its raining cats and dogs in our household :)

When one is surrounded by pets who demand much of your time~ its only natural that they in turn become much of one's art inspirations….

a quick A4 size sketch and 20 mins watercolor of Kerbi (my sons name) 
or Tiger (my choice of name for this wild spirited feline) 
Don't you just love those fearsome mesmerizing eyes?

It seems so unfair to sketch Tiger without also completing one of Tobie and so I had to hurriedly attempt an A4 sized watercolor to try to capture the essence of his scaredity cat eyes~ but we know better than to be fooled by him! The vet can bear testament to the fact by the scars on her arms when she made a house call to give Tobie his injections!

meowwww, thank god its friday~michellechoongkhoo

I devored my ipad scouring for photos of Tobie ….

This aint the best but its friday….just itching to put some ink to work before I go off for my hair spa~ meowwwwww, have a good weekend~

in search of artful expressions: using iPad to improve watercoloring tonal values ~ michellechoongkhoo's "A Painting A Day"

in search of artful expressions: using iPad to improve watercoloring tonal values ~ michellechoongkhoo's "A Painting A Day"

a mosaic of what it took on my ipad to review the tonal values from posterize, negatives and  zooming onto different parts before deciding on how to paint my watercolor~


dont be shy to have fun ~

using iPad to improve watercoloring tonal values ~ michellechoongkhoo's "A Painting A Day"

excepts from Aletta de Wal's article on www.empty easel.com


"Let’s start by debunking the cliché, “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.”
The implication is that we lose the capacity learn anything new as we age, but that’s just not true. Recent brain research confirms that you can learn throughout your lifetime if you are willing to put in the effort.
The actual kernel of truth in this cliché is that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, if that dog does not want to learn. On the other hand, if the dog has enough incentive (like food) it can learn to do a lot.
So how does this cliché relate to artists?
When I tell artists that they need to embrace modern technology, some of them balk. They’ve bought into the myth that age gets in the way of learning “new tricks.” Unless they can get past this false belief and learn some of the new tricks of the digital age, they’ll remain at a severe disadvantage in today’s art market.
Artists who don’t buy into this myth about age and learning have a huge advantage. They believe that they can do anything they want to do (given enough time or assistance) so they seek out teachers and courses and learn from others’ experiences.
These artists have accepted that technology is as vital to their art marketing as the tools they use to create their art. Their attitude is “can do” and that attitude drives them to acquire the knowledge and skills they need to just “do!”

For me, it was so absolutely true….the part about teaching an old dog new tricks….hahahaha.

I think my iPad definitely tremendously assisted in improving my profiling and tonal values….

Especially comparing how much time I wasted yesterday trying to do sketching some horseriders  silhouette from newspaper print versus how much ease it was sketching from a zoomed zagg image …..I'd say, any art teacher worth her salt should encourage all their students to turn towards technology to jumpstart their art experiences!

This Saturday morning, I am a happy happy girl with this watercolor of Jon at Phuket Riding Club last CNY  heeeeee hahhhhh! I love lurve my iPad alot…..

if I have said so  a few times in previous postings, hope you will forgive me….personally I wld credit that gitzmo for a great art renewal in 2011 after nearly 4 months of self imposed hiatus~

Am pretty sure Jon will favourite this painting too when I post it onto his FB wall later, smile~

go dotty~ day 5 "Project 2011 A Sketch A Day" michellechoongkhoo

Truthfully, I find Pointilist Style painting v very creative, makes me think and ponder with each dot of colors I added~ yessss, it will be something that I wanna come back to do on a more elaborate, bigger scale when time permits :)

For now, this is my masterpiece of hubby…. 2 sketched frames painted pontillist style of him training his usual assistant in crime, Elmo the beagle monster~

Because I have never done any painting, sketching of hubby before , I wanted to do something special!

And Pointillist-Style painting being totally new to me, seemed like a fun exercise to do!
The sketching part was the easiest of it all….took me by jeebers less than 1 min……but then as I added the painstaking dots, each dot by dot , terrible thoughts invaded my mind as the hours wore on~
Why oh why do I always torture myself when it comes to my art?
Why oh why can't I be contented , once I have found something enjoyable ….to continue to proceed at a relax pace and try it for a longer while ?
I know the answer of coz…..hahaha because I get bored quickly if I dont hv something new to poke around with…..therein why Eddie calls me a "masochist"…… hahaha.

This is too time consuming to do on a daily basis obviously…..but mmmmm, definitely interesting.

oh well, at least now I know what  Georges Seurat's post impressionist arts texture is all about…Yup it was no joke spontaneously attempting this pointillist style painting after coming across Georges Seurat's A Sunday on La Grande Jatte in Valerie Colston's book and becoming more intrigued as I googled to find out what George Seurat's style was all about……
So it became something I just had to try it to know if I liked it~
VERDICT?
huuuuuu, definitely not something one wanna attempt if time is a constraint!

For example if I wanna keep to my 2011 Project A Sketch A Day's daily deadline…..hahaha, but I am so glad I tried it and can now go on to another new xperiment *.* 

project 2011~ a sketch a day by michellechoongkhoo

now that the festivities are over, celebrations and bingeing done with……today i will start my project 2011 "a sketch a day" …..
And who better than Elmo my little beagle monster to start the ball rolling?

i think i manage to capture the essence of a little of his adorableness  here?
we just love that little rascal sooooooo much…..