On the way to Christmas!

Here are some of the dozen or so Christmas cards I prepared this year.  A new challenge set for myself!  The thought came about in Oct, and I went crazy browsing the internet for reference photos, cramp-painting on Friday nights and Saturday nights (the only nights that I'd have freedom!!!)
Next year, I shall make a bigger variety and bigger volume for all my friends and relatives!

Oct 2010

@ 11 x 16 cm

Winsor & Newton watercolor

Arches Bloc Aquarelle CP 140lb

SHARP TOOLS MAKE GOOD WORK

While all water color know-how books which I have, talked about how worthy sable brushes are, I had been using synthetic brushes all along.  I thought paint brushes are just paint brushes.  And money would probably better spent on getting good quality watercolor papers instead.  But, I finally came to investing in premium paint brushes.   And the moment I dabbed the brush into the well of paint, I could feel the difference!  It's so soft and controllable. It really is magic!
I first started off with buying just two brushes, a no. 8. and a no. 10, and I thought that would be it.  The no. 10 was expensive! (PS: the shop keeper said same no. but the other brand would cost double)
But within two weeks after the first use, I rushed back to the store and got another 3, no. 4, 6, and 12.  And the no. 12 is real expensive!  All these together cost over HKD1,000.   Yet, I think they are worth it (as what all the books say!)
Why do those real fur cosmetic brushes cost much less even though they are bigger in size?
Anyway, let me show you works that were done with these brushes later on and see if you can tell the difference!

工欲善其事,必先利其器. It's really true!

Summer Delights

Although it's officially autumn, I couldn't resist to do these paintings when I bought the guidebook "Wonderful Watercolors with Paul Brent".  (The dragon flies and bees posted some time ago also came from this book) 

It's a good step-by-step book with templates to use too!  It meant to guide me to "watch painting skills: Blossom like never before"!  What do you think of these blossoms?

I was so tempted to re-do the strawberries as the seeds don't look good.  I should jave used a smaller brush with the masking fluid.  Anyway ......

When framed, I think these paintings will fit nicely in a kitchen (of course, I'm thinking of a big kitchen, big enough to set a working bench in the middle, and have lots of windows through which you can see a big backyard garden, and not the tiny kitchen which I have at home!)

Both 17cm x 17cm, W&N watercolor papers, 140lb CP paper (W&N cotman or were they Canson?)
Sep 2010

10 mins paintings - a break away

After being disappointed with the serious paintings done on Oct 2, I decided to try doing quick paintings.  This also allows me to keep painting during weekdays.  Afterall, it's not all that possible to paint seriously even during weekends anyway! 
Here are some of the works.  Although not sophisticating, I am rather happy with them because they are not too bad considering they are quick paintings, and not a bad start either!  Also, they allowed me to enjoy the moments even during week days. 

this one actually took more than 10 mins,around 1 hr.

                                          all W&N watercolor, 140lb CP paper, associated sizes.

BTW, all were painted freehand without sketches except the birds.

Paint RED Day

15cm x 23cm

15cm x 23cm

23cm x 30cm

These were meant to be serious paintings, they took me hours to do while enjoying the long weekend.   But sadly they didn't came out as how I wish except the "tomatoes"!

W&N watercolors
Canson 140lb CP paper

Oct 2, 2010

my pieces

The big fat hen is yet to come home and join these pieces!

The power of PACKAGING

正所謂人靠衣裝，畫都好講包裝。
立即升呢了！

Precious moments

I should have done the background (beach) first. And I fear to ruin the painting if I add the background now! Perhaps having it framed in a blue will help to suggest the atmosphere.



W&N watercolor
W&N Cotman water color paper 140lb CP

40.6cm x 30.5cm
Sept 2010

peppers

As my daughter's two weeks sleepover at my mom's place during summer holiday is over, my unofficial holiday is officially coming to an end! This "peppers" painting could well be the last painting for quite awhile. I can't really foresee when I can paint again!
Anyway, I am very happy with this painting which was done against a reference photo available free from the web. I am happy with the vivid color, the shadow, the reflection, as well as the "not-so-boring" background. Isn't it strange that I don't self criticize my painting? Well, if I were to self criticize this one, it would be my signature. Isn't it too small for a good painting?!

26cm x 18cm
Bockingford 140lb CP paper
W&N watercolor

Aug 2010

Dragonflies and bees

A series of bees and dragonflies. Copy cats from a watercolor guidebook though (Wonderful watercolor with Paul Brent)!

Mini paintings: 1ocm x 10cm each

Bockingford 140lb CP paper

W&N watercolor

Hmm, I'm gonna to frame them altogether and make it as a decorative piece!

Aug 2010

bee, daisy, iris, plum on a tree, seagull

The drive goes on and I did 5 more paintings in the past two days! I must be mad, some of which were done with staying up unitl 4am in the morning! Tiring, but felt so contented and happy.

All drawn against reference photos available free from the web.


Bee

31cm x 26cm
Bockingford 140lb CP paper
W&N watercolor

I wish I could make the background richer in order to make the bee and flower standout more.


Nonetheless, it's a good attempt versus I used to paint with no background at all!













Daisy

This painting actually looks better as a photograph than the actual painting. Thanks to the amazing photography technology these days, the painting turns out looking more vivid and has better layering!

A smaller painting vs the Bee
26cm x 18cm
Bockingford 140lb CP paper
W&N watercolor





Iris

I was brave enough to try some different techniques at the background, by unfortunately the main object, the iris, didn't come out too good, especially the bottom one.


Oh well, it's the process that counts, i keep telling myself!

31cm x 23 cm
Bockingford 140lb CP paper
W&N watercolor





Plum on a tree

Like the Daisy painting, this one is a small piece. Too small for me to draw the details such as the background leaves and the branch in well-define. Depth is not enough either.
Anyway, i know i can do it better after knowing these self critics!

26cm x 18cm
Bockingford 140lb CP paper
W&N watercolor



Seagull

The best I like among all these 5 recent paintings!
I suppose I can do more with the background, but half way through painting this, I decided to give it to a friend as a present (will you be the lucky one?!) and so I didn't want to risk messing up the background.

Something very funny happened with this painting! It was painted versus a free reference photo from the web. I got the orientation wrong and made it a landscape instead of a portrait layout (as you can tell by the way I put my signature there!). It's only when it came to saving the painting as picture in my PC which I also stored the reference photo, would I come to realise the wrong orientation!!!
This doesn't only make the signature orientation wrong, the intensity and changes of the background wash also becomes wrong too because of the wrong oreintation.
Oh well, maybe people won't notice!

I'm going to name this picture "freedom". And because I'm going to give this to a friend, I deliberately add the pairs of claws / legs on the seafull which weren't shown in the original photo. I don't want my friend to be "a bird with no legs"!

31cm x 23cm Bockingford 140lb CP paper
W&N watercolor
Aug 2010

Apricots, Swan, Cherries, Tulips

Still trying to catch the days to do as many paintings as possible while my daughter is still sleep over at my mom's! This time, go back to the basic. Despite I manage to achieve the objective - quick painting, done within20 mins, surprisingly, basic isn't easy. And once again I didn't manage well. Anyway, why not posting the paintings here. They are how I spent the time in the past two evenings.

All: drawn vs the guidebook "Barron's Easel Series - watercolors: a new way to learn how to paint"
26cm x 18cm
Bockingford watercolor 140lb CP
Winsor&Newton watercolor

Gerbera and Gladiolus

Aug 15, 2010
While my daughter is taking her summer holiday at grandma's, i've the luxury to do some paintings. Instead of pursuing the 2010 painting objective, all of a sudden I very much wanted to do some floral paintings for which I used to do quite a lot.

Gerber is one of my favorite flower, however, this as well as the gladiolus painting did not reach my sastisfaction. I seem to have lost the skills of paining wet-on-dry and blending. I wish I could be more decisive when comes to painting. 乾淨利落一點就好 la!

Gerbera 非洲菊

30cm x 23cm
Bockingford Aquarelle 140lb CP

Winsor&Newton watercolor

Gladiolus 劍蘭

26cm x 18cm

Bockingford Aquarelle 140lb CP

Winsor&Newton watercolor

Violet Pansy

July 3, 2010

Here I go, back to painting flowers (against my favourite self taught guide - The watercolor flower painter's A-Z by Adalene Fletcher)! Perhaps it's been sometime I last painted flower, I seemed to lose the control and didn't do this painting quite the right way. Anyway, I enjoyed the painting moment!

26cm x 18cm

Canson 140lb CP paper

W&N watercolor

Hen, Chick, LOVE (con't)

Perhaps I got myself into the trap. The more I looked at the painting, the more I didn't like the bottom part looking too plain and the chicks not contrasting too well. So, I browsed over many others' work and came up with an idea to do some splashing, in the hope to make the painting more vivd. But opps ....... I forgot to try out the technique on rough paper first. And ....... the brush slipped!
Anyway, a lesson learned!

Hen, Chicks, and LOVE

Odd may it sound, but this is a painting which I'd like to express love!

I'd always want to paint a hen or rooster and it is one of the many items what I set to paint earlier at the beginning of this year. Then, a friend of mine who owns a gallery asked me to do a painting under the theme "LOVE". So, I combine the two!

I took this painting quite seriously and did a lot of teachnique studying. I'm glad that I could handle "wet-in-wet" and delivered the fluffy texture of the little chicks quite well. But on the other hand, I wasn't able to present the hen's wings. I suppose I should have used "wet-on-dry" instead overdoing with all those strokes.

Anyway, this is the largest painting I've done so far. "A2 in size" ie 42cm x 59cm. I'd to buy large brushes for this, and finding a table big enough to work on wasn't that easy either! Having said all these, I enjoyed painting this piece a lot. I enjoyed the entire process, from searching on ideas, to digging into the various painting techniques on my book shelf, to shopping at the art shop for big size paper and brushes, interacting with the shop keeper learning about the different brands of paper and watercolor paints, to trial run on smaller paper, to finally going ahead with final painting.

Winsor & Newton watercolor (made in England!)

59cm x 42cm

Arches Aquarelle Water Color paper 140lb CP

The Willow

Last but not least, the forth painting in May!

This is painted, once again, against a guidebook. Technique practice here is using "Sponge". It didn't start off too well, but I got the hang of it when getting to the end. That's the idea of PRACTICING, isn't it?

21cm x 32cm

Winsor & Newton watercolor

canson monval 140lb cold press paper

(2010 May)

The Habitat

Momentum is going very well and I did this painting straight after the "On my way home". This is a practice painting following a guidebook. I was practicing some basic technique like graduated washes. Slightly better control in this one versue the "On my way home".

21cm x 32cm
Winsor & Newton water color
Canson Montval 140lb cold press paper

(2010 May)

On My Way Home

A mix and match painting!

I was reading a water color painting guidebook and saw two pictures. One has a herd of elephant moving through the bush, and another one with a goat feeding alone on the field at dawn. So, I mix them together!

If I were to paint this again, I'd put more clouds to the sky and arrange them in a way to project a better composition and add depth to the painting.

21cm x 32cm

Winsor & Newton water color

Canson Montval 140lb cold press paper

(2010 May)

Saki

This is painted against a piece given to me at the water color painting class some 4 years ago. I like it because of the rich and vivid color. And to make the painting experience more fun, I did "splattering" (but perhaps a bit too much!)

21cm x 32cm

Winsor & Newton water color

Canson Montval 140lb cold press paper

(2010 May)

A close up

A third painting in April, whoohol!

It may not look anything special or sophisticated, but this is my best painting following the "Happiness". Why? It's my own creation, not following any guidebook nor copying other painters' idea. It is painted again a photo which I took while visiting a botanical garden some months ago. I have to creat the composition, the color tone, choose the techniques etc all by myself. Very satisfying.

If I were to paint it again, I'd make the bud less prominent and merge it to a more sophisticated wet-in-wet background. I'd also paint the branch in more details.

30cm x 38cm

Winsor & Newton water color

Saunders 140lb cold press paper

(2010 Apr)

Deep in the Blue

The momentum is going well. I managed to do two paintings in April! I forgot about the item lists which I set at the begining of year, otherwise I would have painted something as missioned. I was flipping through various guidebook and thought I should go back to the basics. Here is a painting done following the guidebook, practicing washes and monochrome etc. Believe it or not, the painting shown here is actually the second attempt and still it doesn't come up as how it meant to have! More practicing is needed and it's still a long long way to become "perfect".

To make the practice more fun, I made some changes to the painting and made some lifting using tissue paper on the right hand side.

21cm x 32cm

Winsor & Newton water color

Canson 140lb cold press paper

The Pear

Hurrah, one item from my mission list can now be checked. Once again, this is not my own creation by painted against a water color guidebook. Also, it doesn't really look like what it suppose to look. It's meant to be "wet-in-wet" but I made it kind of "glaze" and "layers". Anyway ...

30cm x 38cm

Van Gogh water color

Saunders 140lb cold press paper

(2010 Apr)

The Fall

As mentioned in the previous blog, I set myself a mission for 2010 and it didn't go too well in the first two months. Time flies and I didn't even paint one picture in the first two months! Finally, I got my act together and did this first painting in March. It wasn't my own creation and was painted against a watercolor guidebook.

Technique tried here is "salt". Marginally acceptable effect! Just have to keep trying to get the grip of it ......

Nonetheless, I'm happy with the colors used here. It's much more rich and vivid than all my previous pieces.

21cm x 32cm

Van Gogh water color

Bockingford 140lb cold press paper

(2010 Mar)

Previous Paintings II (2005-2009)

Here are some more of my earlier paintings which I like and would like to share

Lemon

While reviewing my paintings, I realise that the colors I used was always soft. I wanted to do a more vivid color painting and here it goes.
I'm happy with the colors but composition could be better, it's just too flat and boring!

21cm x 31cm
Van Gogh water color
Bockingford 140lb cold press paper
(2009 July)

A Child's Prayer

I am a Lladro fan (but doesn't really have much of a collection!). So much that I want to paint a series of Lladro figures, it's not easy as I am not good at drawing to start with. Anyway, here is a better attempt amongs those I had tried.

I think I should put more effort in composition and in buidling a background to make the focus more stand out.

30cm x 37cm

Van Gogh water color

Saunders 90lb cold press paper

(2009 May)

Ballerina 2

Painted against a photo.

I suppose a bit more shadow with made the arm looks more proportional to a child's arm?!

23cm x 31cm

Van Gogh water color

Bockingford 140lb cold press paper

(2009 Feb)

Ballerina 3

Painted against a photo.

23cm x 31cm

Van Gogh water color

Bockingford 140lb cold press paper

(2009 May)

Clouds

Here, I attempt to paint clouds following a guide book. Not too successful! The one on the right is the second attempt but it turns out that the first attempt is better!

23cm x 31cm

Van Gogh water color

Bockingford 140lb cold press paper
(2009 July)

Previous Paintings I (2005-2009)

Here are some of my paintings done earlier and which I like!

Cottage in The Summer
My painting journey starts in December 2005. I joined water color painting class out of curiosity. This little cottage is a practice I did in one of the lessons!

It's a very small painting, something like 10cm x 15cm. Winsor & Newton color on Saunders 140lb cold press paper.

Happiness

This is the most serious painting I have ever done so far. It was painted in May 2006, serveral months after I completed the 10 classes. This painting was for my wedding invitation. I first saw a photo of this procelin (clay?) model in a hotel wedding banquet service catalogue and later on saw the actual model in a sovenir shop. I then decided to do a painting of it and made it into the invitation for my wedding which was to be held 6 months later. Several attempts and practice pieces were made before getting to this final piece.

The orginial painting (30cm x 38cm) is now framed and up on the wall in the sitting room!

Winsor & Newton water color on Saunders 140lb cold press paper.

Technique tried: ox gall liquid

Mom and Dad

I was so satisfied and carried away with the Happiness painting and became overly confident and eager to start portrait painting!

Huh, it was difficult. The painting turned out like a cartoon and my parents gave it such a laugh! Nonetheless, I'd like to devote this painting to my parents!

30cm x 38cm

Winsor & Newton water color

Saunders 140lb cold press paper

2006 June

Camellia

My first attempt of painting flowers!

30cm x 38cm

Winsor & Newton water color

Saunders 140lb cold press paper

Painted against a self taught watercolor painting guidebook (2007 March)

Cycaman

I got carried away once again and painted two copies of this. One kept by myself and another given to a close friend as his wedding gift. Don't really know how this painting can be related to a wedding gift!!! Anyway, it took me a lot of effort to paint and that counts?!

30cm x 38cm

Winsor & Newton water color

Saunders 140lb cold press paper

Painted against a self taught water color painting guidebook (2007 April)

To a Cat Lover, Lazy Wong

These two paintings are painted in memory of two cats (BallBall and Ah Wong) and are devoted to my two cat lover friends!

Both 17cm x 30cm

Winsor & Newton watercolor

Saunders 140 cold press color

BallBall was painted against a watercolor painting guidebook (2008 Feb)

Ah Wong was painted against his photo (2006 Jul)

Sunflower

I love sunflower very much. It gives a sense of vitality, hope, happiness and brightness. This painting was given to my boss when I left my previous job. He knew I paint and I gave him this painting to thank him for appreciating my passion in painting. Sunflower was chosen because he was engaged in sales business for which vitality and sunshine (positive) thinking is crucial!

It was not a very good painting in that I was not able to master using masking fluid, and failed to paint the centre part well. I ended up covering up the centre part with layers and layers of sienna and umber paints. I hope it's the little thought of painting for others that counts!
30cm x 38cm

Winsor & Newton water color

Saunder 140lb cold press paper

(2008 Dec)



Precious

It's a portrait of my daugther when she's 15-month old.

This is much better a job I did versus the first portrait "Mom and Dad". At least my daughter can recognise it's a picture of her!

17cm x 30cm

Van Gogh water color

Saunders 140lb cold press paper

(2008 Nov)

Pot Amarylis
A new technique tried out on the petals - dry brush

I like this painting a lot while most of my friends like the coneflower better.

Much better at using maksing fluid this time!

both 30cm x 38cm

Van Gogh water color

(2009 May)