The Great Wall an impression

Had a vacation to Beijing, Tianjin and Xian recently, a good getaway to an awesome winter in China. This painting is just a direct impression of the Great Wall, done with acrylic on canvas without any reference images. Just somethin I get out of my mind and my experience climbing it. 

Well the long stairway reminds me of the strenuous climb to the to the astounding view so I gave it a little more detail. The colors, I basically use dead-coloring method as to capture the gray winter in Beijing. And not to forget the ever shocking air pollution in January 2013 in Beijing which is the worst air pollution ever experienced there. 

Added a bit of crimson glaze over at selected areas and dark glaze over the distance. Might not be my best piece, because I feel making this painting is kinda too controlled for my personal taste. I will try to be more free for the next piece. Cheers!!

Drawing

This paper is not blue. My phone camera just have a problem with taking a close-up with white background. I'll research more about it.... Anyhoo, I've been spending more time drawing than painting now. I guess I would take a break from painting until I'm inspired to. This drawing is based on my observation from a reference photo.

Anyways, thank you for browsing my blog and Merry X'mas.

Figure

A piece of demo I did for a student. 

Feels good to be able to draw figures again. 

Colored pencil on brown paper.

The real reason we paint.

By Pamela Michelle Johnson

Had a class just now for painting and I asked one of the beginners did she like her painting? Her answer was a definite and undoubtedly  "YES".

What I've learnt from teaching art is that many have the fear to begin... but in a relaxed environment, after a few strokes with a close guidance, they can't get enough. Some even called in an "addiction". I began to see a pattern.

At first, I theorized that human have a long desire to create. But maybe, this article might have a better explanation...

An interesting article about the real reason we paint.

"Our visual experience continues further, becomes richer, deeper and fuller as we paint it. A dialogue, a conversation begins. Our marks on the canvas are our response to the voice, the tastes, and the touches we see." Quote from this article.

Click here to read more

Up. Oil and acrylic on canvas

Its been quite awhile that i have not painted on canvas and finally I've completed one. I am not very happy with it... but its worth knowing that I've learnt something along the way... this work took me quite along time to complete considering its an experimental piece. Its been erased and redone about 3-4 times. And just when I thought I'm done, there's always something crept up. But anyhoo... I'm quite happy with the results. Hope you are too... :)

Swim in watercolor

I am on a journey to master watercolor.

Figure movement

Done this for a demonstration in class about figure movement... makes me miss figure drawing. Spontaneous; took me about a minute to complete.