Monday, March 31, 2014

Simple Grace -- My Other Half of Artist's Life at the Classical Atelier


Simple Grace, 
Charcoal Cast Drawing from Life on Fabriano Roma White Charcoal Paper, 18h x 16"w

I haven't done much of sharing of my work from the atelier I was attending so far -- this is one of the latest projects I have finished there. It is a charcoal drawing about the size of 16" x 18" of a plaster cast from a 19th century French girl. The drawing is done from life with sight-size method, and took me a good three month to finish. I was quite happy with it and thought it has somewhat captured her calm, gentle expression, and the effect of light hitting her forehead and cascading down from there. The training at Golden Gate Atelier is amazing and I felt in the two years I am attending it, my drawing ability has just improved by leaps and bounds...

It is very interesting that this cast is supposed to be a cast direct from a real girl's face, after she has tragically cast herself into the river water of Paris to end her life, but the expression is so vivid, peaceful and lifelike, it's hard to believe it is cast from a deceased person... The interesting story behind the cast is that the contemporary CPR's training mask is designed according to it, so that people who are trained to do mouth-to-mouth CPR could have something pleasant to stare at when doing it...

After completing this project, I decide to submit it to Lodi Art Center's Spring Juried Show, and yesterday I was informed that this drawing has just won the Best of Show. This great news came as a total surprise, as this is the first time I submit non-watercolor work to a juried show and I was very nervous how it would be received... Of course I feel a huge sense of encouragement now. 

I would never be able to do this without the two years of priceless training I have received at Golden Gate Atelier -- before entering the atelier I was literally scared to death to pick up a pencil and draw free-hand! The rigorous training -- drawing from life 6-7 hours a day every day has not only taught me how to see and how to use different drawing materials to achieve an effect I want, but gradually built up my confidence to DRAW. Again, this proves you learn drawing by -- actually draw a lot... Along the way I have received so many valuable instructions and help from my teachers, Andrew Ameral and Sean Forester, as well as my classmates. I owe you all a big "Thanks" -- you are the best!


I also owe a big "Thank You" to Sadie Valeri, my first teacher in classical realism and personal inspiration! I took my first life drawing class with her when I was still working my engineer job, and was totally hooked! Now I am on this road of no return... Lol...

In the mean time, if you have an image of a beautiful landscape, or a flower you like, or anything you might want to see painted, please email them to me at arena.shawn@gmail.com. I will paint them and post them here. From every 10 paintings I make from them, there would be a random drawing, and the lucky winner get to take a original back home for free! Interested? Then send me your photo!

You can now buy high quality Giclee prints of many of my sold paintings, both on paper and canvas, as well as some note cards with my paintings here:







Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Fire Dance (Very Close to Finish...)


Fire Dance, Watercolor on Fabriano Artistico #140 Cold Press Paper, 6"h x 6"w, WIP 7

I am currently working on two small paintings of tulips -- perhaps being inspired by the beautiful tulip garden cultivated by our Dutch neighbor that I can see every time I look out of the window facing my painting table. An artist is definitely aesthetically influenced by his/her immediate environment -- albeit some more than others -- but that perhaps is a good justification for our desire to surround ourselves with beautiful objects such as other artists' work?...

That aside, this particular tulip, "Fire Dance", paintings have taken me a long time to complete, dragging from last spring to this one. Numerous times I have seen it as finished, even framed it and showed it in galleries, and eventually after looking at it for a while, I would feel something is still missing, and eventually remove it from the mat and rework it some more. From the last WIP of it shown on this blog, I have followed some very good advice from fellow artists and softened the edge between the leftmost flower in the background and the background itself, linking the two together, as well as separating the center flower from the rest by darkening and neutralizing the flowers out of focus in the background. I've lost some beautiful passages of effects along the way, but I feel the whole painting does stand stronger this way, and it is very close to finish... I just need to think about how to define the front petal in the center flower better -- without losing the light on it. I need to spend more time staring at it and think than to actually move my brush at this stage...

How to finish a painting is a very personal problem that each painter solves in their own way, and may vary from one piece of work to the next. However, being able to actually "finish" a piece without rushing it through deadline or beating it to death by overworking gives a tremendous sense of satisfaction, as well as confidence to build on the knowledge gained in this difficult process and apply it to the next painting. Wish me good luck to pull it through, my friends...

In the mean time, if you have an image of a beautiful landscape, or a flower you like, or anything you might want to see painted, please email them to me at arena.shawn@gmail.com. I will paint them and post them here. From every 10 paintings I make from them, there would be a random drawing, and the lucky winner get to take a original back home for free! Interested? Then send me your photo!

You can now buy high quality Giclee prints of many of my sold paintings, both on paper and canvas, as well as some note cards with my paintings here:







Saturday, March 15, 2014

Hummers! (No, Not the Monstrous Vehicle... It's the Tiny Bird I am Referring to...)


Rufus!,  Watercolor on Arches #140 Cold Press Paper, 7"h x 7"w, WIP 1


This is my latest project -- a little Rufus Hummingbird painting to be completed with gold leaf. 

Last September my dear artist friend, the amazing Carrie Waller, has shared a technique of how do combine gold leaf with watercolor on her blog. I was very intrigued by the effect you can get using this particular technique, but was not sure what subject would work best with it. Carrie has done some beautiful still life paintings of fall leaves and pears using this technique, as well as a larger painting of humming birds. I especially liked how the shimmer of the gold leaf would work with the brilliant colors of humming bird plumage, and after some researches of suitable reference materials, have settled on a series of Rufus Hummingbirds to try my hands on. This is the first one of them. All the yellow backgrounds would be covered with gold leaf in the finished painting. I almost cannot wait to do it!

I think the emerald green and green gold used for the feather of the humming bird would work well with the gold leaf. And after reading Chris Beck's tutorial in the latest Artist's Magazine, I decided to give masking fluid another try on the cactus flowers. I used a dipping pen to apply them for the thorns (the masking are removed here and you can see the resulted white shapes of thorns on the cacti), and find them easy to use, as well as capable of producing much thinner lines. I took the maskings off before applying the final wash, so that I can modify the edges of the masked shapes with some brush work, and tone them down if they appear to be too stark... 

In the mean time, if you have an image of a beautiful landscape, or a flower you like, or anything you might want to see painted, please email them to me at arena.shawn@gmail.com. I will paint them and post them here. From every 10 paintings I make from them, there would be a random drawing, and the lucky winner get to take a original back home for free! Interested? Then send me your photo!

You can now buy high quality Giclee prints of many of my sold paintings, both on paper and canvas, as well as some note cards with my paintings here:




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