color eyesight~michellechoongkhoo

Lesson 4 was an exercise on using the 3 primary colors of yellow,red and blue to complete the secondary and tertiary colors in a color wheel.
I had to play catch up (20 mins late into coming to class this morning) and I really
thought it would be a breeze since I had also done a little research by reading a little on the subject ….so me smiled
when Chris further commented that it should be no challenge for me too (erm her rationale being that my background as a fashion retailer, color coordination is part and parcel of the job) …
In the end what did I do?
I ended up messing up my color wheel , getting all the colors wrong…..having to cut and paste so that I could redo the color wheel again~ aaargh!
oh oh, ego hugely deflated ….So no posting on the subject yet until I redo my assignment again````

Meanwhile, as if to prove my own self worth….I decided to test my eyesight on this uber cool xritephoto's color IQ!

Hurray, woohoo…..I finally scored zero, with is the best score possible !!!
This means my eye for color is perfect….hmmph, ego restored…..next I will tackle my color wheel again…hahaha

: click link and play it yourself too…have fun!

there's so much art blogs, websites out there to learn from~michellechoongkhoo

I'm so grateful that there is a whole gamut of artists' blogs, websites, tutorials out there about drawings. This is one fantastic website that I stumbled upon …miriam slater and her link to emptyeasel.com where insomniac last night, I managed to follow a 5 easy steps to create a man's profile by H. Edward Brooks.

I put to the test the simple instructions stroke by stroke tutorial and managed to complete the above in 10 mins….satisfied, I finally went to bed at 2.05Am~

There's alot more tutorials on a myriad range of lessons in all mediums in Miriam's website, wow oh wow and they are all free…

I'm so excited, it's gonna be my laboratory and cyber teacher for the next weeks ahead, whee whee woooo hoooo <3 <3 <3

tai chi hand movements in art? - lesson 3 at MIA, Art Centre

Ms Shia handed out to each of us, 10 sheets of white newsprint paper measuring 30" x 24"…..and the question "do u want to be free?"

Empty bottles strewn all over the desk and choosing either charcoal or oil pastels….our exercise today was to imagine how a blind person would visualize the shapes on paper and create a mass drawing of 3 bottles standing upright~ then in disarray...

"Loosen your muscles, draw the shapes as big as possible , use as many different strokes ….no repetition ok and stand up to draw if you want to"

Which we all did with much giggling as we put into practise our biggest tai chi strokes!

I had been dead tired this morning on account of our tiring journey back from Redang late last night.
This morning's free hand and fast paced series of different strokes lifted me …..
what a productive morning indeed as we went from mass drawing to geometrical to contour lines all within the span of 1 hour.
Can't wait for next week when finally , woo hoo we are going to get to play with color pencils~

dont be uptight…let yourself fly~

Today Ms Shia gave us white chalks and black charcoals to play with…
Lesson 2 is again an experiment with shading except onto colored paper which represents the midde color, grey.
Today's exercise was to look at the play of light on everyday objects ; the colored paper representing the middle shade, light represented by white chalk and the shadows represented by black charcoal…no blending is allowed!
I chose the wine bottle because it was nearest to me. I placed the bottle right up close to my face but Ms Shia says, the object should be against an uncluttered background and at a distance…
Oh…ok, I'll just hv to work with my sunglasses (with optical presciptions) on ...;)))

And this is what my 1 hour's effort look like….mmmmm, practise practise practise required.

Well, its not as easy as I thought:

a) firstly the chalk wouldnt stay put on the paper…Ms Shia said it was a case of the wrong type of colored paper.
b) secondly the chalk gets onto the palms and then gets transferred onto the clothes and today of all days, I was wearing white…I fretted how to avoid the further transfer of black charcoal onto my face itself…aargh….me getting uptight brought a smile to teacher's face. "I can imagine Michelle as a child and wanting permission to rush to the bathroom to clean up" ;}
notes:
Question: "how to make your chalk/charcoal drawings stay put onto the paper?
Answer: " spray it with a common hair spray" ….ooooh, I see.

Next hour was spent on fun and open expression exercise: DOODLING~
Oh oh, my mind actually went blank for awhile.
Ms Shia :" Dont be uptight,,,,let yourself fly , just draw anything that comes to mind…shapes, objects, numbers, real or imaginary".
I was stuck for a minute and then as my doodling unfolded….I ended up drawing stuff from diving. Its obvious that my mind was already thinking of the coming Redang trip on Monday.
I heard Ms Shia's overtone "dont stick to a theme, keep your mind open …."
Huh? Too late, I couldnt go anywhere else …look at all that outpouring of loving feelings??? hahaha. First love diving, second love art?

I loved what Ms Shia said about how everybody can draw…Its a matter of your own personal confidence to accept your own ART…yesssss, I definitely can identify with this statement.
Andrea said she just stuck to a particular music…wow, the symphonies in her head must have been beautiful, her 2 designs were refreshing (she definitely was not uptight, smile). Kim drew her cheongsams and what she wanted her tailor to sew for her …I wasnt quite sure what Jessica drew but Chris seemed to be wrapped around her gardens and and I saw a doodle of flowers in colorful profusion~

Today was somehow liberating…and it was even obvious to Eddie who says "someone is in a happy mood today after her drawing…." , yea yea yea , I was grinning when I came home. Hee hee hee.
Next on the list is to buy a small pad for doodling anywhere and anytime. I'm gonna bring it to Redang too, la di da…woo hoo.
And next lesson, I must make a note to bring an apron to wear over my day clothes too.

finger exercises~michellechoongkhoo persists in her art

It actually feels good to exercise these rusty fingers of mine~

I took heed of Ms Shia's advise to look at everyday things , notice how the light bounce off objects…took snapshots of interesting stuff that I could try my hand at sketching some later dates.

And while reading The Sunday STAR, an interesting write up on local Malaysian artist Tan Wei Kheng (link to STAR story) with his "Interior Attraction" caught my eye~

Wow if only I have a chance to take photos of the remote inhabitants of the interiors like him….then I'm struck with the thought, hey why not try to see what my sketches of his works will look like ?

Of coz I know , my art is yet so basic and my journey of self discovery is just beginning...I have a long long way to go still….these are so school girl efforts…but hey, like when I showed it to my son, Julian and he consoled me by saying "its only been one lesson, mum" …hee hee, what a sweet son he is.
It's obvious I have issues and my drawing of the baby , erm he is not looking as sweetly like a baby and I cannot make the old one look ancient enough. Definitely I'm not able to get the body propertions quite right yet …the shading is a little bit weird….etc etc etc
So I hope its not an insult to any artist , this instance Mr Tan Wei Kheng, whose work I try to learn from (and copy rather badly too, sorry) but its a long process ahead for me as I go in search of my own artful expressions.

Oooh, I can't wait for Thursday to come quickly enough.
This is something that is giving me "JOY" as in capital letters indeed~
How I wished I had been as resolute as my youngest brother who knew straight from Form 5 that he wanted to do art and nothing else. He is a respected art director and film producer…and I'm so proud of him~
For me, those MGS days way back , it was considered a shame not to be in Science stream and in the top class. And they do not offer options for anyone choosing to be in Science classes to be also able to pursue art lessons~ u know, have yr cake and eat it too~
and it was difficult to find private tutors to coach you in preparing for the exam too….
So silly goose me placing my ego above passion long ago, chose where it was deemed the "elite class" and never picked up the pencil or brushes for the last 30 odd years~ until now ….having fulfilled my work, family obligations, business, parenting responsibilities….now I can find the time to pamper myself~

The kids are luckier nowadays, their options are spread out like a huge buffet table at a hotel's week end hi tea…kids are spoilt for choice and indeed the world is their oyster!

But then as usual, I digress….my thoughts always fly off into different tangents or sometimes diverge faster than my fingers on the keyboard..haha.

Back to art and my finger exercises on a lazy Sunday, so it was that the time sped by so quickly that I did not even have time to prepare my lunch (it being my maid's off day) …
But luckily hubby had just stocked up his weekly supplies from his wholesale fruit supplier and so while dabbling ( or more aptly, struggling…hee hee) with sketching…I had a couple of tangy sweet chinese mandarin oranges, many slices of plump juicy red watermelon , a whole smashing fragrant fleshy 'water lily' mango and a few yummy exotic tasting seedless persimmons…what a gorgeous Sunday it was.
Life is simple, Life is sweet~ I'm so blessed.
mmmmm, I'm so thankful that I can also say, these days my world is my oyster too.

lesson one: back to basics_michellechoongkhoo

Ms Shia Yih Yiing (link to her website) our art teacher at MIA art centre, Ampang is full of encouragement and quickly puts the new students attending lesson one at rest.

Andrea, Jessica, Chris , Shairin & I were initially put thru our pace of drawing the object in front of us so that Ms Shia could evaluate our efforts…..hee hee, me thought Smita's mineral bottle was my object and proceeded to draw nervously... Gosh its been more than 30 yrs since I last touched a 2B pencil….knuckles tight and full of concentration, I attacked my art block until Ms Shia brought me to earth again with her comments …."mmmmm, I'm curious what is yr profession?"
me: " errr, hee hee….why?"
Shia: " your lines are so precise, are u by chance a draughtswoman?"

And going round to the other students, thats how Ms Shia warmed us up and slowly encouraged us to earnestly put in more efforts~

Gee, its not so easy to put the modest 2B pencil to shades of dark,grey,light tho obviously black and white is easy lo.
Nor was it easy to put textures and shades to basic geometrical shapes….but noticing how my fellow students were so engrossed in their art, I endeavored and plodded along with lots of help from my eraser. LOLz

The 2 hours flew by …..phew, my stiff fingers needed to relax , my right palm was all black from the furious erasing and rubbing.
I looked enviously at the other senior students who were already drawing figures or getting guidance from Ms Shia on their oil paintings ….I just cant wait to be in their shoes~

I can't wait to go home, dig out my long forgotten pocket guide to painting and read up or hee hee to let my imaginations roam ….. gee, how does one make a potato look like one on paper without colors? Nvm, I will tackle that next time, meanwhile let me try to do some copying and see if my sketches can look anywhere near those images in my pocket guide….

That brought chuckles from hubby at 1am as he dropped by to see whatever could be keeping me awake ~
Eddie : "oh lordy, now we are painting is it?"
smile, erm not yet…..but I hope soon….smile
And with that, I went to bed , quietly satisfied.
Oh I did have sweet dreams last night but strangely it was not about art….this morning I awoke from my dream that was about me buying the biggest smokey quartz ring that looked just about my style….aiya~mother's day is coming soon….
I sure hope my dream about the ring will come true….I'm going to Pavilion to check out Tiffany & Co if there's my dream ring in their showcases….
aaaaah the possibilities in a dream, Life is a gift~