catching up

I was greatly inspired by an artist friend who did a thousand 5x5 drawings with another artist and then they set up a small event one evening to offer them for sale. I was inspired not so much by the selling but the fact that they completed a thousand drawings.

Hence I decided to put together my own 4x4 paintings, maybe not a thousand but I am thinking of aiming for a hundred before the year ends. I will even be happy with fifty but I hope I can push myself to making more. This is my first set of six paintings. The images were done with watercolor and Derwent Inktense, the text (except for Begin) overlaid with Overgram. I intend to hand-write the final text when paint is sufficiently dry.

My plan to put up a proper art wall has been delayed given my recent decision to move house so maybe by the time I am ready to put it up there will be more pieces to play with.

blue

i dream of the blue sea

a blue box that is bigger on the inside

the blue-ness of turquoise

the blue feeling of wanting to go somewhere

a handful of blueberries

that movie called blueberry nights

a blue sky streaked with gray

blue ink spilling like tears

the blue in the english flag

waking up that blue feeling again

the Doctor's blue suit

my tattered blue shoes

something blue to go with the old and the borrowed and the new

currently hooked

The exercises get more complicated as the chapters go by but I am having tons of fun! This is certainly something to feel good about when other things in my life are needing a boost.

I have been having dreams of slaying dragons and I know my subconscious is telling me something very important. Maybe I will meditate on it by painting more.

pastel techniques with charcoal + Derwent Inktense

An artist friend lent me his brand-new book on pastels and today I started reading it. It is a very useful and easy to understand book which is very helpful for beginners like me.  I applied the techniques on charcoal and Derwent Inktense although I also plan to use pastels later on. Right now I am too in love with Inktense.

The first drawing practice was of grapes and bananas. Here is my attempt. Since I am using Inktense, I have the choice of adding water to the colors afterwards, which I did.

Second drawing was citrus fruits.

What new thing are you learning these days?

inktense urge

This set of Inktense Blocks was an impulse purchase. Although it has been on my wishlist since August of last year, it was not a priority item. It is an expensive brand and work projects have been few and far between.

But there I was, standing in front of the display, and all of the sudden there was a surge of energy from the pit of my stomach and the next thing I knew...

making story and art

I am a week ahead of targets for NaNoWriMo. Sometimes writing this novel feels like crafting one long spell and at the end of it my own life will take on the shape of its happy ending.

Friday night I painted a gift for someone who shared my admiration for Neil Gaiman so I drew a version of Death inspired by Steampunk. Some of the designs in the artwork were also inspired by the novel I am writing so it is all connected and complex that way.

I write an average of 3-5 thousand words a day, including what I write in my journal. My writing has been the thing that saves me and keeps me sane through the storm of questions orphaned of answers. My art-making, on the other hand, helps express or magnify what I could not contain in words.

Lately love has been lurking and I let it sit beside the lamp while I write as long as it does not interrupt me from my writing. But sometimes it would sigh and I would hear it and we would stare at each other unable to offer any consolation. It likes to hang out by my desk on late Saturday nights when it knows I tend to be more vulnerable but I am used to its tricks and I manage to bury it in a good pile of words. I would write, write, write until my fingers would cramp and my eyes would ache and love would be barely breathing beneath the pages. Of course in the morning I would find that it had managed to slip through between the lines and everything I have written would have love's taint.

I just keep on writing.

what I have been up to, among other things

I updated my Facebook cover photo.

I also did this.

quick shots

I've been busy -- mainly drawing, painting, writing, reading, and today it was working.

My house chores are way behind but I'm pleased with the creative productivity.

The week started well and hopeful.

Latest piece. I have quite a number of drawings waiting for color in line.

Making the wait for a meeting worthwhile with a book. Finished two books this week.

I have a watcher keeping me safe and supervised every day.

to the farmer's market

“We very strongly hope that the traditional will not be lost. One really worries, because our mothers all cooked but I doubt if our children will. Our grandchildren? Who knows? Maybe they’ll open packages for dinners. There is a real danger of cultural loss if you lose food, just like when you lose a language.” -Doreen G. Fernandez

a surge

I spent most of today painting. Couldn't help it. Couldn't stop. The blank pages drew me in and made me draw.

I finished this one last night.

This is my first finished piece for the day. Watercolor + Gouache

Today's second piece : Watercolor + Gouache + Lace

A Special Piece for my best friend in Canada. The photo does not do justice to the colors or texture so she will still have a bit of a surprise when she gets the real thing. :)

Third piece started but I made myself stop so I could take a breathe and rest. It would not do to deplete my creative well so soon.

I have started drawing and painting in my sketchbooks instead of hiding in the safety of my art journal pages. I can actually tear the pages off and frame the pieces. Maybe I will do that one day.

The Owl Who Knows How

He just kept hooting around in my head, flapping his wings, and pecking at my thoughts. He says I should not fuss about how things will happen and I should just do what I need to do. He says he knows how it's all going to unfold, and that I have nothing to worry about.

watercolor, poster color, beads

snapshots of a day

I made myself clean up the mess that usually creeps in whenever I'm in the middle of a work.project. I really look forward to the days when the rest of my life will not have to take a pause every time there is work. Work should not be eating up my days like langoliers. In any case, I realize that I really love the colors of my home.

The sky was interesting again today, with great gray rainclouds threatening the sunny clouds. By late afternoon it had begun to rain.

My attempts at practicing watercolor. So that's an hour less from the 10,000 required for mastery.

wielding a brush instead of a sword

Today I went to a watercolor workshop instead of kendo practice.

I discovered the workshop through a Facebook post by my bookseller friend last March. I wanted to join it then but my schedules were unpredictable. Then to my delight, another set of workshops were offered in April and I had signed up immediately. But at the last minute I had to back out because of work schedules. I thought that was it. No painting for me.

Then the workshop instructor, Valerie Chua, emailed me to let me know that there will be one last session this month. Well, that was it, it was then or never! And it must be really meant because third time's the charm, so they say. I also remembered that inspiring line that says, "When the student is ready, the teacher will appear."

http://blog.quietgirl.net/2012/05/tendrils-watercolor-workshop-for-may.html

I have to admit I was actually nervous and apprehensive on my way to class. I never had any form of training on any art. I was relying purely on my genetic skills and hoping fervently that my grandfather's artistic blood would weave magic through my hand.

The workshop was simple and straightforward and that's what made it so effective and useful for me. At the same time there was warmth and good camaraderie in the studio, even though according to Valerie we were a pretty quiet class -- a roomful of introverts most likely, as we all spoke in soft hushed voices and giggled to ourselves at the perceived disasters on our paper.

It took four hours but no time was wasted. I especially loved watching my own attempts at still life progress from a sketch to something that at least looks a bit like what it's supposed to be.

I enjoyed mixing colors and trying to capture the same shade as the image source.

I finally understand how those shadowy colors (called undertones) are made.

It's hard not to be messy at some point.

Finished work, with a few very instructive finishing touches from the teacher.

It was said that only practice, lots of it, will really help us get better and improve. I guess it is also the best way for us to learn tricks for ourselves and to develop our own styles. Valerie said that it has been mentioned somewhere that you need 10,000 hours of practice if you really want to be good at something. She advised us to paint every day. Pretty much like what Julia Cameron says in her books about writing everyday. Practice is the key. And I would add something else to that, practice fueled by passion. That is the best combination I believe.

I came out of that workshop feeling happy and optimistic. It was a different kind of high, and a different kind of victory. As I took this creative step the path before me has become brighter with possibilities and promise. I certainly want to explore more...

quiet good friday

I've been having peaceful quiet days since yesterday. I beat my procrastination and made myself pick up the paintbrush and start painting my walls. My home started to feel different as the colors emerged. After the originally planned turquoise walls, I followed my instinct and re-opened the cans of yellow-green and orange and started painting the edges of my kitchen. This morning I painted the wash area which I had converted into a kitchen extension.

In the process I found some clutter hiding in corners and rarely visited shelves. And out they went. It is amazing how we can accumulate clutter without realizing it! As my home starts to breathe and beat with its new summer mood I vowed to get rid of everything I no longer use. No just-in-cases. I will further reduce all my possessions to those that I use on a regular basis. Everything I take out will be sold in a garage sale so I can make a bit of extra money to help pay for a trip I will take next month.

I actually do have some project work to do but I have parked them for a while until I am done with the summer cleaning of my home. By the time Easter comes around I should have caught up with everything. That would be such a relief, to clean my inboxes and to-do lists and keep everything updated and current with no back logs.

Easter -- resurrection --- I could certainly use a good restart on many aspects of my life right now. I do what I can to help the energies along, like painting my walls and always, always clearing the old to make way for the new.

painting my wall

I had a big client presentation last Tuesday and the couple of weeks before that was spent close to tearing my hair out trying to come up with a good one. Fortunately all that hard work paid off. :)

It's a 5-day holiday starting today -- and while most of the city has left to go to beaches, provinces, and churches, I am at home with a list of to-dos that have nothing to do with work.

My first task today was to paint my wall, finally, after buying the paint months ago. It's called turquoise bay. I love turquoise.

Took me most of the day, including all the dusting and sweeping and changing the bedsheets. Maybe I'll step out tonight and get myself one of these for dessert:

creative roots : my mother's art

My mother comes from a family of seven children, supported by two working parents. She is the third daughter. Her family was basically lower middle class, which meant not everyone could be sent to college. Most of her sisters learned dressmaking, the youngest became a professional dancer. Her own mother, my grandmother, had a beauty salon and a gift shop where my mom helped out. Her father, my grandfather, was a painter who also worked as an illustrator in an advertising office.

My mom had a dream of being an artist. A painter, to be exact. She applied for a long-distance course at Famous Artists Schools in Connecticut.

She actually passed the screening exam and got a good grade.

Here are some pages from the Talent Test displaying her natural skills.

Unfortunately though, my grandparents could not afford the tuition fee. My mom went to a regular college taking up a regular course in accountancy (I think) but she never finished. She became instead as my grandma's right hand at home, in charge of most of the housekeeping and cooking, until she married when she was 24 years old.

I will be featuring the pieces she had done in those early years of her life and for starters here are some self-portraits she had made:

I'd love to be able to draw even half as well as these!

sunshine and blue sky

I stumbled upon this small painting I made on the page of a journal years ago. I can no longer remember what inspired me to do this, but that moment was also the time in my life when I started to emerge from a phase of slow dreaming through a dark tunnel. It was like a waking from a sleepwalk of long journeys, where every thing was a dream and every dream was a wish fulfillment that vanished and melted onto the next strange story.