Fall semester is now over...

4 months has gone so quickly. I found my very first life drawing work project, and yes, I have improved a bit.  But still something I really don't like about my works... I was frustrated and asked Fernando what I can do to improve. He told me, there are mainly 2 things I am not strong at; shape and texture. The shapes of drawing is not accurate enough and my rendering is not smoothness enough. I am off from the school for 6 weeks, so during this period, I should do some home work, yeah, serious boot camp is necessary... 

This took about 36 hours. I used General's charcoal pencils on FA5 paper. 

 This one is much less complete, though spent about 30 hours.

This work is slightly smoother texture, used General charcoal pencils on Fabriano Artistico paper.

During this semester, there were some upsetting things happened, especially human relations at school. All I want is work there hard to improve, and if lucky, make some good friends... And I still looking for an better apt near school. Hope next year will be the breakthrough the wall year...

Teddy pot

Another tea pot has done! This one have a teddy bear with a acorn and a leaf beside him. Unfortunately, spout was not big enough, but turned out very cute. I have 4 more mugs to finish. I am thinking how I should decorate them... :)

Ink and colour pencils

I was so disappointed by my poor proportioned drawings in the last drawing session, so I changed the point of view this morning. I used quick gesture flow drawings to nail the better proportion first and used it as bone to build up a better shape.

It seemed working well, and I added anatomical landmarks and tones. "Less is more", "simple is the best"?, mayebe, as I started to add more, then my drawings started to loose shapes again... I broke the tip of pencils a lot this morning... XD

And afternoon, I used ink with bamboo stick for fun. BG was too white, so I added a bit of charcoal as well as to hide my mistakes...

1 hour sketch turned out likeable.
But not 1.5h one. I usually do not like 1.5h works.

I think this style of drawing is good for short poses. Or I simply need more practice... Ha-ha.

Long time no see...

This morning, the model was Gustavo. I used to draw him so many time when I was in college. But now maybe 1-2 times a year. My hand didn't remember his figure at all, so only a few sketches look decent... But he is always my muse, I got some idea for drawing pose using him. He's always give me good inspirations, and the right corner one if the thumbnail of it. :D
And afternoon, Colin took a picture of my red conte drawing telling me looks good. Actually I don't like it at all. It doesn't look like her and not enough realism there. Buy he usually tells me good work to the one I feel not good... I wonder... Anyway I should take a red chalk workshop next year.... DX

New model, Andre.

Today, there was a new male model to Bottom Line club. When I saw him first, I liked his figure and thought cool! But when he posed the very first pose, he sad a joke and it turned me off. It was just a small joke, I don't know why I lost interest that bad. Anyway, my screwed up rhythm was not back normal and I made a lot of wrong decisions...  Well, there is also such a day!

New mugs and tea pot!

 Today I picked up my pottery works.

Wow, wow, wow! The hand build mugs turned out quite fun thing. Too bad, the handle of the little mug gut cracked, but it still do its job. The bigger mug, I put my dog, my hub, and my face. This becomes my favourite and will use this one from now on.

And the tea pot!!!! I wanted to make my own Chinese tea pot, so I threw 4 of them the other day. Unfortunately, one didn't survive from the bisque fire, and other 2 require some repairs. And this one is the one survived intact (not really, but just a minor crack at the handle. so I say intact!). I sued brown clay, so tea pt isn't perfectly white, but these works made me happy today.

portrait Grisaille

Here is the 2 hour sketch I did today in the Wednesday portrait at NVAC. Tried to be like grisaille and I used the technique I learned from Dan. Tonality is not good enough, but I think I caught a general idea. I had been skipping the Wednesday Portrait sessions, and today is the last day with this model... ort... Hope I can do complete monochromatic painting next time. XD

Clay challenge

After Dan's workshop, I couldn't resist my eager to copy the plane man cast to review the head anatomy lecture which Dan gave to us. I bought a 25lbs of clay and tried. I didn't bother to buy sculpture tools this time. But luckily, later Fernando showed u and lend me school's tool. I used cutting and modelling tool a bit, but I'm too beginner to know how to you the tools properly, and gave up the tools soon. My fingers works better, that's I thought. Ha-ha.  

And 4 hours later, I had a lot of fun playing with clay, but regretted a lot about not using a measuring tool.... It was still a good study, but no likeliness.... Ha, ha-ha-ha... ort
I'm thinking to try this again and next time with a measuring tool... XD

Dan Thompson's Palette

I took Dan's workshop last week. His way to paint was not the way I will do, but I learned a lot of things from him. 

Drawing stage; I really liked how he draw, no measurement, use surroundings to fix the lines. Object is a human, but draw shapes, not figure. Get gesture, and chisel/articulate the shapes. Find the light. 

And painting stage; paint BG first, don't worry about nailing the right colour, 'caz we can fix as we go, experiment the colour, put more on the canvas. Observe, apply colour and try again and again to make it better. I took a photo of Dan's palette.

First thing, the drawing is very important before the painting. And 2nd, choice of colour is totally up to you. I suffered mixing right colours for right place, but also I enjoyed making various colours, my painting is no longer monochrome world... :D

Gold fish mug and creamer

I threw 4 little tea pots the other day. I found 3 survived from bisque fire, but 2 need some repair for their lids. I have no idea how many will be usable in the end... These are new mug and creamer. I put little gold fish at the bottom. I like it, so I'm gonna go with this gold fish theme for a while... :D

Prud'hon Study

Early Summer, I took a workshop to study Prud'hon. The male nude one is the one I did in the workshop. I learned how to stain the paper and what to use etc. Then I came home and tried by myself. I have some bits of watercolour papers, so I used one of them. And tried tried tried, push and pull, push and pull.... Then finally gave up. The paper I used was waaaaaay too rough for this exercise. I have very little patient to continue... XD

Friday come again...

There is a model, nothing wrong with her, but somehow I can't draw her... She was an afternoon model, so I can only share the works with morning model Dan and da sketch of Bottom Line leader David having his coffee... XD

Adam in a SF soldier costume

Wednesday morning portrait session. Adam is the model for 4 weeks from today. He's one of my favourite models in Ottawa,  who has a young (high teen?) male body feature. I like him posing.  Problem is my drawing, it's very graphic... I think I have to draw softly.

Old sketches...

I found old sketches that I did 2 Summers ago in Italy. Some are not bad, some are... I often talk with classmates in the school about staying in Italy for a couple of months for sketching and painting. I don't know when it come true, but I think I have a lot of time to polish my drawing skills...

Nuit Blanche

Saturday night was Ottawa's first Nuit Blanche. Nuit Blanche Ottawa I dropped by some gallery in By Ward Market area. I couldn't find any visual art works I really like... I forced my hub to make a clay elephant at the planet coffee to make him feel that he's a part of this art festival. It worked and he liked it and we placed his elephant among others not to be lonely... :-)

I joined the group called the Sketch NBO and did some street sketching. http://sketchnbo.tumblr.com/

 Music performance by Duo d'Hull

Street dancing fighters, Capoeira group


I couldn't see all of them, but over all it was fun night. This festival is a new born baby, so look forward to see how it develop next year.

Monochrome painting

I finished the1st painting project at school. Unfortunately, the photo turned out too shiny and difficult to see the details... maybe next time take close up shots and upload...???

And this one is a step by step shot... From the left,
1) sketching
2) transfer to the canvas, and dead colour paint
3) rendering from big form
4) more rendering
5) do further rendering for details
6) Finish of 1st painting
7) finish of 2nd painting
8) touch up and finished...

Friday is my drawing day...

Friday drawing session has started. Good models for both morning and afternoon. I got a nice position all day today. :-)

Wednesday morning Portrait

It's been a while to join this group. I want to practice portrait drawing, so contacted to Laurie, a leader of the group when I was with them a couple of years ago. She told me that they accept drop-in people. Lucky! Seeing familiar faces made me comfortable... :-)

Sandy Hill

Sandy Hill community centre last night. Surprisingly there were only 30 something people showed up, even Dan prepared yummy fresh watermelon and the model Lilly did a wonderful poses.... These are either 20 min or 30 min works with soft colour pencils and charcoal pencils. I retouched a bit after I came back for blue paper ones.

Sculpting skulls

 To understand human anatomy better, decided to sculpt skull. My first try was with FIMO clay with mini head. And tried bigger one this afternoon. Wow, it's fun but tiring!!!

new sculpture project

My first one was not realistic, so I decided to copy somebody's work to practice.