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Showing posts with label "Andrea Boult". Show all posts
Showing posts with label "Andrea Boult". Show all posts

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

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???



Friday, April 30, 2010

drawing THE BABY~ from J D Hillberry's book

Yesterday when art class was cancelled, we went to the art supplies shop again~
Females set loose in any environment where all it takes is a credit card to achieve self gratification is what keeps the economy moving along! Especially when all the items are innocently priced at less than RM10 (about usd 3) …..ayeiiiiii thats when my innate shopoholic instincts gets full arousal and I've lost "it" (my senses that is) one more time~~~~~shopping won , I admitted defeat with glee .

Today I unwrapped all the stuff I bought …..so many kinds of pencils , new watercolors, acrylic paints, brushes, sketch books ….decision decisions decisions….the dilemma of:
what to draw,
what to paint,
what to sketch ??????

Then my eyes fell to a book "Drawing Realistic Textures in Pencil" by J D Hillberry.
Many a times, I had been flipping the pages and then closed it back.
Today I saw a detailed instruction of how to draw a baby's head….now that was a challenge I had battled previously without success , my baby looked like a miniature old man…..
today however, I was drawn to the intensity of those gorgeous eyes of the baby.

A quick checklist of the tools needed, made me realized very quickly that I dont have :
F graphite ,
6H pencil,
3B pencil,
HB charcoal,
frisket
treaded eraser , had bought it, cant find it now ;(((
and perhaps most crucial of whats lacking…..
last but not least, the know how….hahaha~

What I do have are lots of 2B, 4H, 6B , 9B, light/medium/dark charcoals, a chamois, a full set of tortillons for blending….so is it gonna stop me from drawing those eyes?
Noooo, of coz not ;) I am well known for improvising after all o.O
Isnt it wonderful being an adult art student?
The beauty of not having to stick to assignments and modules….
the flexibility of going whatever art directions wherever our fancies of the day take us~~~~~>♫♬♪♥

First I had to get hubby to chase away 2 fruit bats hanging on my fragrant coconut trees, destroy a bee's nest that was almost reaching full construction …..
and amidst all the adrenalin of all these 2 flurried activities ….
when I could finally sit at my art space without fear….
then only could I get to the task of tackling to the best of my ability to draw my baby with the most gorgeous eyes ;)



160gsm acid free* A5 cartridge paper
title: Gorgeous Eyes of Baby
ⓒmichellechoongkhoo



if and shld I decide to focus on portraiture , I will definitely want to take another look at the online workshops of JD Hillberry.

And a big thank you goes to Andrea Boult , the best best classmate EVER~for loaning me a gem of a book.
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