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!

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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???

My 2nd triptych~

My first triptych~

3rd panel - Julian at Khoo Kongsi

It was a great Sunday~

nice weather & a super great aromatherapy massage puts me in the mood for rest and relax .

As the lovely hands of the excellent masseause worked her magic on my muscles, I gave silent thanks for many little blessings and I have much to be grateful for in this blessed life.

The luxury of time to devote to painting is one such blessing.

4 months into starting art lessons I have come to realize that portrait painting is much more than just copying religiously every aspect of a photo.

Art is very much about using adhoc modifications:

-Here I used an image of Khoo Kongsi's lionhead from one very old photo taken in 1994 .

-I superimposed an image of Julian from a family group shot that we snapped in front of Sydney's Opera House in 2000.

-The CNY lanterns was added last minute from imaginations because I realize that my original composition looked so drab and moody!

The bright red globes added just the right splashes ~

-I also felt that the lionhead was different from the buddha statues because it had so much tiny details that the charcoals and oil pastels couldnt bring it to life until I added the silver/black acrylic dabs…..

I think I manage to make the whole painting work~ at any rate, I like it alot.

I finished painting Julian just slightly after 10pm~ 5 hours of work!!

I hope he will like it too…..

11.5" x 22.25" on 300 gms cold press

Title : Julian and the lionhead

© michellechoong_khoo

to see all the panels together, 2nd triptych link

2nd panel of A2 triptych~Justin

15.5" x 22.25" on 300 gms cold press paper

Title: Justin with a KRABI flavor

© michellechoong_khoo

feeling adventurous to try watercolor with even more mixed medium>>>

1. using charcoal with oil pastels for the Thai Buddha

2. painting Justin with very light washes and strokes

3. trying out a dash of gold acrylic to make the embellishments on umbrellas /cushions stand out…..

mmmmm, I do love experimenting…..makes the art journey less boring!

one interesting question a classmate posed to me…..

Q: Why do you keep painting your sons?

A: why not? smile~

after all this is my personal art journey and if I am going to learn how to paint good portraits, why not take all the tons of photos that I already own for references ?

Plus on top of getting the painting techniques/the perspectives and the composition right I do happen to like the extra challenge of knowing that I have to at least get a good likeness for my sons/hubby to pass my paintings….

Thanks for all the encouragement.

Have a great weekend ahead~

to see all 3 panels together, link 2nd triptych

1st panel of 2nd triptych~ mixed medium

15.5" x 22.25" on 300gms cold press

Title : Jon at art gallery

© michellechoong_khoo

2nd triptych idea was to work on photos of sons aged around 10….

1st panel -Jon with a backdrop of Buddha at Penang's Butterfly farm art gallery

2nd panel - Julian with a backdrop of Khoo Kongsi's lionhead

3rd panel - Justin with a Thai Buddha at Krabi resort

And this time, I wanted to experiment with mixed medium….using oil pastels/charcoal which I thought gave me better shades for the stone statutes' shadings and also to try something new :)

Attempting bigger pieces meant buying bigger easels…..

These 2 easels are a dream to work on:

- one easel with adjustable slant angles is more conducive for watery washes

- the other with adjustable height is more comfortable for detail work and longer seated hours….

to see all 3 panels together, link 2nd triptych

trying to get the essence of painting underwater shots

Taking the first steps towards painting underwater shots…..

The photo of my waterbabies frolicking at grandma's condo pool with many reflections on the skin, pool floor and upper mirage too ~

I had to apply frisket because I was not confident of leaving the white areas intact~

Today I also decided to test painting vibrant colors, almost direct from the tube with very little dilution.

11.5" x 15.5" on 200 gms cold press

Title : waterbabies

© michellechoong_khoo

Eddie said that my painting did not feel like it was underwater, not enough reflections…I agree!

And I need to size down the subject so that the body of water was bigger….

Either that or I need to work on bigger paper size of A2.

But I think I captured the essence of the fun that my waterbabies were having at their moments posing for my first Sony PS10 with underwater housing~

However I felt that in applying the paints too strong, the result was a loss of the translucent feel of watercolors….mmmm, needs to be reworked~

Comments or suggestions on how I should rework this? :)

Analysing my above art piece , I suddenly got the urge to experiment and see how the translucency of watercolor will turn out of portraits done onto a background of charcoal or oil pastels~

And I have just the right photos to exactly do my next triptych of mixed medium!

Jon with a statue of Buddha at an art gallery

Julian with a lionhead at Khoo Kongsi

Justin with a background of the soldiers at the KL monument

So excited ~