of bla bla bla.....
I mixed them (Liquitex & Winsor Newton, both Artist grade) and they turn out okay..... but it's just me :)

pictures from winsornewton.com

Sketches

So I did these sketches today....



I'm so very rusty though, so I kinda struggled and I was about to give up in the middle because I thought they turn out so uglyyy.....
but as I kept on sketching, they turn out to be quite allright, .....for me at least :)
I know they're not perfect, (yes I notice the jaw :D and yepp... the nose too) but I'm still learning and it's a process.

I think they all took around 1 hour or so.
I sometimes take so long to do a sketch, but sometimes I'd do a 3 minute super quick sketches and they turn out great..... so maybe it also involves being "in the mood" to draw/paint and just do it without pressure or expectations.

I supposed that's why most of us don't really do sketches or paint, because halfway through we got frustrated and the sketches/painting really do look ugly, because they're not done yet !
and we judge ourselves and say that we're not talented enough to draw/paint.
We forgot to just have fun with it.
I know sometimes I feel that drawing/painting is a burden because I expect it to turn out great and if it doesn't turn out great, I'll feel bad about it, but Nooo !!!
I should just draw/paint, no pressures, and just experiment, have fun and hey...art is art :)
The whole experience should be fun !!
I forget that sometimes,
so I'm just going to start taking things easily, drawing/painting with no burden, I'm just going to draw/paint, have fun experimenting and learning and see how it goes :)