Pebbles Cut

My love of stones and pebbles call for these cuts ...

They are in the becoming stages, but I'm enjoying the learning and growing process.

The images are based on one of the sketchbook pages I did last year. (Below).

Have a nice weekend and stay creative! xxoo

What's In My Sketchbook?

It is raining dog and shit and cold here in Melbourne.  Usually I would feel cranky but wow ... somehow I'm feeling a bit playful!  Hmm ... something's seriously wrong, hahaha!

Anyway the playful ME decided this is no time for serious finished drawing / painting work.  I'm going to cheat a little by just showing you one of my drawing exercises. (Apologize of the glare in the pix.)

The exercise is prescribed by Matthew Archambault from Drawing Tutorials Online (DTO)- a wonderful place to learn about figure drawing.  As it is Matt's teaching method, I won't be telling you exactly what we are doing.  The only thing I'm going to tell you is that it is all about hand eye co-ordination.  (Oh, and just so you know, this is my 2nd try with DTO.  Not that there was anything wrong with them the 1st time.  It was ME who took up more than I could handle the first round.)

After about 2 years of self-taught myself to draw and paint, I have gained lots of insight of my creative preferences, directions and goals.  I think it is time to give myself a challenge, I mean A Challenge.  So apart from joining DTO, I also joined its sister site, Painting Tutorial Online (PTO), to learn about oil painting.

During this learning period, I hope that I could still keep up with my weekly (or more like biweekly) sketchbook pages here.  Not sure if I'll be ready to post any oil painting study / exercise here yet.  We'll see how things go.

So, my dear fellow creatives, wish me luck!

ME and My Boy! ;)

Cheers and have a fantastic weekend! xxoo

(The sketch is also for Paint Party Friday - hosted by Eva and Kristin.  All are welcomed!  Do join in to share and support each other!)

What's in My Sketchbook?

It's been a while since my last try with drawing and painting bones.  Here is an attempt of it.

The bone part was a disaster!  The sketch was o.k. but came painting., mo matter what I did, the several layers of acrylic washes just didn't blend well.  The end result was just a flat brown color wash. 

I got my consolation price from the cactus.  I enjoyed building up the green layers and warmed it up by adding hint of peach at the tip of the plant.

Originally, I was thinking to paint the little buds and cactus flower red, which was what I saw on most cactus.  But I thought it was too predictable.  Hence I extended the peachy tip to the flower and layered it with yellow and magenta.

The more I was working with my sketchbook page, the more I discovered my palette.  I prefer muted tones than strong colors.  Most of the color I used have a grey undertone.  I like them "pale" as well.  And I try not to use more than 3 or 4 color for each page.  I don't know why, but it makes sense during the creative process.  I'm wondering whether this is a good thing or not?  What do my fellow creatives  think.

The sketch is also for Paint Party Friday - hosted by Eva and Kristin.  All are welcomed!  Do join in to share and support each other!

Cheers and have a lovely weekend! xxoo

What's in My Sketchbook?

Finally wind down from the iPad fever (a bit) and reckon I'd better get back to my sketch book page...

Since I haven't sketched or painted for a while, I had problem of coming up with interesting subjects for the sketch book page.

As I sat in front of the blank page feeling frustrated,  I saw something glittering in my paint box.  There I discovered some long forgotten tubes of silver and gold acrylic paints.  I remembered the excitement when I bought them a year ago, but some how I never got around to use them.

To test run the metallic paints, I decided to create some imaginary skeleton keys.  I imagined them as objects from a mysterious world.  They are used to find and unlock things which are long gone.

The sketch is also for Paint Party Friday - hosted by Eva and Kristin.  All are welcomed!  Do join in to share and support each other!

Cheers and have great weekend! xxoo

(P.S. To ensure I'm on time for PPF, I'm posting this a day earlier.)

What's in My Sketchbook?

It looks like it's becoming a usual thing for me to start my blog post with an apology ...

Again I'm sorry for my absence.  This is all caused by the tidal wave called The New iPad. The fun aspect of it is so great that I haven't been doing any sketch pages at all.  But sooner or later I knew that I have to get back to the ride. I don't want to become an iPad Junkie!  Hahaha!

Here is a sketch page which I've done a few weeks ago, but never got around to upload and share it with you.

I've tried out a new way, Dripping Paint, to create the background.  (I know .... the method is not new, but it is something that I've never tried before, hence I called it new.)

Dripping paint is a quick and easy way to have large empty area covered by color.  To make it a bit more interesting, I wrote my text on the uncovered area.  I quite like the result of it.

Perhaps of early Autumn weather or my quirky sense of beauty, I found shrinking flower a unique subject to sketch / paint as well.

The sketch is also for Paint Party Friday - hosted by Eva and Kristin.  All are welcomed!  Do join in to share and support each other!

What's in My Sketchbook?

One of the things I'm interesting to draw and especially to paint is the Elemental.

And this is my first try of water drops.

I'm not sure if they look water drops at all.  What do you think?  Anyway I'll keep doing it until I get the hang of it.

Here are some YouTube videos on how to paint water drops.  They are not necessary the best as I'm sure there're heaps and heaps of other tutorial on the same subject.  Below are just a few from my search.

- Using Acrylic

- Using Oil

- Using Watercolor (I know of a very good one from Jan Kunz which I used to view on YouTube, but some how lost the link and can't seem to locate it on YouTube ... sorry!)

The sketch is also for Paint Party Friday - hosted by Eva and Kristin.  All are welcomed!  Do join in to share and support each other!

Cheers and have a lovely weekend! xxoo

What's in My Sketchbook?

The spider must have bewitched me.  I'm still have a ball with them!

Here is another one ...

I was thinking to paint a deep red spider but somehow I grabbed the burgundy paint and used it on the spider.  Can't say I like it or dislike it.  Hmmm .... let's say it looks different.  What do you think of it?

 

To "match" with the unusual spider, I made up a different kind of web for her. I quite like the web design.  :)

The sketch is also for Paint Party Friday - hosted by Eva and Kristin.  All are welcomed!  Do join in to share and support each other!

Cheers and have a nice weekend! xxoo

p.s. Again I'm sorry for the greyish tone of the photo, the weather here has mostly been rain and cloudy.

What's in My Sketchbook?

Another new sketchbook page to share with my fellow bloggers and creatives.  :)

I've long been wanting to draw and paint spiders as I have a natural fear yet fascination of these leggy creatures.  I won't say that they are beautiful but their ability to weave webs for hunting make them kind of supernatural (magical ??!!) to me. (I'm such a nerd.)

I like the idea of a creature setting a delicate glittering trap and then waiting patiently for the prey to move into it. So clever and wicked!

But you can see that in this little page of mine, the spider somehow fell on its back.  No particular reason for such composition.  I just wanted to see what it looks like to place the spider in an environment other than its own web.

I wonder what causes it falling onto the rocky ground.  Any idea or theory?

I hope you enjoy my little work!

The sketch is also for Paint Party Friday - hosted by Eva and Kristin.  All are welcomed!  Do join in to share and support each other!

Cheers and have a lovely weekend! xxoo

p.s. Apologize for the poorly lit photos, have been raining most of the time ...

What's in My Sketchbook?

Following the dreadful result of the last sketchbook page, I was hesitant to work on the next one.  But it seemed like my brain and hands were beginning to remember how to paint.

Can't say I'm all pleased with the final work, but it was better than the last one.  Didn't like the background color - too bright for me and it clashed with the rest of the color palette.  I realized that I have always had problem painting the background.

Maybe it's related to how I paint.

After I finish sketching the subjects, I always start with the painting of the subjects.  And normally by the time I finish the sketch, I'd known what sort of color palette I'm to use on the subject.  But when time comes for painting background, my mind goes totally blank.  At the end of the day, I either pick color base on basic color theory or just use some of my favorite color mix.  

It would be interesting to know how my fellow creatives pick color for their background work.  :)

Some of My Favourite Drawing Tools

BTW, after showing most of my sketchbook pages here, I never let you all see what my sketchbook looks like.  Here is a photo of it.  

It is of  A5 size, plastic black cover student grade (i.e. cheap) sketchbook.  The KEEP CALM sticker on the cover is a gel skin cover from my old Kobo eReader.  I bought the little red notebook elastic from kikki. K to tie up the sketchbook.  Pretty neat aye!

The sketch is also for Paint Party Friday - hosted by Eva and Kristin.  All are welcomed!  Do join in to share and support each other!  AND HAPPY BIRTHDAY (1 YEAR OLD) to PPF! Yiiiiipppppeeeee!!! WoooHoooo!

Cheers and have a wonderful weekend! xxoo

What's in My Sketchbook?

After more than two months away from my sketchbook, I finally made a sketch page about two weeks ago.  And what a shocker!

It was a struggle from start to finish.  Nothing went smoothly.  It's as if I have never painted before.  By the time when I finished it, I was pretty upset.

But instead of pecking on my wounded ego, I asked myself if I had learn anything from this sketchbook page.  One thing popped into my mind - painting is not like riding a bicycle, once you learn it, you'll never forget it.  Good painting skills require continual practice.

A valuable lesson learn ...
 

The sketch is also for Paint Party Friday - hosted by Eva and Kristin.  All are welcomed!  Do join in to share and support each other!

Cheers and have a wonderful weekend! xxoo

What's in My Sketchbook?

I drew up a lone tree in my sketchbook a few weeks ago and had been thinking of what to do with it.

Then an idea struck me after I put up my Christmas tree on 1st December.  I drew / painted some moss like string web with little white balls hanging from the lone tree.  Then I painted the background with darker color which reminded me of winter night.  And there you go ...

It is interesting how the things in our life inspire our creativity.  And I hope you enjoy this little imaginary Christmas Tree of mine! :)

The sketch is also for Paint Party Friday (which I'm late for my entry this week) - hosted by Eva and Kristin.  All are welcomed!  Do join in to share and support each other!

What's in My Sketchbook?

I found myself thinking of butterfly pupa a lot lately.

Did you know that the process of a pupa turning into a butterfly is called "Metamorphosis"?  The little caterpillar inside the pupa basically breaks down to an almost liquid form so the cell could re-grow into a butterfly.

I wonder if this is related to my recent workplace drama.  I'm definitely watching my mind spinning and twirling with loads and loads of images.

Here are the butterflies ...(still working with acrylic washes)

(The sketch is also for Paint Party Friday - hosted by Eva and Kristin.  All are welcomed!  Do join in to share and support each other!)

Enjoy and have a lovely weekend!

What's in My Sketchbook?

It's been a long while since my last post and I'm very sorry for missing sooooo long ...

The last couple of weeks have been a very difficult time for me

As a result of workplace re-structure, I came to a sudden realization of being the "aging" staff in the workplace.  Though the company has used every rational & logical reasons to ask me to step down, I knew the truth behind all the sweet talk.

The process had brought out lots of angst, frustration and emotional pain that I've never anticipated.  It also brought out a great urge to take stock of my life.  Hence, you'll understand the reasons for my absence. 

Anyway, enough of the personal drama and let's see what I got for you this week-

another sketch of bones.  (You can see that I'm really obsessed with bones, right?  Hahaha!)

Again, this is another practice of using acrylic washes to paint.  The pix shows the color a lot paler than the original as I picked light color scheme for this little work.  I knew I should start using watercolor paper for the practice but I want to finish this sketch book (total of 50 pages) as well.  I think I might need to speed things up so to move on. 

Two interesting things about this sketch:

• the bones I picked are all from the hip region of a horse

•  I prepared the sketch work while I was going through treatment of my degenerative hip.

I swore to you that I didn't know about it til I finished the entire work.  How fascinating our unconscious mind work?  ;)

I hope you enjoy the sketch and apologize for the personal rant.

Cheers and wishing you all a wonderful weekend!

(The sketch is also for Paint Party Friday - hosted by Eva and Kristin.  All are welcomed!  Do join in to share and support each other!)

What's in My Sketchbook?

Sorry for missing last week's sketchbook page ...

Got too many things on the plate ... and each one of them was fighting for my attention and energy ...it's always the creative projects which got put at the back burner ...

Another try of using acrylic washes to sketch / paint a rose.  A very time consuming process for a very small work (A5 size).  But I loved the fact that I was able to lose myself completely in the process and got away from the human problems for awhile.

(Apologize for the poor quality of the pix.  Haven't been able to catch a sunny day for a better shot!)

 

Now what else could I share with you of my creative venture?

I've got lots of things brewing in my mind, but it all comes down to master the required skills to make it happens.  This is where I'm experiencing the most frustration!

I remember an advice I read years ago from an art blog.  (sorry can't remember the blog name ...)  The art blogger encourages all creatives NOT to give up on any one of their ideas, especially those one which makes your spine tingle or your skin crawls with strange sensation.  Record it in crude sketches, jot it down as note or create a file in your computer to store it.

You might not have the skill to "materialize" it now,  but if you continue to learn and practice.  The day will come when you're ready for your BIG work.

No great creative work is done in a day.  Over time, ideas grow, evolve and so are your skills.  It will then be your time to do the work you're meant to do.  The work that only you could do.

This is what I'm hanging onto right now so that I could still sketch and paint. 

Cheers and wishing you all a wonderful weekend!

(The sketch is also for Paint Party Friday - hosted by Eva and Kristin.  All are welcomed!  Do join in to share and support each other!)