Demo ~ Shopping at Gambier Street, Kuching

It's been ages since I did a proper demo. So I guess I should do one again.
As I mentioned in my previous post, I was invited to an exhibition this coming July in my hometown in Sarawak, Malaysia where the theme is "Our People, Our Culture". I did one portrait of a local native man recently, and was quite satisfied with it. Now, I'm going to paint a street scene. I wanted to show the community in its daily activities, so what's better than to paint shoppers in a busy market.

This is a scene based on a photo I took several years ago of a strecth of shophouses selling spices and groceries. I've painted the exact location at a slightly different angle about five years ago. I believe my painting skill and style have improved and changed since then. So, hopefully this one will be a lot better, crossing fingers and toes.

Here's the drawing, on full-sheet of Fabriano Artistico stretched on 20" x 28" stretching frame.

Then, I painted the first glaze of colours wet on wet, but pretty controlled using a no.8 round brush, which I reckon is a decent size to use for such detailed painting as it holds sufficient water and yet small enough to control where I want the wash to go to.

Before the wash is completely dried, I lift out some paints to get the highlights on the clothes and rice sacks.

This is a messy chaotic market so I need a lot of patience to paint all the different objects and yet not to turn the whole thing into mud.

Next, I built up the forms and structures of the various objects in this complicated scene. I made use of negative spaces, lines and glazes of darker colours to define shapes of the carton boxes, rice sacks etc. while at the same time I darkened the background. Also, the main figure is slowly built up with glazes and strokes to indicate shadows and creases on her cloths.

After that, I threw a variety of colours to the upper shelves to create more interest which would have to be darken in my next instalment in order to contrast the main figure against the shopfront. I also painted the canvases on top of the shop. I used mainly wet-on-wet technique on the blue canvas and while the paint was still fairly damp, I lift off some paint with a clean brush to create the soft highlight effect. In contrast, I used the dry brush technique on the green canvas just below to vary the textures and feel. However, I'm not sure if this is a good decision as both canvases are so near to one another and yet they are rendered so differently.

More details were painted, adding more darks as appropriate to the sacks, boxes, merchandise hung from the top shelves, then I darkened the background. At times, I have to paint carefully around the various objects as I hate using masking fluid which will always leave a trail of harsh lines so I try to avoid it.

Finally, I made some corrections to the left side of the blue/orange canvas, painted the ropes using white gouache, gave the background another cerulean blue + burnt sienna wash to darken it so as to create more contrast against the main subjects and lastly, finished it off with some darks here and there as I deemed fit.

..and last but not least, here are some close-up shots of the painting...

Glad it's done now... hope you like it. Comments and critiques are welcome as usual.

*EDIT: Change of title to "Shopping at Gambier Street, Kuching"

Demo - Taman Ayun Temple, Bali

It's been ages since I did a full-sheet watercolour and I'd have to admit that I'm getting rusty at painting large-size watercolours.

Anyway, Singapore Watercolour Society (SWS) has been renting a room at Telok Kurau Studios, a Art Housing Scheme by Singapore's National Arts Council, as its official premises since the start of the project in 1997. To celebrate the 10th anniversary of Telok Kurau Studios, the management committee of the studios will hold an art exhibition and invited three SWS members to represent the society in this event. As the society's Secretary-General, I was chosen as one of the society's representatives but I haven't got any recent painting for the show, so I painted this full-sheet watercolour over the past two days.

This is a photo I took nearly 3 years ago while holidaying in Bali.



Step 1 - Drawing the outline



Step 2 - Painting the first glaze.
I did the sky with Cerulean Blue and mixed a little Cobalt Blue and threw in some Ultramarine Violet to add more interest to the sky. The roof of the huts are painted mostly in Yellow Ochre with a little touch of Turqoise Blue and Translucent Orange. The Pagoda-like buildings in the background are painted in Sepia, Yellow Orche and Burnt Sienna, while the foliage is painted in Sap Green, Azo Yellow and Cerulean Blue. I also painted the ground with light washes of Yellow Orche and Burnt Sienna.



Step 3 - At this stage, I started to build up the values of the various structures by glazing darks over the shaded areas, paying attention to the light source. Colours used are essentially the same as the previous stage but using more pigments than water but making sure I maintain the fluidity of my paints so as not to turn the darks into mud.


Step 4 - Finally, I added the finishing touches to various things throughout the paintings by painting in the details and decided to darken the foliage on the left, soften the clouds in the sky, emphasized the shadows, painted the plants on the foreground and the two figures, etc.



Below are some close-up to show you parts of the painting in detail.




I used mostly Winsor & Newton, Rembrandt, Schmincke, Holbein - all artists grade watercolour paints. Paper used is my favourite Fabriano Artistico 300gsm Rough.

I hope you like this little demo that I've put together. I can see quite obviously that the painting s I do at home more detailed compared to my outdoor works as I have the comfort and time to sit down and paint slowly. This is painted over 2 days (or should I say late nights), approximately over 8 hours in total. I hope this is good enough for the show. :)

Critiques and comments are welcome as usual.

EDITED: I realized that the distant tree on the top left-hand corner was running almost parallel with the roof line. So I changed the tree a little to get more variations. Also, I felt that the foreground foliage was weak and decided to darken it and add a few stronger and bolder strokes to punch it up. It served to anchor the whole composition better that way.


Now, that's better... :)

Art Restoration of A Different Kind

A couple of months ago, Robin showed me a photograph of headless statues that he had taken some time ago. These are actually statues of Buddha painstakingly carved out from rock formation. Sadly, treasure hunters had other ideas. They chopped off the heads and probably sold them as antiques to feed their own greed and bulging bank accounts.


Robin asked if I could do a painting of the statues with Buddha's heads intact. Well, I usually don't like to paint something that I've never seen, or somewhere I've never been to... and trying to put back Buddha's heads could be a little difficult. Not someone who would shy away from a challenge, I agreed.

Although Robin did sent me a couple of pictures of Buddha for my reference, I needed to do some more research and thanks to Google! Image, I managed to find tons of pictures and chose a few for my reference.

That was nearly 2 month ago as I've been busy with work, baby and the exhibition (not necessary in that order) and only had time to paint it over the past two days. Better late than never, right? :) Here are step-by-step progress pictures...

1. The Drawing
A rough sketch of the painting... but with enough details to mark where everything is.

2. The First Wash
Some called it First Glaze, Underpaint, Mother Wash... whatever... it serves the same purpose, ie. to lay the colour foundation for the rest of the painting. Here, I used 4 colours to lay the first wash - Cadmium Orange, Yellow Ochre, New Gamboge and Cerulean Blue, and painted them wet-into-wet.



3. Defining The Darks
When the wash has completely dried, I started to define the shapes of the statues and other structures with dark colours - a variety of Arizarin Crimson, Prussian Blue and Sepia.



4. Shaping With Mid-Tone Colours
I carried on to build the shapes with mid-tone colours and at this stage, my brushstrokes were very loose and splashy, just enough to make a representation of the structure as a whole.



5. The Finishing Touch
I added darks on the shaded areas and to make it looked more realistic, I further enhanced the shapes and curves of the statues, this time using a smaller brush so that I can reach the smaller areas. I also made sure the whole composition in terms of colours, tonal values were balanced.... and last but not least, to add more texture on the rock surface, I splattered some leftover paints with a toothbrush and signed it!



This is painted on Fabriano Artistico (Half sheet 14" x 21") using W&N, Rembrandt and M.Graham artist watercolour paints. It took me two nights to draw and paint it, about six hours in total.

So, what do you call this? Art restoration of a different kind? I hope Robin will come and give us more info about the statues and its location.

Hope you like it. Critiques and comments welcome as usual.

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UPDATE

Robin e-mailed and informed me that his friend, an expert in antiques and Buddhist statues commented that the two statues besides Buddha could be further improved by adding thier head-dresses.

"The middle buddha (amitahba) needs no change. Both Kuan Yin and Da Shi Zhi has similiar head dress.. In fact in the sutra, both of them look alike and similiar, with one standing left and the other right."

Therefore, to depict the stautes more accurately, I've made some changes by adding the head-dress. Here's the updated version...