Sunshine through the Woods

This painting was done referring to a painting in Mr. Abe Toshiyuki's water color art book. It's water color on 9x12 water color paper.

Mr. Tokshiyuki's water color works all have such zen like quality to them. In the book, he talked about using masking ink to block off areas for the leaves so all the deep colors can be added, and then with the masking ink removed, lighter colors can filled in at the end. I gave this technique a try a few days before his workshop this weekend. Plus, I'm memorizing as many of Japanese vocabularies as I can so that at least hopefully I won't be totally lost at the workshop, which will be held in Japanese. I'm really looking forward to it though.

Lago Buenos Aires Shore

This is my second submission for Virtual Paintout May 2014 Chile challenge. It's water color on  9x12 water color paper.

Recently I came across a book by a Japanese water color artist Abe Toshiyuki whose art works  of nature have a strong sense of light and meditative quality. I saw this book at a art supply store Sekaidou in Tokyo. The book was written mostly in Japanese, with partial English translation. I was learning both water color painting and a new language at the same time!

One of the techniques Mr. Toshiyuki employed was the use of masking fluid. I wanted to give it a try. So I used a scene which is not too far from the first scene I used for this month's challenge. (Ref). I thought water color would be great to paint water, and I used the masking fluid for the highlights of the leaves and lower vegetational. 

Dusty Road by Lagos Buenos Aires

This is for Virtual Paintout May 2014 Chile challenge. It's oil on 10x12 canvas panel.

This month's challenge contained mostly mountains, farms, and lakes. Roads often times were unpaved, so when vehicles drove by, there was quite a bit of dust. I thought I would have some fun with the dust while contrasting with the mountains and lake. I chose this scene with the pick up truck (Ref), and then kick up the color. 

Leah the Safari Guide

This is for A Day Not Wasted April 2014 painting challenge. It's oil on 8x10 canvas panel.

This month's reference photo (ref) is actually quite challenging. Sketching took the longest as the posture, especially the hands, were not exactly the most straight forward. However, I enjoyed the initial sketching process to brush up on my sketching skill, looking at the everything in terms of shapes, and checking proportions and negative spaces to make sure my sketch was not too far off. 

Once the sketching is done, I put on a rough layer of acrylic painting of orchre mixed with black as my ground. I kept the background rough since the girl's clothing had very loud colors, pink, red, vermillion etc. There were way too many details on the girl's cape, so I only dared to paint in some polka dots, and rough orange flowers.

Liverpool Youthful Spirits

This is for Virtual Paintout 2014 April Liverpool challenge. It's oil on 10x14 canvas panel.

While randomly traveling in Liverpool, I saw this young couple who apparently saw the Google map camera, and were chasing after it. I thought this particular frame (ref) best captured the youthful spirits, in particular the girl. The marshland around the Ribble Estuary National Nature Reserve is also interesting, along with the perspective element of the bridge.

Once I started painting, I realized there were a bit too many elements to fit into this little painting. I got it to a point where the essence of the scene, the light, perspective and youthful feel were captured, I stopped. It was tempting to make all the lines perfect et al, but it was time to move on to the next painting.

Reading the Paper by Sea

This is my second submission for Virtual Paintout Slovenia Challenge, March 2014. It's oil on F0 canvas panel.

After being stuck on the first painting for days, I decided to go back to smaller character studies. I was traveling virtually around the Adriatic coastline of the country, and came upon this person reading the paper. (ref) The lighting was good, and I thought I would continue with the blue and orange theme, but with less loud of a blue. Foreground rocks were done with a palette knife to give more interest and texture.

Three Boats and Two Ladies

This is for Virtual Paintout Slovenia Challenge, March 2014. It's oil on 10x14 canvas panel.

One of the first places I visited was a place called Bled, and there was a nice beautiful lake there. There were many scenes that were quite beautiful. I decided on this scene (ref) because I thought I would have some fun with the composition with the three boats and the two ladies sun bathing and chatting. The boats were orange in tone, and would be fun to contrast with blue from the lake, with all the colors kicked up a few notches from real life.

After the initial painting, I was stuck for a while because the blue was lacking something. After many days, I decided going to the palette knives and put in some high lights.