Amanda's Doodles 阿勳的塗鴉室...

Amanda Has Moved!!

2006-09-03T15:44:00.000-07:00

Amanda's Doodles is officially moved to Amanda's Tea Room at http://amandastea.wordpress.com/.

Please come visit the new home! :D

Under Construction...

2006-09-01T10:13:00.000-07:00

A new blog site is under construction and will be ready by September 5, 2006...

David's Little Blue

2006-08-29T22:03:00.000-07:00

David's new baby -- Little Blue Prius! Even though Toyota Berkeley salespeople are a bunch of incompetent morons, Thank Goodness that Little Blue has no resemblance of them.

More than a car, Prius is a giant computer that geeks can spend many happy hours upgrading her and exchange notes with each other on various Internet forum. It's not exaggerating to say that there is a Prius cult out there!

How much does David love his Little Blue? Everyday he has to spend at least half an hour with her, teaching her new tricks or getting to know her. Everynight he reads his Prius manual or Internet forum in bed, forgetting about his Girlfriend #1 next to him. *sigh* Maybe one day when he's finally done with all the possible upgrades, he'll remember his old girlfriend.

Maybe.

Media: technical pen, watercolor.

Half-timbered Turret at Autoire, in Quercy

2006-08-27T23:36:00.000-07:00

This one was based on a photo in Eyewitness Travel Guides' "Dordogne & Southwest France." The original photo was only abour 1" x 2", which made it quite difficult to see some of the details and forcd me to use my own imagination on some places.

I drew this one in Moleskine Watercolor Notebook, thinking that I wanted to add watercolor later. After adding all the details on texture and shadow, I'm not so sure about it anymore. It feels "done" to me, and I don't know if watercolor will add more charm to it. I should've stopped drawing when I finished the outline, but I had too much fun and wanted to try out Noh Young Wook's style.

Noh Young Wook, a young Korean, spent over a year travelling around the world when he quit his tiresome and boring architect job. Not having any particular destination in mind, he went from one country to another by feelings. He picked up Spanish on the way, got rubbed in Brazil (lost all 5 sketchbooks among others), got stuck at places more than he liked, got sick plenty of time, got homesick whenever he heard Korean, and got taken advantage of more than he deserved. As the journey continued on, he drew the places he set his foot on. I don't envy his trip (too harsh and too stinky for me), but I hope that one day I'll draw as well as him. His ability of simplifying architecture and adding charm to it is impressive! It must be great for him to draw buildings without his old stiff rulers!

Media: technical pen.

Asian Art Museum of San Francisco

2006-08-24T22:12:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I spent about 2 hours at Asian Art Museum of San Francisco after picking up my passport. Obviously 2 hours are ridiculously short for such a nice museum, but I got my membership and planned to spend many more happy hours there in the future. After all, my Chinese thinking taught me that I have to get my money's worth. :)

I know the perspective is off and the stone lines make the drawing too busy, but I finally made it -- my first major building drawing. I always love to see (non-architectural) building drawings but have a lot of fear about doing it myself, because they are big and complicated and impossible. Now it doesn't seem so impossible anymore, and that is a great feeling!

Media: technical pen.

David's Dishes - Stewed Lamb Shank 2

2006-08-22T15:52:00.000-07:00

Voilà, the colored stewed lamb shank!

Media: watercolor.

David's Dishes - Stewed Lamb Shank

2006-08-21T18:10:00.000-07:00

David's super yummy stewed lamb shank dish!

I think I'm outgrown my Moleskine Watercolor Book (5.25" x 8.25") and craving for more real estate, like a lobster looking for a bigger shell. I personally didn't expect that it would happen so soon (still got 24 pages left)! Hard to imagine that 5" x 8" was too scarily big for me not so long ago. This one is done in my self made watercolor book (finally), measured at 7.5" x 10", just barely enough for my dinner setting. :)

Media: pencil, technical pen.

Revisit Domaine Ostertag 2

2006-08-19T21:35:00.000-07:00

Here comes the watercolored Domaine Ostertag!

Waterbrush is not suitable for washes as you can see from the above. Well, I continue learning about my tools as it goes.

Media: watercolor.

Revisit Domaine Ostertag

2006-08-18T19:26:00.000-07:00

Just like le village de Loix, I redid Domaine Ostertag in the same fashion and was able to place David and Stéphane back to the picture. The proportion is a little off (people and the car are 1/2 size too small), but it's the small price to pay for not laying out everything with pencil first. Personally, I like the liveliness of drawing directly with technical pen. As days go by, hopefully I'll get better on sizing.

Unlike le village de Loix, this one should be all right with watercolor. I'll see how I feel tomorrow.

Media: technical pen.

Revisit Le Village de Loix

2006-08-17T22:06:00.000-07:00

I always wanted to redo Le Village de Loix, and now I finally felt comfortable enough to do that. That drawing is not that bad, but I just never like it. One little mistake on top of another, and by the end, it turned out to be something very different from what I had started with. Whenever I looked at it, I could never get over my disappointment.

This time, however, I forgot about pencil and drew le village directly with technical pen. Lines are much cleaner and won't be disturbed by colors. This was the major problem with my last drawing: I had to keep on redo pencil lines, because watercolor pencils kept on removing them. Well, I still have trouble with plants, but one step at a time. :)

After showing it to David and thinking about it some more, I'm not sure if I will color it. It seems to be quite self sufficient and have its own charm.

Media: technical pen.

David's Pasta 1

2006-08-16T22:15:00.000-07:00

August is a happy time! Not only we can easily find beautiful, organic tomatoes in local grocery stores and farmer's markets, but also our sweet basil provides us an abundant supply to go with tomatoes.

I love spaghetti, but I especially love spaghetti rigati. When looking at the end of each noodle, you see a square instead of the familiar round. But the shape is not what's so special about it; it's the dented line placed on each side of it. These secretive lines enable each noodle to absorb far more David's delicious sauce than the plain spaghetti, and we just love it!

I probably should've made the opaque white thicker, so it would've resembled Parmesan cheese better. Hmm.

Media: pencil (just for the plate), technical pen, watercolor.

Bored Taiwanese Mailboxes

2006-08-14T17:04:00.000-07:00

Not sure how often people use mail boxes these days, but those two looked awfully bored when I took their photo at Xi Men Ting on 7/22/2006.

Once again, I did this in my Moleskine Pocket Plain Book, a lousy choice for watercolor. And once again, I didn't plan to do watercolor when I was drawing those two mailboxes; I just wanted to get rid of the unpleasant feeling left from my chocolate cake drawing. (Have I mentioned that I didn't even like cakes?)

One of the problems with this paper plus waterbrushes is that it's hard to get dark colors. (The other major problem is that it's impossible to have even washes.) These two mailboxes are much too light for their real world counterparts, but because I'm so fond of them, this little technical issue didn't bother me all that much. What can I say? I'm shamelessly biased.

Media: technical pens, watercolor.

Chocolate Cake

2006-08-14T15:38:00.001-07:00

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.

Chinese Postcard 2

2006-08-14T09:59:00.000-07:00

My first lousy effort of Chinese colored brush painting on rice paper (well, it's actually made of bamboo). It's embarassing, but it serves as a starting point of my Chinese brush painting. My first watercolor painting was embarrassingly bad, too, and you know, there is a first for everything.

Oh, I can list over a dozen of mistakes about this one, but the fundamental problems coming from my unfamiliarity with Chinese brush painting. I thought it was similar to watercolor painting and applied the same techniques. However, that was the source of my grief.

Rice paper absorbs lots of water, so waterbrushes do not work well with it. It's hard to see colors, because rice paper becomes translucent when wet. It's also hard to fix mistakes due to its nature. The wet-in-wet technique on rice paper doesn't quite work the same way as on watercolor paper (plus, I couldn't see colors when it was that wet). Also, the brush I picked up to do the writing was of lousy quality. I know it sounds like an excuse, but I had better luck with my other brushes. I'm still unfamiliar with the difference between my brushes and have to do a lot of trial and error.

Chinese painting is HARD! Gotta work on it more...

Media: technical pen, watercolor, Chinese brush pen.

Chinese Postcard 1

2006-08-12T17:39:00.000-07:00

My first try of Japanese style of greeting cards. But because someone was calling "The kitchen needs some cleaning" and "The table needs to be set" at my office door, I finished this painting in a big rush and didn't realize that I made a writing boo-boo until much later. Oh well.

BTW, I made the stamp this afternoon. Not very good, but my name isn't the easiest for stamp making. :( Will have it professionally done next time in Taiwan.

Media: Chinese brush pen.

Shoes: Steve Madden Chopin

2006-08-11T22:44:00.000-07:00

Obviously I wouldn't draw them if they weren't cute, but, really, how does one walk in them?

Most of my latest doodles were done in my Moleskine Pocket Plain Book, which is terrible for watercolor. Why did I keep on doing watercolor in them then? Well, the truth was that most of the time I didn't plan to use watercolor first. The notebook is small, portable, and always in my backpack, so no wonder that I always go to it. Maybe it's time for me to get a Moleskine Pocket Watercolor Book, or, better, make a 3"x5" one myself!

Media: technical pens, watercolor.

A Metro Door

2006-08-11T18:00:00.000-07:00

I always wanted to draw the door when taking Taipei Metro, but I was too imtimidated to do it. This is a quick sketch of a photo I took. Maybe next time I'll have the guts of drawing in public.

Media: technical pen, watercolor.

My Camera

2006-08-03T17:03:00.000-07:00

My Fuji FinePix F10 makes it possible to build my Taiwan travel log. I wish it were lighter and thinner, like Casio Exilim EX-Z750, but it works better than others at low light situation. Well, at least that was what I read last year when I made my purchase decision. (I was a die hard Canon user before.) I take it everywhere with me and take photos whenever I see fit.

I still have trouble applying line drawing techniques. I probably should've apply stipple instead parallel lines to show the darker metal. Well, next time I'll know better.

Media: technical pens.

The Tour Bus

2006-07-30T18:12:00.000-07:00

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

2006-07-29T12:38:00.000-07:00

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

2006-07-25T18:15:00.000-07:00

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

2006-07-20T13:28:00.000-07:00

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

Media: pencil, technical pens, watercolor.

Our Kitchen Sink

2006-07-19T18:09:00.000-07:00

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

2006-07-18T18:26:00.000-07:00

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

2006-07-17T15:20:00.000-07:00

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

2006-07-15T15:42:00.000-07:00

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

2006-07-12T17:24:00.000-07:00

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

2006-07-12T15:08:00.000-07:00

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

2006-07-11T22:52:00.000-07:00

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

2006-07-11T17:29:00.000-07:00

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

2006-07-10T13:17:00.000-07:00

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

2006-07-09T17:19:00.000-07:00

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

2006-07-06T21:14:00.000-07:00

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

2006-07-05T12:51:00.000-07:00

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

2006-07-04T13:12:00.000-07:00

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

Sketchbook Test 2

2006-07-03T18:50:00.000-07:00

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

2006-07-03T17:27:00.000-07:00

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.

Le village de Loix

2006-06-29T22:40:00.000-07:00

This is based on a photo I saw in Stéphane's magazine, Thalassa. It's part of an article about l'île de Ré, but since I'm only interested in this particular photo (other photos are prettier, but this one seems more manageable), I don't know anything the island other than that its coastline looks like the Caribbean's. Stéphane verified that it's a nice area in France.

Again, this drawing/painting doesn't do the photo justice, but I hope that it gives you some idea what the village is like.

Media: pencil, colored pencil, watercolor pencils.

Primulas

2006-06-29T17:12:00.000-07:00

My attempt to mimic Judy Martin's drawing in "AOA Watercolor Pencils." I don't know the size of her original drawing, but I'm pretty sure that she didn't use hot-pressed watercolor paper. She had this almost crayon-like lines, making her drawing deceptively simple, while mine still has the clear pencil lines (and less intense).

My first experiene with hot-pressed watercolor paper:

1. The smooth surface is gentler to the pencils; pigment doesn't come off like crazy as with other watercolor paper. Also, it's easier for technical pens to glide.

2. It's harder to change once water is applied, but lines get resolved much better compared to non-watercolor paper.

Hot-pressed watercolor paper plus watercolor pencils might be my best bet for my travel journal, but it means that I'll have to either go with block or make my own journal book. I'll continue experimenting with various combination of media and paper.

Media: watercolor pencils.

David's Heart Is A Flower

2006-06-29T12:26:00.000-07:00

David's doodle! :D

It's so cute that King Missile's "My Heart Is A Flower" (the song title and happy music only, not the silly, sexual lyrics :) pops into my mind. More importantly, it reminds me that drawing/painting should be fun.

Everyday as I looked at my empty sketchbooks, I struggled on what to draw/paint. I told myself to put down something better than yesterday, and somehow it gave me so much pressure that my mind went blank and I didn't know what to do except staring at it.

I am my own worst critic. The left brain is an expert on paralyzing my right brain. Always.

The only way to break that curse is to enjoy drawing/painting; the more fun I have, the less I care about my own harsh critic. Like a curious 6-year-old, too busy in exploring the world with all different lines and colors to care about what adults think. THAT is the right attitude for everyone to adopt when it comes to creat art, IMHO.

Media: ball point pen.

Flowers, Flowers

2006-06-28T22:30:00.000-07:00

Yesterday after my gum surgery, I felt very sleepy but was unable to sleep. It made no sense to me, because the doctor did not drug me but only numb the left side of my mouth. Worse, my right brain decided to take a break and I was incapable of drawing or painting. I finally gave up trying and went to read "Prep" by Curtis Sittenfeld.

What a painful but excellent book! U.S. News & World Report said it well, "For everyone who wished that Holden Caulfield [, the protagonist of J.D. Salinger's "The Catcher in The Rye"] w[ere] a girl, your time has come with Prep." Personally I don't particularly like "The Catcher in The Rye"; Holden is such a looser that it's hard for me to be sympathetic with him. Lee Fiora, on the other hand, is so flawed but so real; she constantly reminded me of my miserable teenage years (And what on earth do I wanna do that?) and wish her all the best to survive the snotty Ault.

I've been working through Alwyn Crawshaw's "You Can Paint Watercolors" and 30 cherries later, I still couldn't get one perfect black cherry. (I managed to get 3 red cheeries close enough.) Very frustrating. So I went weeding instead. A couple of sweaty hours and a good shower later, I came back to work on wet-in-wet and flowers. Not all that happy with them, but everything (except apples) seemed to be easier than black cheeries. Imagine that.

Media: pencil, watercolor.

Boat, Day & Night

2006-06-26T16:08:00.000-07:00

I improvised the book exercise in Alwyn Crawshaw's "You Can Paint Watercolors" and left the boat on the water throughout the day all by itself.

Even though the painting stinks, the colors themselves are pretty. Being a big sucker for the pretty colors, I guess the watercolor battle will continue for a long, long time.

Media: watercolor.

Flowers for David

2006-06-24T22:48:00.000-07:00

Little watercolor flowers for my David. :)

These simple exercises came from Charles Reid's "Painting Flowers in Watercolor". I had to temporarily stop colored pencil drawing due to RSI; watercolor painting seemed less of a problem and I really wanted to play with it, so I was watercolor painting the whole day (and everything except those flowers sucked).

Watercolor painting is tough! Like UNIX, the initial learning curve is painful. Unlike pencils, colored pencils, or technical pens, one has to learn all the basic before being able to produce anything remotely decent. At our next trip, I'd like to apply nice watercolor along with other media in my sketchbooks, and that means I got a lot of homework to do.

Media: watercolor.

Strawberries

2006-06-23T23:05:00.000-07:00

We have 2 kinds of strawberries in our garden: the edible kind on the left and the ornamental kind on the right. At this time of the year, they are all over our garden like Christmas lights, and the edible ones have filled the air with delicious fragrance.

The previous owners had only intended to plant the ornamental ones until the surprise showed up the following summer. I can't understand why; if I were the one making the choice, you bet that I wouldn't waste the time and effort on the ornamental ones.

Media: pencil, colored pencils, technical pens.

Domaine Ostertag

2006-06-23T15:47:00.000-07:00

Stéphane, David, and I started our Alsace wine tasting tour at Domaine Ostertag on 12/09/2005. The hostess was quite friendly and knowledgable, and they produce nice everyday wine at a great price, IMHO.

Our favorite wineries during the trip are Domaine Marcel Deiss and Domaine Schoffit. To allow their terroir to shine through, these two domaines adopt completely different winemaking methods: While Marcel Deiss blends different grapes like the Southern Rhône, Schoffit uses single varietal for each bottle. Both domaines produce excellent wines and we could definitely taste different terroirs.

Alsace wine is at the top of my list, because it's so Asian food friendly (Gewurztraminer has lychee nose and loves spicy food) and their Grand Crus are such a bargain compared to Bourgogne and Bordeaux. Its only downside is that I can't pronounce (the impossible) German.

I drew this on a new sketchbook claiming that it could take wet media. I guess that it doesn't mean watercolor pencils, because the pencil marks didn't get resolved properly and I got a different (read: lousy) effect than expected. Next time, a proper watercolor sketchbook, not one of those multipurpose ones.

Media: pencil, watercolor pencils, colored pencils.

Fortnight Lily

2006-06-21T22:01:00.000-07:00

In case you didn't know, summer arrived today. Our indoor thermometer indicated 82F at 7:02pm, 20F more than 6/10/2006. Wonder what spell those fortnight lilies put on me to make me draw their portrait for 2.5 hours, under the burning sun?

Fortnight lily (Dietes), surprisingly, is not lily, but a genus of plants of the family Iridaceae. No wonder that I couldn't find it under lily, and it explains why they look so much like iris. See what happened when I stop and drew the flower? I solved a puzzle that I didn't even know exist!

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

White Clover

2006-06-20T23:12:00.000-07:00

Voilà, finally a real nature sketch. This white clover is done in the style suggested in Cathy Johnson's "The Sierra Club Guide to Sketching in Nature": the subject, a close-up, some notes, and a small sketch of the location.

Originally I set out to draw magnolia, but got too overwhelmed and had to switch to something more manageable. Well, one day I'll come back and challenge it again.

Media: pencil, colored pencils, technical pen.

Woman In Thoughts

2006-06-19T13:39:00.000-07:00

I think I just added 10 years to this beautiful woman, hmm.

An exercise from Bert Dodson's "Keys to Drawing." Because the way I placed the book, I didn't realize that the angle of her face wasn't quite right until I put them side by side. A similar experience to the maple leaf that I did a while back (when was that?). Oh well. She's still beautiful but looks exhausted from taking care of her kids.

Media: pencils.

Pictionary

2006-06-18T16:14:00.000-07:00

How many kitchen items can you identify?

Each item is drawn in one continuous line, the so-called connected-line drawing. This exercise from Bert Dodson's excellent "Keys to Drawing" asks for 3 drawings, but since I had so much fun, I did 3 pages instead.

Media: technical pen.

Chez Nous

2006-06-17T19:16:00.000-07:00

This is our humble house. The drawing doesn't quite do it justice, but it'll do for the time being.

Media: pencil, colored pencils, technical pen.

Scenary -- Scribble + Color Style

2006-06-17T11:28:00.000-07:00

This is a milestone for me, and, frankly, I like it quite a bit. :)

The blue paper united the sky and the Bay, and it enabled white pencil to simulate wave. The scribble style placed pen drawing in an active role, not a mere outline. Colored pencils were applied casually, so no worry on RSI.

An interesting observation: When I do loose-line or scribble line drawing, I'm relaxed and happy. When I do contour, parallel, crosshatching, or stippling line drawing, I'm tense and gloomy. No wonder I usually do a quick sketch to warm up both my hand and my mind.

Media: pencil, colored pencils, technical pen.

Scenary -- Parallel Style

2006-06-17T10:34:00.000-07:00

I thought I was ready to draw the bay with parallel lines... :( David likes the fog, so I guess it's not all bad.

Media: pencil, technical pen.

Water Bottle

2006-06-16T18:17:00.000-07:00

I tried to sketch the water bottle with scribble lines as shown in Claudia Nice's "Drawing in Pen & Ink", but somehow my latest loose-line drawing took over. The lighting on the body was all diffused and I was all confused, so I left it blank.

I really like sketching styles; lines are not precise, but more lively, and sometimes they catch the essence better. On the other hand, in order to sketch better, I have to practice more on the regular drawing styles. This paradoxical principal seems to be universal; it's the same with Chinese brush calligraphy.

Media: technical pen.

Parallel Lines

2006-06-16T17:32:00.000-07:00

Yesterday evening I worked on Exercises 2A and 2B of Bert Dodson's "Keys to Drawing". Because I was infatuated with the crosshatching technique, it was no surprise that I copied and emulated Giorgio Morandi. Yuck! The results were so bad that I was too embarrassed to post them. And that was after a whole afternoon of frustrating (supposed-to-be-easy) flat wash exercise from Jack Reid's "Watercolor Basics: Let's Get Started".

Today an excellent book showed up at our door step: "Drawing in Pen & Ink" by Claudia Nice. Unlike other pen drawing books on my bookshelves, she explains every stroking technique in detail and shows her readers when one technique should be applied. Now I know why I failed miserably on Exercise 2B: I applied too many techniques without knowing why and how. This book is a godsend!

Media: pencil, technical pen.

Horsetail (was "Plant Without a Name")

2006-06-14T18:36:00.000-07:00

This horsetail (Equisetum) has the look and texture of grass, but knots on its stalks remind me of bamboo. I'm not sure which species it is; it looks like water horsetail but the one we have

doesn't grow on wet land, and
1/3 of them are taller than 140cm (some of them are even taller than 170cm) .

My watercolor brushes arrived today, so of course I had to try them out. Not knowing much about watercolor painting, I went for the easiest plant (mostly drawing, not much painting) to test my brushes. I didn't control my lines well and each branch was thicker than the real thing. To fix my mistake, I used a brown technical pen to "trim" the branches down, but apparently it was a bad move.

Watercolor painting, my next frontier.

Media: watercolor, technical pen.

Orchid Leaves v.2

2006-06-13T22:51:00.000-07:00

The earlier one was drawn from the real-world model; this one was drawn from the memory. Two drawings have very different lighting, which makes me wonder about my memory.

It's really interesting to see the different effects caused by different cross-hatching lines. Gosh, I think I'm addicted to the cross-hatching hell now! :)

Media: pencil, technical pen.

Orchid Leaves v.1

2006-06-13T19:07:00.000-07:00

I think I started to understand cross-hatching a little now...

Media: pencil, technical pen.

My Watercolor Plant

2006-06-12T20:51:00.000-07:00

All right! My first sketchbook watercolor plant! This is the exact style that I've been looking for for my nature journal, even though I didn't do my plant justice in this drawing.z

Watercolor painting is tough, but watercolor sketch painting is not. As you can see here, the focus is sketching, not painting. Watercolor also takes signficantly less time to paint than other color media, and it's less likely to get RSI. Now I can see why most nature journal keepers go with watercolor.

:D

Media: technical pen, watercolor.

David's 2nd Office

2006-06-12T16:41:00.000-07:00

Obviously the kitchen should've been painted with watercolor pencils instead of brush pens, and I could've transferred it to somewhere else and tried out brush pens there first. Well, a late revelation.

On the other hand, I'm no longer afraid of doodling group of objects. Petit à petit, l'oiseau fait son nid. :)

Media: technical pen, brush pens.

Lily Pod

2006-06-11T17:55:00.000-07:00

Because of yesterday's rose disaster, today I set out to work on watercolor pencils and its relationship with different papers.

This lily pod is from Kristy Ann Kutch's Drawing And Painting With Colored Pencils (an excellent colored/watercolor pencil book, BTW); she uses it to demostrate the Pencil-Point-into-Wet Technique, which I did a mediocre job and we'll overlook it this time.

The lily pod on the left was drawn on 100lb cold-press watercolor paper, while the one on the right was on 70lb sketchbook paper. On the left the colors are intense and vibrant, while on the right they are all washed out. The watercolor paper allows the colors to dissolve and blend much better, and the small amount of water doesn't bother it.

From this experiment, I learned that I should leave wet media to watercolor paper unless I don't mind the washed out results and the buckled paper. Obviously there is a very good reason why people use watercolor paper to do watercolor painting.

Media: watercolor pencils.

Rose

2006-06-10T23:57:00.000-07:00

This rose was a big pain in the butt to draw.

In our garden, I sketched the rose, took color notes, transferred it to my sketchbook, and colored it with watercolor pencils. So far so good. As soon as I added water in, however, it turned into the ugliest rose that I had ever seen. A large percentage of watercolor pencil lines refused to turn into paint.

I was puzzled: The cosmos turned out great, but the rose was a major failure. I contemplated the problem and conclued that it had to be the paper: the cosmos was on 100lb watercolor paper, while the rose was on 70lb sketch paper.

I repeated the whole process again, but this time I did it on 100lb watercolor paper instead. The watercolor pencil lines dissolved nicely, and I was able to produce the base colors for colored pencils. But, still, the texture was not right...

Gotta pay more attention to the rose.

Media: watercolor pencils, colored pencils.

Cosmos

2006-06-10T23:55:00.000-07:00

This is an exercise from Jackie Simmonds' You Can Sketch.

I wanted to try my watersoluable pencils and play with water, so I picked up this simple exercise from Simmonds' book. This is another fast sketching with a brush instead of a stump; the whole thing took less than 10 minutes but the end result was nice.

Media: watersoluable pencil.

My Tea Mug

2006-06-10T23:40:00.000-07:00

This is my tea mug that I was unable to draw the other night.

Thanks Bert Dodson's tips in Keys to Drawing: "Draw the large shapes first, then the smaller shapes." What that means is that drawing the object's outline first.

The other night I had trouble with the handle, because my brain was bogged down in detail. But today I ignored all that and just drew its shape first. Once the shape was complete, it became rather straightforward to work on the handle.

Try it on your coffee mug and you'll see what I mean. :)

Media: pencil.

Kiwi Horned Melon

2006-06-10T23:37:00.000-07:00

This weird orange thing is called Kiwi Horned Melon. We tried it once; the taste was far less exotic than its look.

Media: technical pen.

The Fascinating Water Boiler

2006-06-09T22:52:00.000-07:00

I'm totally, completely in love with fast sketching! I love the freedom of lines, the forgiveness of precision, and the liveliness of the outcomes! And the fact that it took me less than 15 minutes to catch its spirits (7 minutes should've been enough if I weren't so anal about shadows) makes it all more attractive.

OK, OK, fast sketching is mainly used as a reference for the actual painting/drawing, not as a final product. I, however, like it and plan to apply it everywhere, because I can. ;)

BTW, thanks Jon & Tammy for this fascinating housewarming gift; we literally use it everyday! :)

Media: pencils.

David's Salt Cellar

2006-06-08T23:59:00.000-07:00

Someone spent too much time shopping for watercolor brushes and watching NBA finals, and forgot to do her homework until bedtime... At the very last hour, she tried in vain in drawing their orchid pot, her tea cup, and her Kabira water bottle, and the time was running out...

She was devastated. She was in pain. She was mad at herself for not working first and then playing later. Then suddenly she remembered this technic called "Fast Sketching," the only hope she had at this desperate hour.

She immediately ran to the kitchen and grabbed David's salt cellar. Placing it on her table, she started sketching it ferociously. Instead of measuring it accurately in every dimension like she did with the pepper grinder, she settled for the approximation. 5 minutes later, she got it down and was finally able to call it a night.

The necessity of deadline as we know it.

Media: pencils.

David's Pepper Grinder

2006-06-07T19:12:00.000-07:00

Today was one of those days that I just couldn't draw.

Finally I went for David's pepper grinder, thinking that it would be a piece of cake. Hmm. I found out the hard truth shortly after putting down the first line. I was devastated by this failure, but leaving an unfinished drawing in the middle of my journal was not an option for me.

But for some reason, David really liked it!

I was perplexed by this experience...

Media: pencils (3B, white, China Marker), technical pens.

Japanese Maple Tree

2006-06-06T20:55:00.000-07:00

This is the tree where yesterday's maple leaf came from. I was only able to draw the lower section of this giant tree. Even so, it got rejected from David (leaves had wrong shapea with dense and almost fur-like texture) and I had to redo the leaves and colors. And as usual, it turned out to be better than the original.

Yes, I know I said that I would stay out of colored pencils until my body feels better. Well, I lied. It would be too sad to draw the Japanese maple tree without the beautiful colors, don't you think?

Media: technical pen, colored pencils.

David's Coffee Roaster

2006-06-06T12:28:00.000-07:00

David's new toy -- i Roast 2 -- arrived this morning. He and Adam put it together and roasted a small batch of Costa Rica Tres Rios. The best part about roasting beans on your own was that the whole house smelled wonderful!

He then made coffee for everyone. It was quite tasty: tobaco, medium finished, some acidity but no bitterness. Next time he'll roast beans a little longer to make them more flavorful. Also, beans taste better 12 hours after after they're roasted, kinda like Spaghtti sauce.

Not a great sketching; will have to do another once we build a more intimate relationship.

Media: technical pen.

Japanese Maple

2006-06-05T22:18:00.000-07:00

I placed the maple leaf in front of my sketchbook instead of next to it, and as you can see here, the distance made it look short and fat.

Believe it or not, drawing can cause a repetitive strain injury (RSI). I thought only programmers could get it, but apparently that isn't the case. No wonder I've felt the pain on my right arm, shoulder, and lower back; I thought I was imaging it, since I've only been drawing a little more than a month.

Well, I do have bad posture and don't have ergonomic setup. I think I'd better stay away from colored pencils for a while until I feel better (good posture, frequent breaks, and stretching). In the meantime, I think I'll focus on pencils and technical pens. *sigh* Black-and-white-only drawings can get kinda depressing.

Media: pencils.

Abutilon megapotamicum?

2006-06-04T17:23:00.000-07:00

Is this Abutilon megapotamicum? I looked it up in A-Z encyclopedia of Garden Plants, but the photo doesn't quite resemble this one. The photo shows that the top part is bright red and is about 2/3 to 4/5 of the flower length. The top of this one is pink and yellow and is only about 1/3 of the flower length. Very confusing.

Media: pencil, colored pencils.

Mulan's Albatross

2006-06-04T13:17:00.000-07:00

This Albatross is done by Mulan, who gave me an introduction course on art material and took me to The Art Store to spent $$ on all the cool art supplies a month ago.

This bird is awfully cute and realistic, and I really like the way she handling mixed media. Well, one day I'll get there (probably not with a bird though).

Red Onion, Jicama, & Avocado

2006-06-03T18:16:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I had planned to draw Abutilon megapotamicum, but today was so hot that I didn't feel like to spend an hour or so in the garden. Staying indoors meant still life sketching, so I grabbed a red onion, a jicama, and an avocado as my models.

David rejected my red onion once (missing the stripes) and my avocado four times (unrealistic bumpy texture)! *sigh* But after each fix, things looked more and more like the real things. The avocado still didn't live up to his expectation, but we both liked it a lot more than the original one.

Some description on jicama:

Jicama (/hikama/) is a root vegetable from Mexican. David uses it as an ingredient in salad, because it's crunchy, cool, and mild with a hint of sweetness. It can be cooked, too, but we've never tried that. Go check out your local grocery store (we get our supplies from Safeway) and give it a try! lt's especially great for summer; you wash it, peel the skin off, and chop it into sticks. Afterwards, it's your choice: place it in salad, eat it raw, or dip it with vegetable dressing. Endless possibilities!

Media: pencils.

The Fog @ 7:20pm

2006-06-02T22:45:00.000-07:00

See how different the scenary was at 7:20pm?

The Golden Gate Bridge was no longer hidden behind the fog. (The Bridge always reminds me of the Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland.) Some lonely fog hung lowly above the Bay while the majority of it was waiting behind the Bridge. Quite a few people took advantage of this beautiful day and sailed around the Bay after work.

I tried to sketch at 1:40pm and 3:40pm when the fog completely dominated the Bay. But, boy, it was such a lousy model! It moved so fast that it was impossible to place it on paper.

Media: pencil.

Abutilon Nabob (or Flowering Maple)

2006-06-02T22:09:00.000-07:00

Abutilon Nabob... I like how this little guy looks and David loves its rich, dark, purplish red color. I didn't know Abutilion util I looked it up in A-Z encyclopedia of Garden Plants, and I didn't know its name until I Googled the Net. No kidding when they say that one learns something everyday.

Abutilon Nabob is related to the flower I drew back on May 20. (I think the other one is called Abutilon hybridum, but don't quote me on that.) I knew that they looked alike, but I didn't know that they are in the same genus.

According to the book: "Erect to spreading, evergreen shrub or small tree. Leaves are ovate to rounded, 3- to 5-lobed, 4-8in (10-20cm) long, and rich green in color. From spring to autumn, bears large, nodding to pendent, open bowl-shaped, deep crimson flowers, to 3in (8cm) across." This sounds about right.

What came as a total surprise to me was that Abutilon megapotamicum, a flower that does not resemble either A. Nabob or A. hybridum, is in the same genus as well. Gotta go draw it tomorrow.

Media: pencil, colored pencil, technical pen.

The Fog @ 2:04pm

2006-06-02T22:00:00.000-07:00

Summer in the Bay Area can only mean one thing -- fog! And it moves fast!

At 2:04pm, except the one occupying half of the Golden Gate Bridge, most fog around the Bay already got burned off. A giant blob of it was waiting behind the Bridge, preparing for another assault...

Media: pencils.

Meyer Lemon (Half & "Zested")

2006-06-01T23:09:00.000-07:00

I started my Nature Journal today, and I planned to fill it up with my observation of our garden.

Well, I spent too much time shopping at The Art Store this afternoon and couldn't get to it soon enough. So I drew the only natural thing that I had my hands on today -- a Meyer Lemon. But since I didn't draw it when I picked it up from our backyard, I could only draw its "after" picture.

Media: technical pen, brush pens.

Ott-Lite TrueColor FlexArm Plus Lamp

2006-05-31T09:07:00.000-07:00

According to Glen Epperson's source, Lynn Koolish, nowadays every American quilter owns an Ott-Lite TrueColor Tabletop Lamp. This little lamp, however, is too small for a drawer/painter. He suggested me to get "a drawing table version of the same light," the one shown on the left.

It's expensive, it's ugly, but it works! Colors no longer get distorted and I finally can draw & paint at night!:D

Media: technical pen.

Chateau? Not!

2006-05-29T21:31:00.000-07:00

After my ego had been beaten badly by cross-hatching drawing, I decided to cheer myself up with a drawing I saw in this month's Artist's Sketchbook (It turned out to be the very last issue, just when I went to their website trying to subscribe to it). It was a nice drawing plus cute outside-the-line watercolor painting by Mari Le Glatin Keis.

I know next to nothing about watercolor but love it dearly nevertheless. My ultimate goal is to paint the images in my head with watercolor, which I know will take me years if not decades to get there.

But not color within the lines? That got to be easy, right?

WRONG!

I didn't know how to use brushes (always starting with the biggest one for the task), how to mix colors (having plenty on the palette), or how to create the right shades (how much water is enough?). Even though this is not a hard watercolor piece, I still managed to screw it up.

As I learn about watercolor, every painting can only get better than this God awful one. And this is why I place it here, to have it serve as the starting point of my watercolor painting life.

Media: pencil, colored pencil, watercolor.

Cross-hatching Hell 2

2006-05-29T18:08:00.000-07:00

Another one from David Sanmiguel's art of drawing.

I fell for its simplicity. I thought maybe cross-hatching wouldn't be that bad on simple landscape. So after my last highly unsatisfing cross-hatching experience, I jumped in another one.

Another hell.

Yes, it requires fewer strokes, but it demands higher proficiency at pencil handling. I should've known. It's much easier to screw up a simple dish than a fancy one, because it provides no place for a chef to hide.

Enough cross-hatching hell!

Media: pencils.

Cross-hatching Hell 1

2006-05-29T17:38:00.000-07:00

From David Sanmiguel's art of drawing.

I don't know which style of drawing I like the most, but I definitely know which one I hate the most -- cross-hatching!

I can't think of anything that takes so much work and achieve so little. Drawing is supposed to bring me joy, regardless of my skills. As I finished this one, however, I was full of anger and fatigue.

And what did I do next? Another cross-hatching drawing! I just refused to learn from my own painful experience and expected a miracle!

Media: pencils.

Sketching vs Drawing

2006-05-28T22:54:00.000-07:00

If I was surprised by how much better my colored doodles looked on screen, now I'm the opposite. Maybe this is why I'm unable to focus on pencil sketching/drawing first.

But maybe that's just an excuse. My loose line drawing is still in its infancy; it can't be disguised by pretty colors, like what I've done with others.

It's time to build a good pencil drawing/sketching foundation. I plan to work through David Rankin's fast Sketching techniques and David Sanmiguel's art of drawing until I feel more comfortable with loose line drawing. But I'll continue with Jackie Simmonds's book, just because I can only stand so much grey.

Those 4 sketches range from OK to "What is THAT!?" Animal sketching is really not my thing. But since it was the first exercise in David Rankin's book, I had to do it. Copying his example was much easier than looking at the photo and sketching the deer cold. Even though I didn't do a good job with the first deer, at least it looks like a deer.

Media: pencil.

Strawberries, Apple, Onion, & Mushroom

2006-05-28T22:21:00.000-07:00

I continued working on the exercises from Jackie Simmonds's You Can Sketch. The drawings look better on screen than in my drawing book. In my sketchbook, I'm only happy with the apple.

I didn't crosshatch the strawberries properly, so I used a colorless blender to create the same effect. Somehow they seem to look OK on screen.

The onion is a sad story, but it's hard to see the faults on screen. The original exercise requires a pastel pencil. Since I don't have that, I used a colored pencil and a colorless blender instead. Just when I was happy with being able to get away with it, I found it very difficult to add the texture on a layer of thick wax. (The colorless blender I have is a basically a wax stick.) I almost gave up, but the nice yellow blend called me back to finish it up. So I did.

I didn't have high hopes for the mushroom, because it was more of a sketch than a drawing. It looks OK, but you can bet that I won't eat a mushroom like this.

Media: colored pencils.

You Can Sketch -- Lesson 1

2006-05-27T23:03:00.000-07:00

These doodles came from Jackie Simmonds's You Can Sketch: A Step-By-Step Guide for Absolute Beginners.

Because I have trouble with shadowing, I figure that sketching should be the first thing for me to work on.

I, however, don't have the patience with basic drawing.

So I told myself: OK, you can be sloppy with the boring exercises, but you have to do them. And this is the result. Not too hard to tell which are the boring ones, huh?

Media: pencils, colored pencils, watercolor pencil.

The Girl & Her Pencil Box

2006-05-25T19:23:00.000-07:00

I usually draw with technical pens and then color with a combination of media. Here I used pencil instead, and that makes the the drawing softer and even a bit classic.

Media: pencil, watercolor pencils, colored pencils.

New Secrets for Youthful Skin

2006-05-25T17:54:00.000-07:00

I did this one for my sister, Kelly, because she's always searching for the latest magical skin products to stay forever young.

The RoC Retinol Correxion creams are freaky: They do seem to work! On the 10th day, I washed my face and noticed the area around my eyes were glowing. Yes, glowing! Normally I only saw it after applying facial lotion or cream.

It's been a month ever since my first try. The glowing area has spreaded to my cheekbones, and pores in those areas have been tighten as well. According to the literature, it'll take 3 months for the whole process to finish.

I'm skeptical about cosmetic products, but this time it seems that they do keep their promises without charging me a fortune. (Those are all available at Longs.) I'm quite surprised!

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

My Lamp

2006-05-21T19:30:00.000-07:00

This lamp has been with me since I arrived in the States. Incredibly solid!

Media: technical pen.

A Leaf

2006-05-20T17:23:00.000-07:00

The first time I felt that I was "getting it" with colored pencils. I finally had some clues about color blending and burnishing. A little leaf, but a lot of effort!

David liked it but said that those yellow lines were on the thick side. Next time I'll do a better job to make my drawing closer to what I see, but this leaf is definitely a milestone for me. :)

Media: pencil, colored pencils.

A Book Scenary

2006-05-20T17:08:00.000-07:00

This sorry attempt was based on Cathy Johnson's watercolor pencil Magic.

Continued playing with my watercolor pencils. Continued being frustrated with this fuzzy media.

I initially painted it with darker colors, but after a splash of water, all of them became much weaker. I had to keep on adding more shades of colors, but it was still too light.

In the end, I grabbed my colored pencils and placed layer upon layer of colors on top of the watercolors. Still not quite there, but at least it was not so 2-dimensional.

Even though watercolor pencils give me the most grief, they are the media that I'm most obsessed with. Am I twisted?

Media: watercolor pencils, colored pencils, technical pen.

A Flower from Our Garden

2006-05-20T16:24:00.000-07:00

It was a beautiful day. I walked around our garden trying to find a good target to draw. Well, guess what? I was overwhelmed by the amount of information out there and couldn't find anything manageable to put on paper.

Then I remembered what Cathy Johnson said in The Sierra Club Guide To Sketching In Nature. I made a small paper frame and looked at our garden through the frame. Voilà, I found this little flower that was cute and interesting.

Still had trouble with watercolor pencils. All colors got washed out, even though I thought I had applied dark enough dry colors. (I also accidentally colored outside the lines on various places. *sigh*) So as usual, I applied colored pencils to intensify their shades.

David said the black lines made the painting look like a cartoon. So I plucked a leave for my next drawing.

Media: watercolor pencils, colored pencils, technical pen.

David's Purse

2006-05-19T15:13:00.000-07:00

David's Scharffen Berger Chocolate paper purse.

Media: technical pen.

Kleenex & Backpack

2006-05-17T18:33:00.000-07:00

I doodled around my office while waiting for David to finish his discussion with Dan.

Media: technical pen.

My PowerBook

2006-05-17T18:14:00.000-07:00

Since I won't have this set up anymore after the end of month (I'm gonna retire!), I felt that I should keep a memory of it. It's not a great doodle, but it means something to me.

Media: technical pen.

Mug, Stapler, & Speaker

2006-05-17T18:02:00.000-07:00

While waiting for the traffic to calm down so we could go home, I started doodling around my office.

Media: technical pen.

Too Much Coffee

2006-05-15T21:37:00.000-07:00

The whole page was an accident.

Originally I just tried to draw David's funny glasses and failed miserably. The very next morning, I tried to draw my coffee mug in 4 different styles.

#1 was my usual style, so it was fairly easy and David liked it the most.

#2 was my experiment for loose line drawing, and it wasn't very good.

#3 was an idea that I got from Danny Gregory's The Creative License. (Jon Pile said that it was a right brain drawing or a negative space drawing.)

#4 was just a pure disaster. I tried to follow Gregory's example again by drawing the rough outline first. The result was OK and I should've just stopped there. Instead, I couldn't stop myself from adding lousy shadowing...

To do some damage control, I added more doodles to explain the whole mug devolution, and somehow the ugly drawing no longer bothered me (or you wouldn't see it here).

Media: technical pens.

Misc.

2006-05-14T21:57:00.000-07:00

This was the first time that I used mixed media in a major way.

I found that watercolor pencils are great for background. Because they lack the intensity, I applied colored pencils for depth. You can see different styles of drawing here. I'm still more comfortable with tight line drawing, but I try to practice loose line drawing as much as I can.

Media: technical pens, colored pencils, watercolor pencils, colorless blender.

The Baby Fox

2006-05-13T19:13:00.000-07:00

This baby fox is based on Akira Toriyama's Manga character. I'm a big fan of Akira Toriyama (Dragon Ball is his most well-known work in the States but not my favoriate); his imagination is just incredible.

Media: technical pen, watercolor.

The Color Table

2006-05-13T18:35:00.000-07:00

Following the instruction in Cathy Johnson's watercolor pencil Magic, I created this color table of my Prismacolor Watercolor Pencils (24 colors only).

Watercolor pencils are fun, but they are also a big pain in the butt. As you can see here, the colors between wet and dry paints are quite different; the wet ones are much lighter than the dry ones. I tend to forget about it and watch in shock as my paintings turn out much lighter than what I'd like.

Media: watercolor pencils, technical pen.

My First Colored Pencils Exercises

2006-05-06T18:58:00.000-07:00

The flowers came from an exercise from Sandra Angelo's Exploring Colored Pencil. I had no clue what a "colorless blender" was but did whatever I could to make it look like the one in the book. Blending colors is tough!

Not being too pleased with the flowers, I flipped through the book and found the adorable giraffe on p.20. This time I only wanted to focus on color mixing. Therefore the trees.

I got pretty frustrated by now, so I just drew a purple pencil at the end. I thought it was fine, but David told me that the light and shadows weren't quite right.

Colored pencils drawing is no easy business!

Media: pencil, colored pencils.