Finally sat down to do a little digital painting

I joined up a facebook group "Virtual Plein Air" recently, was really at an awwww moment when Isaw the many inspiring paintings people were posting up here, the idea of traveling anywhere in the world without spending a dime just  rolling around in Google map with a touch of your computer button.

I really wished I thought of this idea earlier on, but someone finally did, and it is quite a fun experience similar to a urban sketch walk. Although the tough thing with this virtual plein air is that, finding the nitty gritty details that you want tocatch  (Like angle, lighting, subject and many more) becomes limited since these are simply photographs stitched up at the specific time and moment. And the fact I am working off from my laptop, my screen can only give me so much space to have my reference picture on the side :P so it's sort of crammy.

But I did have a blast giving this idea a try.
my Plein Air location was Portugal: https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@41.14062,-8.613094,3a,37.5y,50.37h,81.65t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sHLTYzBohiwrJHYWK2x6Ohg!2e0!5m1!1e1

Release thy inner Kraken

Recently bought a light weight /fountain  pen by Speedball. Always wanted to try to draw with this type of pen, saw people use it to write with it, looked super easy. However it took me at least an hour to get use to the idea of producing really thin fine lines and a nice pressured thick outline. At most I poked several holes on one page, not knowing how much ink the tip could carry and how much presaure I could exert with this pen.

After several dabs of the indian ink the pen came with, I am quite happy with some of the lines. And it was a nice stress reliever :)

Congrats NYU Tisch ANDA 2014 :D

Sadly to say, ANDA 2014 is the final batch of  talented, young and energetic animation students (all ladies) attending NYU Tisch Asia in Singapore.

Hate to see the program and the school end it's chapters in a fascinating and diverse country.

As a tradition, I tend to draw something something for the graduating classes. This year was not that hard since there were only four students haha :P

Happy mama day~

Knowing that you always have my back to straighten me out, when I am down or unaware I am out of sync.
Happy mothers' day ma~

Catching up with a coffee break

Had been a while since any blogging was done :\ did manage to sketch once or twice a week now, still experimenting with watercolor, since I got the Winsor & Newton 12 color travel pack, it's been easy for me to splash on some color washes when needed. 

A compilation of the mini paintings

Compiled three oil paintings with one PS painting :P

Sort of feeling more comfortable tackling reflected objects, the way I tackle the process of painting reflective object such as glass/ silverware. is to use the surrounding information (reflections, bounced light for nearby objects, and also remembering that the reflective object is also a SHAPE itself, so also treat it with shadow, midtone and highlights. Is a little tough with words, but as you start to pick out the nitty gritty info's through observation, you soon realize that, the surrounding actually shapes the details of the object of interest. Sort of like fake it till you make it type of mentality hahaha :P

Oil vs PS #2

Which one did you start off with today?
Kicked off with Photoshop.

PS paint:

How long did the painting take?
It took about an hour this time.

Did you find anything particularly interesting today?
I never liked drawing/ painting reflective objects, I constantly think how difficult it is to capture all that reflective information and neglecting the fact that, this is still a 3D object that has a shape, and shadow. So, throwing all complex details away, I started with the basic form, determining the object in greyscale first, applied the colors. Then on separate layers adding reflective details, and to top the shine, I added another layer that I apply only highlights. I found that with the information (dark shades, shadows, mid tone, light shade, and highlights) all in place with respect to it's relative shape, the object will come together as a whole similar to a recipe. But it does become boring to follow the same recipe over and over again :(. Hope to find more interesting things further down the road of this project.   

Did you learn anything new about yourself in this technique?
Became more confident in tackling reflective objects~

Is there something you wish you could do differently?
Have a better understanding with rendering shadows, felt my shadows were a bit difficult to come by. banana shades and colors were off.

How do you feel about this project right now?
Not too bad today, sat down and powered through the paintings under a stop watch.




Oil paint:

How long did the painting take?
it took over an hour and a half I think, lost track of time once I started the painting haha~

Did you find anything interesting today?
I purchased some new brushes, that were actually flexible and easy going on the canvas. Did feel a significant change in the way I organized my thought process of painting on canvas. I think kick starting with PS, help with my color decisions faster. Shape wise I feel I did a trial run on PS so it was easier the second round.

Did you learn anything new about yourself in this technique?
Finding the procedural process of painting in PS sort of useful when applied on canvas. The thought process of laying the base colors, then additional mid tones and followed by highlights works. What was nice in actual painting is the mixture of color and the spontaneous outcomes of a dab of this and that color.

Is there something you wish you could do differently?
Get a bigger dust bin, newspaper wipes are over flowing from the little bin :P

Additional comment:
So far am seeing some improvement in my confidence of color pairing. (That is for now, I might go into a color shock in the latter).