Start Drawing

Actually I started to write again on this blog because I need to practice my writing (I am not an English speaker, thus I need to train myself to be able to write comfortably like I used to - I am just waay out of practice). Anyway I am so busy with life (not life actually , just work and obligation and everything in between that you must do once you become an adult) I don't have time anymore to draw. I can't even force myself to pick put a pen just to doodle like I used to do if I don't have anything to do or if I just watching movies on TV or if I just sitting around doing nothing at work, but right now thinking about taking a pen and start drawing again (the thing that I've been doing since I was 6 years old and never stopped I even never pay attention to any lesson during my high school years due to too much day dreaming. Anyway, I want to start again if I can.

Wish List

God, I wanted to study in an Art School...

Watercolor Step by Step My Way: Coconut Tree

a. First Step

(a) First Step: First Layer, the coconuts and the the lighter layer branch are yellow-washed no preliminary sketches, the brown trunk are laid with red-wash of light value, because I usually mix red, blue and yellow added the last to make a brown. I only paint light washes because I am going to mix darker mix next, the first light layers just to make sure I am not laying dark washes over spaces that supposed to be left in the light.

(b) Second Step: Ha ha I only dared to paint the coconut tree on the right hand top corner, because I always or never succeeding in painting the coconuts and always get blurred with other painting and never shaped really well because I try to paint wet-on-wet (because I find that painting this way always give me nice surprised in the end), but this time I use dry-on-dry (is it the correct term?) as the second layer. I put the yellow and ultramarine on separate well of my new ceramic palette (although it is actually a place kind of ceramic dish for chillies, but I thought it would be nice for my poster color paints, but then I use it here). I mix the yellow and the ultramarine (yellow added first dry on dry with watery mix of water and yellow), then added ultramarine then try to mix it on paper to form green to cover the coconuts one by one. and here is the result:

(b) Second Step

(c) Third Step: I added the other things that usually there on a coconut tree, for example the long blade leaf, the other coconuts, and added the second layer on some parts of the painting, for example the coconuts on the lower half of the painting (the two big coconuts).

After that because I was afraid I am going to paint over the long blade leaf and overrun the space for the leaf with other stuff so the leaf won't come through the painting, I use W&N Galeria
round brush no.6 (I try it the first time here, I thought I am going to use it for the poster paints because the coarser hair of the brush) but it turned out it works really well to paint the long blade leafs of coconut tree-with no pencil used beforehand. I use yellow ochre-a bit watery and added with a little yellow on it to paint the leafs, started with long strong until it meet the end point and then added the other to form the white space representing the veins you usually find in the middle of coconut leaf. after it was dried, I add a second layer on the green branch of the coconut tree, using yellow (watery) and added ultramarine (also watery) to make the branches (the one in green, that used to be the yellowish branch) more visible, I am not satisfied with the branch color yet, I thought I am going to add a darker wash of green (as usual mixed from yellow and ultramarine next), but I need to wait for it to dry, so I paint the second layer on the coconuts on the lower half of the painting, in here, rather than use the flat brush that worked out really well in painting the coconuts on the top right corner, I try using the round big brush no. 12 to add the second layer, mixing watery red and yellow on the lower half of the coconut, because they looks orangish on the coconut tree, then added mixing of yellow and ultramarine (still watery) on the top half of the coconut, but because it was so watery I did not got the definite coconut-look like the one in the top right corner (the one I used with flat brush), I don't know maybe because it was best to paint the coconuts with flat brush instead? but I opted to use the round brush in the spirit of washes...whatever that means. OK, I lost track again here. Anyway because I am afraid to paint over the spot for the coconut leafs, so I started to paint the coconut leafs with yellow ochre, like the one I describe before, Actually I did this first before I lay the second wash on the coconuts, by laying over the dried yellow ochre leafs with yellow and Ultramarine - because I am not afraid, and because I am going to paint darker wash-a much darker wash to paint the leafs, and yes so I used Prussian blue over the dried yellow Ochre, and what I got, it was beautiful...Me thinks...

(c) Third Steps

I added a second layer of yellow, red and blue (very watery because I run out of yellow paints) to form the coconut tree trunk, it supposed to look brown, but because of my incompetency in mixing a balanced diet of yellow-red-and-blue (to form brown) I only managed it to look a little reddish-purple (because if I use a non watery mix, somehow I make the mix into blackish brown that looks so depressing, that's why I add a lot of water on each paint when I mix them on the paper to form brown, but yet always fail to make the right balance of yellow, red and blue). Anyway, since the green on the green branch were so transparent (because just like any other new beginner in watercolor, I tend to use a little paint on the painting), so I added the third layer of darker green mixed from Prussian blue and yellow ochre-and wow I love the result, although I am not tidy enough in painting it over because I've just wake up and my brain still in a puddle). So here is the painting result:

(d) Fourth Step

The finished product...

(e) Fifth Step

Can't take it anymore so I just finished it...The problem is...too much yellow showed on the green, no wonder I run out of yellow paints! Wish I could show all of the painting, since it's in A3 paper, while I only have A4 size paper

Lyra Rembrandt Poly Color Try

Just bought Lyra Rembrandt Poly-color, and though the pencils are excellent I did not do them any justice because look at my pencil color sketches! The shoes are okay (although only one that half finished the only one not even touched yet!), but the rice-paper-glue bottle is so...ugly...

Use a Model or Not to Use a Model: Watercolor

My mother like the one in above better because it was more realistic I guess, and the one below looks like a ghost, I think that so too, I think it was because the first one I looked at the model all the time when I paint this, and the other one, the one that looked like a ghost (the one below) were drawn by using imagination (at least half of it) because my model run out on me to go swimming (well she was only 5 years old), so I guess the conclusion is when you paint someone without using the real model and instead just rely on your imagination, your result might be just like any other imaginary faced (that looks like more like a cartoon) then a realistic one.

The first picture and the picture below it I use first layer of orange wash at first, just like a doodle without so much shaping, just general wash, even the form of the face are not defined yet, and then I add the hair, on the first picture I add Prussian blue on the mix to make the hair, and on the second picture just pure orange wash, and then I add the details like eyes (try to shape an eye) using the same orange but with darker tone to define the eyes, then tried to shape the nose (but always fail) by adding two twin dark holes then try painstakingly but yet always fail to make the mouth, but I know how now, just paint a straight line (the middle line that divide the lips) and then add the shadow under the lips to define the lips, try not to paint the lips because it would looked garish and so out of place if you define the lips too much (this is working on the second picture, the 2nd try on painting people), but I guess I need a lot of work to do since none of the pictures above looked any human to me.

Anyhow, I think I like the first picture (the 1st try) better then the second one, because it looks more realistic, and I guess it's because I paid attention to details at the first picture, while on the second picture I just imagine it and paint or draw something that not there. So I guess (maybe as a beginner) a model for painting is a must, at least until you are experienced enough to paint realistically without model.

Coconut Tree: Watercolor

Having just got back home from where I work (well I gotta have a job as an inspiring artist right? Well, I can't hardly sell my paintings, the one titled the study of hand and foot, please...even my little nephwew can discern what is my foot is when I asked her whether my painting "pretty" or not, she just said : what is that, auntie? Is it an elephant? Wew, while I was so proud with my foot painting ha ha), anyway, since I can't hardly only paint my hand and foot while I only have two hands and two feet that of course identical (I hope they do identical, well maybe not the creases), so I have to find another object to paint. So I gather up my painting equipment and headed to the garden (well not really a garden more like inhabited plow of lands where everything grows and where neighboring chickens or my chicken neighbors or whatever eat). I always wanted to paint a coconut tree, so no matter how scary the weather is (the wind howling, the sky looked scary with gray fat clouds and thunder, until I have to send my two little nephews whose I took to accompany to paint inside), and how the drizzle makes my watercolor pad wet, I sit on that concrete at the side of my house and paint.

Wew, painting something outside (that you imagine would be beautiful) is not easy. I was using layer by layer technique (a layer of wash on another layer of wash), but still something missing. I was using wet on wet (I spray the paper first) but it only make the paints gone awry everywhere. In the end I was so frustrated I want to give up, until I realized I was not paying attention enough when I was painting, I guess like drawing, you have to pay attention to detail and started to paint while you are doing it so you can shape the paint like you want it to be.

Well, I know the painting I did is not the best of coconut tree painting, at least I enjoyed it so much I am going to do the same again tomorrow, well not tomorrow because I gotta do some my work first to keep the kitchen running so they say, or just to find extra money to buy some watercolor paper and stuff. Oh, anyway I am not using any pencil. Cause they say, it's better not to use pencil before you paint, do not know why maybe just to practice your hand with the painting flow or something?

Study of My Hand: Watercolor with no Preliminary Sketch

Still confuse what to paint so rather than thinking too much and then get more far away from my goal, that is to paint and practice as much as I can, I decided to paint my hand.

The same ways I use in painting my foot, the different is just that I did not sketch it using pencil, I just use my brush to form the swept of the hand and then form the hand using a light was of red, then add ultramarine blue on the darkest place on my skin and on the creases and wrinkles and then add red and yellow to form brown, the color of my skin.

I had problem when I am trying to make it more visible like a hand, and how to paint the nail realistic, in the end I just try to form the hand with adding Prussian blue (the dark blue). Then I just wash a very light red on the nail, while not painting at the little white you usually found on your finger located at the base of the nail.

The problem is, it does not look like a hand to me, rather it look like a misplaced alien hand on my bed.