enjoying the waterfall at Chin Farm~michellechoongkhoo

I wish some places never change, that the beauty of nature and landscapes do not get obliterated by development….

Chin Farm, waterfall @ Penang was one such place….

Painting Julian on a tree branch overlooking the clear stream with the waterfall behind him at level 2

what a pity this beautiful place is no longer there~
But at least my sons got to view and experience some of the beautiful places that brought me much happiness while growing up~

Blossom into prosperity, day 8 "Project 2011(renamed) A Painting a Day"

hahahaha, at the rate I am experimenting…..my 2011 project has runaway to become more than a sketch a day~ so I shall rename it "A Painting A Day" LOL~

It all started with a G/F, bless her heart presenting me with some Papua New Guinea coffee beans and their local Nescafe (she says seriously its not the same as KL's taste, really? ) mmmmm so am sitting  and enjoying the aroma of my Starbucks xmas blend ,  thinking  ~ awww the packaging is so charming , almost a shame to open it up ~that I shall try niugini blend tomorrow!

Then reading the mainstream newspapers,  obviously with thoughts all about coffee…of coz my eyes was inadvertently drawn to the ads of Nescafe girl…. in red….and following that flow of thought, onto Metrojaya's beautiful china doll also in a profusion of red ~ it was eureka for the day!

Forget about linking up my iPad, syncing my photos, getting the FX photos of Tiger, printing out the tonal values in B/W, monochromatic and adjusting the strokes , cropping…….aaaaaah, it can wait for another day!

Today, my Nescafe Girl was just the right stimuli for this morning's art exercise and mmmmm, with that inspiration , it got me gobbling my Portuguese tart so quickly that I almost forgot to savor its deliciousness~ so that I could immediately set up the easel! Ah, the price one pays for ART, heh2.

As I wanted to mesh the 2 ads together and planned the background of a profusion of blossoms …….just as well I paint the outline direct, remembering what I read about always starting with the darkest tonal value…..

Chinese New Year Mood is already in the air here in KL…..

I am pretty sure I will soooon be inspired by great photos of beautiful ladies in their gorgeous qipaos ❤

Oil Lesson 1~ basics on white ground, monochromatic

this is totally foreign territory to me….

* 6 basic tubes of oil colors

* 2 palette knife

* wooden untreated palette

* bottle of turpentine

* bottle of paint medium

I have never touch oil painting so I dont even know what all the simple tools are for ~ -- dont even know how to mix the paint with the palette knife

- dont know how to wield the brushes to block, blend

- dont know what the paint medium is for

- dont know why turpentine is needed

- and after I learnt that one use of turpentine was to clean the brushes, hahaha, I even had to ask Ms Shia to show me how it is done…hahaha, hilarious morning indeed!

~~~~~~~~<>~~~~~~~~

Technique : Painting on white ground, monochromatic

Step 1. - we had to first prepare the palette with a layer of medium so that it wouldnt absorb the oil from the paints

Step 2. - our subject matter was the ceramic vase which we were told to sketch onto the canvas with graphite or color pencils , carefully capturing all the different shapes of light and shadow in every detail including reflections

Step 3. today we are supposed to only paint in vandyke brown using zinc white to mix the shades, so we were told to squeeze the 2 colors onto the palette taking care to keep them separate …. this was for a simple reason that at the end of the day , any unused pure colors could be scooped back into the tube again! aaaah, common sense logic. :P

Step 4. first we painted a 5 value scale to be our guide for the respective shadings of the vase, the original blue color being the middle shade

Step 5. I find that I had to paint the different areas using small tiny strokes, making sure to poke the paint into every inch of the linen groove…..my my, very time consuming indeed. Here there is none of the let yr feelings go wild moments like in watercolor.... Every stroke is calculative and with a purpose….mmmm.

Step 6. I also find it tedious to wait for each shade to dry before blending but it was important , otherwise as I found out the hard way…yucks, be prepared for all the white to end up turning muddy!

P/S: wow, oil painting needs load of patience, even more so than water coloring

Step 7 - am told the final layer was glazing which can only be done after the paints have dried thoroughly, I shld find out how its done in the 2nd lesson….whoopee , cant wait for tomorrow! correction, glazing will only be learnt after the 4th lesson so that all of the 4 pieces can be done at one go? mmmmm

Here in the shots of my uber cool classmates : Jess and Andrea , take note they have got newspapers carefully lined under their canvas…..

Well, that didnt help me much!

I managed to get all shades of vandyke browns and whites everywhere over both my arms, it was a miracle I didnt end up smudging paints all over my face ^_^.

I'm gonna have to wear my apron next lessons~ hahaha

Whats my overall first impressions so far?

Very very interesting , alot to learn, shld be fun….Im just wondering how awfully long its gonna take me to fly???