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A rose in any form is still a rose?

"Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you."

` Carl Sandburg

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Today , my entire afternoon was in pursuit of time for benefit of family ; explaining to loss adjustor over water seepage claims to house insurance, going thru with maid what to buy for the week's household grocery, taking one son for long lunch at Raju's banana leaf , perusing with another son and condo designer discussing wallpaper /renovations….writing long email to developer over defects and bad rectifications….buying fruits for hubby….

So much so by the evening I was uttterly "senget" (crooked) literally… tired and spent!

Coming home I couldnt wait to get down to painting….doing stuff of no consequence to anyone but in enjoyment for myself!

Wednesdays are always days when I am at my most productive …ARTWISE…..

Obviously because it reminds me that the next day on Thursday is when I have to talk and immerse in art updates with classmates and art teacher over previous week's lessons…ooops, no good if didnt practise mah, heh heh (*.*)

Rose, roses and more rose images have been swirling in my thoughts for the last few days for several reasons :

1) I didnt feel satisfaction over the rose that I painted in class last week.

2) After my EOS DSLR photography class on Sunday, I had plenty of exercise shooting roses in different lighting and exposures .

3) I did tell Ean that I would be painting the roses that she sent with love from UK on my birthday recently

4) though I dont feel strong affinity towards painting nature and flowers, I definitively dislike giving up on something just because I am not good at it yet (O.O)…KIASU mentality I guess , hee hee

5) Last but not least, Susie Short had made it seemed so darn kacang putih (chick peas) easy in her DVD…. how hard can it be?

Erm, here's my dogged 2nd time... attempting realism style yet another round …

Oh oh, it is not as easy as how Ms Suzie Short made it to be~

My rose painting turn out very wishy washy, yucks….even worse than last week's trial!

uh uh…..I'm no good at painting flowers or at any rate, a rose!

Sheeesh, this painting is so flat, lifeless, zero oomph! SIGH~~~

For 3rd rose attempt…I abandon trying to capture its realistic shades…..

Part frustration, part knowing I have to try another route….I just went with my feelings and used one broad flat brush to mix splashes of reds, orange, purple with a tinge of lemon yellow and abit of burnt sienna.

Oooooh, this one I like the outcome….

I enjoyed very much all the randomness and how the brush movements flew around in a flurry….. a much much better interpretation of the essence of the rose…

Completed at 11pm~ I felt assuaged.

So pleased with what I had done , I even stroked off with a brand new signature ….with glee~~~

My realism vs graphical rose, which is better?

I like the latter because I think it is more interesting and more "an ah hah michelle" kind of identity.

For friends who know me well and my sons, do you agree with me?

links to related topic on roses in previous postings :

lessons 11 attempting close up shots

for the love of the rose

lesson 12~ attempting close up shots of Flowers

Today was an exercise to do close ups of flowers and we were told to bring photos of our subjects for referencing~

When Andrea told me the night before that she will be bringing 3 prepared sketches of lotus (hahaha, she chose some of my EOS debut shots of the lotus blooms around my house…which I had also thought was a good option because of the detailed light and dark shadings)….I said I will bring my camera to snap Ms Shia's facial reactions to Andrea's super efficiency!!

This morning, true enough Ms Shia's look was worthy to be featured onto "candid camera" la but alas I forgot to pack my camera….tsk tsk ;(

Anyhow, seeing how we are so well prepared…we plunged into our work very quickly…

It was an exercise of super wet glazing and we had to be rather quick to make dabs of contrast on alternate petals while the paper was still damp….

aaaargh definitely ~ given the 2 hours we were there….it was not easy to paint a rose!

I came home very dissatisfied with my rose attempt~

And today being Vesak Day and a public holiday, I decided to give it another go since Andrea was so kind to give me a piece of her pre-traced lotus outline for practise , bless her …our Ms Super Efficient Ms Boult ;)))

Aiya, I dont think I will likely pursue flora and fauna ….. not my forte and certainly not my passion.

But it's an exercise to train one's eye to look closely for the light vs dark spots so as to create a map when painting watercolors~

I am happier with my background but I think I overcooked my lotus colors….err, not a work that I will hang on my walls!

Yup, have to work on more flowers again soon~

Fascination eyes ~

The Delsey ad with its model in dramatic black against a bold red background inspired me to try this composition:

a huge ad in lightedbox with admirers looking on~

The concept was for the model to be in black and white and his eyes to be the focal point ~ preferably in amber like those of a leopard's!

The initial was nice but wasnt arrestingly bold….so I added more burnt sienna with a tad of lemon yellow but it clashed with the model's skin tone~

In the end, I had to wash off the eyebrows and tone down the brown shades to stay more true to shades of payne's grey.

And I find that it helps to emphasize the iris by drawing lines with 4H or F graphites…likewise for the eyebrows!

My model's face was finally done after 4 days of tweaking and re-tweaking…..which as my art teacher Ms Shia notes is my main problem, I tend to over cook my watercolors…..

But actually I'm happy with the effect of my main subject being very very dramatic for this piece! I dont think I would do it any differently if I have to do it again.

In fact, I want to make the back drop even more dynamic bold but I will take Ms Shia's advise to let my foreground audience be very muted by attempting faint vague outlines. ;D

The story behind my portrait of the girl by the candlelight~michellechoongkhoo

It all started with this video by Jean Pederson on how she add layers n using dry brush technique to "lift " paint off to demonstrate the most dramatic eyes in watercolor I hv ever ever seen.

WOW….WOW…WOW isnt it?

And so the quest started for me to find a suitable image that I can practise on….

I found this photo of a very mesmerizing girl in red with the play of light from the candle~

I only realized how much I adore doing portraiture after completing the above painting.

I also discovered , much to my surprise that I do have the patiance after all, to continually work on one single piece of art, examining each layer's work, poring over the nitty gritty details again and again and yet again!

I almost didnt want to stop rendering and editing, re-editing.

The whole process took 4 days, in between waiting for it to dry, adding, taking away shades, rubbing out, fine tuning the eyes , the skin tones, the hair….I could not believe that the tedious process did not even deter me, on the contrary it inspired me.

I even found it artistically challenging~ spurs me to push myself…hahaha

I also found that it is so true that in watercoloring, one only needs the 3 primary colors to create subtle shades of almost any other possibilities of colors.

And I am beginning to realize that I do have favourite colors after all….permanent rose, cadmium yellow, raw umber, teal and cobalt blue are a must have staple colors in my palette now.

Today, an ex-colleague asked why there is any need to do research online when I am already attending art tuition ….

Aaaah, my dear Teresa…

because there is such a vast world of art genres out there to learn from...

because there so many techniques available to experiment with once we found out about them ….

because there is unlimited unimaginable new stuff that varous other artists have done and are generously sharing online...

because I am in search of artful expressions…in a hurry to reconnect with my inner artistic soul…and I cant sit still twiddling my thumbs what to paint only once a week…

plus because it is so much fun and I experience eye opening joy to stumble across new refreshing perceptions, new refreshing ideas~~~~~~~>>>

Lastly because I wouldnt have discovered that I could do portraiture if I had not chanced upon Jean Pederson's video and admire Harold Edward Brooks art pieces~

so with a wide smile, dear dear Teresa….I browse alot online for art inspirations all the time ;D

Life is simple, Life is Good

its a wonderful world

♥ michellechoongkhoo

Lesson 11~ finding one's signature art style

The morning started with Ms Shia sharing with us a Taiwanese art book featuring different styles drawn by western and chinese artists .

We of course ooohed and aaahed but when told that this week's exercise is to get us to draw a complete painting based on any styles we like from the book because Ms Shia wanted to gauge our styles in order to better tailor future weeks' classes….we were initially stumped, I mean…how could I draw anywhere near those masterpieces?

I know I sat there looking at my paper and brushes without a clue where to go for inspiration~

As always the first step is always the hardest.

Andrea was the quickest with her brushes splashing bold colors rapidly….I think she is very deft with graphics. But her boldness actually helped the whole group to also get out of our inertia ;)

Soon Chris started on the trees outside the windows….I think she is very into floral and fauna.
Jess worked on her beloved landscape, I think she also likes fauna and flora ;)

I prefer realism ….

I like to start my washes very wet on both sides and to work horizontally , first using very light colors , and then to gradually build up the colors.

But this morning, I seem to have a blockage….I did not know what else to do after completing my rather bland looking background of beach, sea and setting sun.

Ms Shia gently teased that she was waiting for my painting to tell a story and said she was wondering whether I will be painting mermaids .

I was struck by her comment that sometimes putting an unexpected element least associated with the background can make a painting become more exciting.

Over the weekend, that got me cracking my mind.

I had failed to draw Max in graphite some weeks ago and he is forever on the top of my list of must must draw !

So I decided to attempt a bold larger than life image of Max standing infront on the beach .

A quick outline already made me see that Max presence definitely makes my bland beach painting above immediately more interesting .

It was more original than my half hearted intention to add a small silhouette of man walking his dog or fisherman mending his nets….

Ahhhh, I'm beginning to get the hang of better understanding what it means by composition , I think….the core is to draw something that evokes passion and can make us labor with LOVE~.

I didnt like this mug shot which showed Max with more white hair , I want to paint Max in his golden prime days as a handsome stud.

But painting Max's fur turns out to be an exercise larger than what I bargained for and
I almost gave up several times….

Luckily the wet washes meant I had to get up and walk away to let one layer dry before I could continue blending and further rendering.

That helps me to focus…..because 4 hours into working on Max chest….I'm still not done yet…..and I definitely do not want to give up yet again.

I'm gonna put the painting away and get back to it after a couple of days~

Over the weekend, I somehow found inspiration to finish Max's complex layering of fur, referencing many old photos to get the best golden shades that I wanted to portray. In the end, I copied Max mate, Roxy's beautiful furs instead.

I think I manage to do some justice to Max…do you agree that he looks like a proud German Shepherd of royal heritage here?

Hahaha, oh well…in my mind this is how I like to remember him anyway.

Max left us to grieve for him one year ago, he is today still dearly missed and remembered fondly. I am thankful to have enjoyed his transient companionship, love and loyalty for 11 blessed years 1998-2009.

This is my first watercolor painting that I even want to mount , frame and put up in the house.

To Max , with love always.

my garden of Eden~

200 gsm A4 cold press paper

Title: my garden of Eden

ⓒmichellechoongkhoo