The Tour Bus

Today my parents and I took a tour to Central Taiwan. We took off at 6:45am and didn't came back to Taipei until after 10pm. While we were on the bus (about 8 hours), all the tourists except me had fun with karaoke whose volume was turned all the way up. It was a living hell.

When everyone was listening to the knife guy's sales pitch in a closed curtained store (and my dad ended up buying a set of 8 knifes because of the price), I stayed outside taking photos and sketching. Not a great one (When will I produce a great one?), but my mom seemed plenty impressed.

This trip made me realize one thing: During a trip, it's difficult to allocate a 2 to 4 hour slot to do my usual drawing/painting. Sketching, on the other hand, can be accomplished at small chuck of time that usually gets wasted away anyway. Not having to sketch first with a pencil seems to free me from being a perfectionist, too, not that my colored paintings are that perfect. If you compare the drawings of my Keen sandals, you probably notice that the pencil one is more alive and the later technical pen one is more cartoonish (even though the technical pen produced the desired effect for the later coloring, unfit for pencils).

Because lines produced by a technical pen is final, I'm not that comfortable skipping the pencil sketching step for my colored pieces. However, one of the Japanese art books that I acquired in Taiwan recommended exactly that. His paintings are far from perfect, but somehow they are full of energy and happiness. Once I'm more comfortable with my pen sketching, I'll give that brave technique a try.

Media: technical pen.

My Self Portrait

I spent 6 hours in Air Hair Salon today, a personal record. Because of it, I actually finished 3 doodles: a bad self portrait, a not-very-me self portrait shown on the left, and a how-to-fix-your-funny-English T-shirt sketching for the young girl who washed my hair (from "I WANT EAT YOU" to "I WANT TO EAT YOU").

In this one, my hair was full of some white chemical stuff for softening. I'm not good at people sketching, and this one definitely doesn't look like me. Well, hopefully I'll get better as the time goes.

Media: technical pen.

My Caffeine Supplies In Taiwan

OK, OK, I'd been lazy in the past few days and hadn't drawn a thing. Today I had enough; I took out my art supplies and drew my daily Taiwanese caffeine supplies.

Nothing can replace David's handmade coffee, but since he didn't come with me, Mr. Brown Blue Mountain Blended Coffee will have to do for now. The bottled Oolong tea is nowhere as good as my Taiwanese High Mountain Tea back home, but it's cheap and cold and convenient. Actually I can't brew Oolong at my parents' place anyway; their water tastes so nasty that I pretty much give up their water and drink the bottled tea instead.

Media: pencil, technical pens, watercolor, colored pencils, watercolor pencils.

Our Kitchen Sink v.2

Here it is. Not the best, but will do for now.

Media: pencil, technical pens, watercolor.

Our Kitchen Sink

The sketch of our kitchen sink. Hopefully I'll have the time and energy to finish coloring it tonight.

Media: pencil, technical pen.

My Keen Newport H2 Sandals

Last night David suggested posting my drawings as before- and after-coloring. Today I went a step further and included my pencil drafting as well.

BTW, this little drawing took ridiculously long: half an hour for each line drawing, and an hour for the coloring. If this trend continues on, I'll never be able to do any on-site sketching. Obviously something needs to be done.

Step 1: Drafting with a mechanical pencil. (Thanks David for fixing the light pencil lines with software!)

Step 2: Line drawing with a technical pen and a kneaded eraser (regular eraser damages the paper surface).

Step 3: Coloring with watercolor pencils (they reflect texture better), colored pencils, and waterbrushes.

Keen Newport H2 Sandals are expensive but awfully comfortable. I'm quite fond of them and wore them almost everyday in summer (until Ulu Koli Strap clogs showed up).

Media: pencil, colored pencils, watercolor pencils, technical pens.

My Victorinox Luggages

My loud Victorinox 2.0 SwissWerks Wheeled Bording Tote & Luggage. Unfortunately, they are known for their toughness but not their thoughful compartment design. If you plan to get Victorinox 2.0 SwissWerks luggages, don't forget to throw in a few Eagle Creek packing cubes and compressors.

Also, because their unique curved, telescoping mono-pole design, only this bording tote can stay steadily on top of the luggages (more on 22" than 24"; the pole on the 24" is slightly too short to steady the tote).

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Yesterday I had an awful time painting Charles Reid's tomato and avocado (I swear that it's a green mango!) from his "Painting Flowers in Watercolor." (BTW, the content and the title don't really match; half of the book has nothing to do with flowers.) What really draws me to his paintings is his amazing colors and free style (and what turns me off is his sloppy, dirty splashes all over the bottom or even in the middle of his paintings). His little avocado looked deceptively simple, but it was impossible for me to get anywhere close and I had no clue why. *sigh*

One good thing came out of this frustrating painting exercise is the colorful shadows. He usually uses Ultramarine Blue or Cobalt Blue for cool cast shadows, and Raw Umber for warmer ones. This is an excellent idea! By avoiding gray, painting becomes more luminous and interesting. If I had followed my usual way, this drawing would be heavier and more somber. Painting is different from filiming; I can add my mood and imgination to it, while preserving enough reality to make it ring truer than photos. :)

Media: pencil, technical pens, watercolor.

Book Binding -- Amanda's Way

Yesterday I was busy making my long desired but absent watercolor journal, and the detailed steps are described above, Page 1 of my new watercolor journal. :) They are based on Gwen Diehn's "The Decorated Journal," an excellent art journal making book, with my own humble improvisation.

I used Canson Montval Watercolor Pad (10" x 14"), not because of its excellent quality, but because its friendliness to writing pens and its relatively affordable price. It wasn't my choice to pick this funky size (I like 9" x 12" more), but the smallest size that The Art Store carried on that particular shopping day. It was a happy surprise as I found that it matched perfectly with my old Lab Book cover!

Other than the watercolor paper (which is probably the cheapest 140lb cold-pressed WC paper around), I either used the limited supplies I had or recycled some old stuff in my moving boxes. This was something unimaginable from my old techie days.

Media: technical pens, watercolor.

Our Living Room v.3.2

Voilà! Actually I did a quick coloring on a Xerox copy first; it turned out to be a good thing, because I still didn't quite get the teal green right the first time.

Waterbrush is a happy thing for small scale watercolor painting! Yes, size is not its only limitation, but it works very well with pen & ink (in this case, watercolor) as you can see here.

The coloring is on the flat side: I didn't show the wood grain on the ceiling or the floor. It wasn't because of my laziness (although it might have something to do with it), but because I personally like the dreamlike colors.

Now I'm happy enough with our living room and can finally stop my obsession with it. :)

07/13/2006 Updates:
Forgot to mention that I used my camera to help me get the perspective and tonal value. Its 2.5" low resolution LCD acted like a colored thumbnail sketch, which greatly simplied the picture and made me see the essence. If drawing/painting from a digital photo, you can view it as a thumbnail first, to see the color scheme and tonal value.

I don't know about others (I'm learning drawing/painting on my own), but I get overwhelmed by on-site drawing a lot. Drawing from photos, strangely, doesn't produce the same reaction. If you are like me, you might want to try this little tip next time. :)

Media: pencil, technical pen, watercolor.

Our Living Room v.3

An 2-hour effort just for this... It definitely doesn't qualify as "sketching," even though it looks like one. *sigh*

I just want to post this pen drawing before a potential watercolor disaster. This is not a complete drawing, since I left a bunch of places white instead of black. Well, let's just hope that the watercolor painting will turn out OK.

Media: pencil, technical pen.

Grassy Meadow with Poppies

This is another example from Adelene Fletcher's "Painting Landscapes: A Pocket Reference." It practices on masking fluid and wet-in-wet technique.

Applying masking fluid is easy, but it's almost impossible not to destroy the brush. I use a dirt cheap synthetic brush for the job and only for the job. One of my books mentions that by applying a thin layer of soapy water, brushes won't be destroy by the masking fluid. I don't know if it works, but I like my solution better.

The Moleskine Watercolor Notebook does not take wet-in-wet well. I should've known that, since the spec clearly shows that its paper is 200gsm (about 90lb) only, a lightweight WC paper. I tried to paint this one twice on the Moleskine WC paper and both turned out to be awful. I finally gave up and used this 140lb (300gsm) WC paper, and it indeed behaved as expected. (The wet-in-wet is not as pretty as the one in the book due to the user error.) I think the Moleskine should work out pretty well with WC sketching, which is my intent anyway. Serious painting should use serious paper, not this lightweight stuff.

Media: colored pencil, watercolor.

Traditional Taiwanese Food v.1

If you've never had these two items, then you wouldn't know what they are just by looking at the drawing.

I'm not sure about the translation of the left item, so I just called it by the shape as Cup Rice. Sticky rice is mixed with pre-cooked pork, shitaki mushroom, dry shallots, and other secret ingredients; then the whole thing is packed into an aluminum cup and sent to the steamer. Well, at least this is how my mom used to make it.

Stinky Tofu stinks (therefore goes the name), but it's one of the yummiest food in the world. Unfortunately, unless you can find a reputable restaurant or road stand (and this is no easy business), you are more likely to be disappointed or even hate it.

While we are on Stinky Tofu... I found that the fried tofu at Andaman Thai Cuisine restaurant in Richmond 99 Ranch tastes like Stinky Tofu without the smell! The inner texture is not the same (Stinky Tofu uses fermented tofu, while fried tofu uses silky or soft tofu), but both shells are crispy. And its dipping sauce! Somehow it tastes just like Taiwanese kimchi -- sweet and sour -- probably due to the fish sauce. For people who are afraid of the smell, this might be a good way to start.

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I was testing my new waterbrushes with watercolor pencils in this drawing. Because I only applied them on 90lb WC paper to simulate my Moleskine Watercolor Notebook, the WC pencil marks didn't get resolved as much as I'd like. I tried the large waterbrush with watercolor the other day, and it seemed to work fine (other than my unfamiliarity with water control).

Each brush contains its own water supply, which makes watercolor sketching very handy. It's also capable producing small scale of serious art as you can find on this Japanese waterbrush website. I found myself like the Japanese ink&pen style over the Western watercolor style. Could it my familiarity with this style (Manga uses it extensively) and the drawing plays the primary role?

Media: colored pencil, watercolor pencils, fountain pen (for Cup Rice), technical pens.

Plowed Field

This is an example from Adelene Fletcher's "Painting Landscapes: A Pocket Reference," an excellent little book for learning how to paint landscape by examples. I painted the first one on 90lb cold-pressed watercolor paper; the variegated wash was fine, but the dry brush technique didn't work well on this smooth paper. Then I switched to 140lb rough WC paper and painted the example twice. I still didn't quite get dry brush the first time, but something seemed to click the second time.

Last night I was very puzzled why my living room painting turned out so badly. The original pencil sketching was not bad and even most watercolor was OK, but the overall feeling was just not right. After discussing it with David, we figured that the sofa color was just too off; and because it occupied so much real estate, it made the whole painting almost repulsive.

Ah, colors... I'm attracted to watercolor's amazing colors, but at the same time it's a subject proved hard to master.

Media: colored pencil, watercolor.

Our Living Room v.2

Yeah, our living room again, because I didn't like what I did last time.

Beside using 140lb cold-pressed watercolor paper, I skipped technical pen and applied Winsor & Newton Artists' Watercolor (my new watercolor set! :) directly. As usual, the end result is not quite what I had in mind, even though it's better than last time. :( Well, at least I've learned from my mistakes and should do a better job next time.

Media: pencil, watercolor.

Lobivia Cactus

The other day David noticed some cute flowers bloomed from our long-neglected Lobivia cactus pot, so he moved it to the kitchen patio and changed its fate for the time being. Before then, I had no idea that cactus flowers could be so pretty! And as I Google searched its name, I ran into more adorable ones. It's really amazing those hard, spicky things can produce something this tender and beautiful.

When I picked it as my model at 3pm, the flower was wide open. When I worked on my second sketch at 5pm, it closed to the shape as shown. When I came back after dinner to finish it with watercolor at 7:30pm, it was closed! I had to retrieve my unreliable memory about its various shades and paint it accordingly. *sigh* Learned a lesson from Lobivia today.

Media: colored pencil, technical pen, watercolor.

Our Living Room v.1

The room that we keep on forgetting its existence.

I probably should've done this on watercolor paper instead or sketch paper; both coffee table and sofa could use wash to avoid the ugly marker-like line.

P.S. Both Chinese pillows are upside down.

Media: Colored pencil, technical pen, watercolor.

Sketchbook Test 2 -- Canvas Version

David used his software and transferred this journal page from watercolor paper to canvas. Neat tricks!

Sketchbook Test 2

This one is on 140lb Canson Montval WC paper. A fun experiment that can't be done on other 3.

I think we got a winner. :)

Media: technical pen, watercolor.

Sketchbook Test 1

Last few days I was busy reading an information-overloaded watercolor website by Bruce MacEvoy. Because I was reading about it instead of doing it, I got agitated and depressed as a result. It had nothing to do with Mr. MacEvoy's site; if anything, it answered a bunch of my questions and provided lots of invaluable advices. (I should've read his website before buying all the watercolor books.) Not creating anything unsettled me. It was as if my right brain was dying of starvation and sending out its S.O.S. signal to get my attention.

The serious art work from my books can be suffocating. I know that a good foundation is important and I should follow (or copy, rather) their examples step by step. This type of learning, however, is highly unsatisfying. Copying might be easier and give me the illusion that I'm able to create something great, but it's not how I see the world or interpret what everything means to me.

Creating my own pieces, on the other hand, gives me a great sense of satisfaction. I don't mean it technically, but mentally. (Don't worry; I know exactly where I stand.
:) And the freer the form is, the happier I am. In the past I noticed my joy with fast sketch and scribble styles, because they interpreted my feelings the best. I believe watercolor is in the same league, but it'll take a few more steps to get there.

Today I did four sketchbook watercolor (WC) tests:
1. on 90lb Canson Student Watercolor Paper
2. on Moleskine Sketchbook
3. on 65lb Canson Basic Sketchbook
4. on 140lb Canson Montval Waterolor Pad

The expensive Moleskine Sketchbook refused to take watercolor and was reluctant to take my technical pen. (Pretty useless for my usage.) The two types of WC papers behaved well and were friendly enough to my technical pen, although I could apply more WC techniques with the 140lb one. Canson sketchbook could take little WC and was very friendly with my technical pen as shown here.

Canson Montval WC paper seems to be softer and more smooth than Stratmore 400 Series WC paper, even though they both are 140lb cold-pressed. The later is hard to write on but feels better made for WC. As far as sketchbook goes, Canson Montval WC paper is more appropriate due to its friendliness with pens.

Media: technical pen, watercolor.