“Welcome every morning with a smile. Look on the new day as another special gift from your creator, another golden opportunity to complete what you were unable to finish yesterday. Be a self-starter. Let your first hour set the theme of success and positive action that is certain to echo through your entire day. Today will never happen again. Don’t waste it with a false start or no start at all. You were not born to fail.” ~by Og Mandino

Saturday, November 12, 2011

From Big To Small

I thought I fully comprehended this concept – doing the picture from big to small one, when the instructor sketched the big and small objects individually on a piece of paper and explained us the concept last week. I can still recall his statement.

Until today, I finally realised that I might be wrong. I could have misinterpreted his statement, or I did not really fathom it in fact.

During the painting class this afternoon, after receiving a few instructions from the instructor, I started my painting. It’s about a sunset beach with two tiny people in there – one resting on a big rock and another one having fun on the beach. I was requested to play only with blue and white colours today.

So, I started to draft the outline of each object on a white canvas with very transparent blue colour. I gradually filled in with the blue to compose the ground colour and also increased the tone. Some area with deeper blue and some were keeping light. This is what we called as blocking and blacks. I always thought this was just as easy as a piece of cake. But, I was overestimated.

It’s honestly a tough work to compose a good painting. I thought I had done all but the instructor was not satisfying with the result. He kept on saying to focus on the big portion, and then the small portion, always leave the detail by the end. I thought I understood his request. But somehow, I found myself struggling on the same thing and nothing improved. In addition, I still played with the detail again. Seemed like I was getting lost. Goodness.

I felt that I almost got crazy with this painting until I finally asked the instructor to shed me the light. Two main flaws he pointed out on my painting – first, the contrast of overall was vague and not clearly expressed, meanwhile he also pointed to the photo and back to the particular area on my painting to show the difference; second was, blending the colour on canvas which must be avoided. Ohhh… Now I see.

Once I fathomed out the reason, immediately I rectified the mistake. Finally, the instructor seemed pretty much satisfied with my painting now. Phew…

As a matter of fact, there is always an effort to completely puzzle out a philosophy!

Sunday, November 6, 2011

Water Colour On Canvas

This is the first piece of water colour I do on canvas. Enjoy~

Saturday, November 5, 2011

Art Introductory Workshop

This is my first piece of oil paint during the introductory workshop I attended this morning. I know it looks ugly but I think this is still counted as a kind of art too. A BEGINNER ART in oil painting! Ha.



In front of us, there were three objects – a white ball, a green squared box, and a banana, aligned in a random manner on a cloth with a table lamp projecting the light on them. What I did is, kept an eye on the objects straight from my point of view (the viewing angle) and made them in to my painting. That’s it. It’s sounded easy but in fact it’s not. Quite challenging, be honest.

That’s not a complete proper painting. Rather, it’s merely a practice after every fundamental thought and theory about art that enlightened by Chankerk - our instructor, we fathomed out and integrated them in our painting.

The hands-on was really fun! I like it and I found myself was inspired by their great philosophy associated with art too. At the end, I decided to sign up an 8-lesson program on oil painting which I will spend every of my Saturday afternoon at here for two months. That’s very exciting!