Chocolate Cake

I don't know why I drew this one; I don't even like cakes. Because I don't like it, it's impossible to make it look delicious.

This is a book example from Yozo Nakamori's "Yasashi Sketch", one of my many Japanese painting books that I acquired during this trip. The Japanese watercolor style is quite different from the Western one. Besides their colors tend to be softer, lines usually play an important role. Also, the end results usually aren't photo realistic like the Western ones.

Personally I like the Japanese watercolor style more, because it's closer to sketching and more vivid. Most Western watercolor paintings strike me as stiff and unnecessarily realistic, which leave very little room to my imagination.

And, of course, ultimately I'd like to be able to do Chinese brush pen painting. It's very Tao to me. There is no difference between sketching and painting. Each stroke itself has infinite possibilities: Let it be a fish, let it be a tree branch, or let it be a bird. As far as your imagination allows you! But unfortunately, it's also the hardest, IMHO. Forgot who said this, "Practice, practice, practice."

Media: technical pen, watercolor.