"Sargent's Color"

I did a short demo painting yesterday. My son Jonathan has taped the process, and the demo will be used as a part of my online color course. We will finish the recording the course today, then Jonathan will edit the video and select a online platform we will put the course on. We plan to publish the course at the end of June, or the first week of July. Please be patient with me. I am trying my best to make this course informative and practical.

"Standing by me" --- Sold

I was completely lost when I entered our "Quick Draw" competition location. The roping contest was going white hot. Cowboys and horses are dashing out in a speed of zillion miles per hour. Am I supposed painting in this kind of situation? you must be kidding. I stood there like a piece of wood for at least 45 min, didn't do anything. Then I used my slowest paces painted this one. I only did a as few as possible strokes on my panel, but I try show there are zillion of people and animals there. Oh boy, life is so oxymoron.

"Roping"

I did this painting yesterday based on a photo I took at San Angelo TX last October. I think it is first cowboy painting I have done. I am considering sending this painting to a gallery soon. Personally, I have tried to establish a process or a procedure I can deal with any narrative topics. My attention is going into the abstractive expressions of all the painting elements: shape, value, color, texture, etc. I want to go beyond techniques and skills, so the my painting becomes a true art.

"Morning Laundry"

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I did this painting from a photo Song took during our last year's China trip. In the first morning we stayed at the Xidi Village, I saw a group of ladies doing their laundry at a small pond. The scene was spectacular. It was incredibly beautiful. I like the good old days. The life was more painterly then what we have now. Some day I might paint people with smart phones.

The China trip we have planned for this year did not make it. What a pity! We have postponed the same arrangement to 2017. Now we have much more time to think about it. If you are interested in join us in 2017, please contact Song to be on the list.

"Future Star"

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Keep on going. Paint more figures. This one is my number 9 for this series. I have established my procedure. I am able to get a decent figure with adequate accuracy on proportion, anatomy, and perspective. I feel this is the first step, which is the study stage. Next, I will concentrate on the design to make the image more dynamic or dramatic.

"Young Artist 3" --- Sold

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My today's painting comes out smoothly. I have tried to keep the figure as loose as possible by avoiding unnecessary details. Painting children is rather pleasant. This young artist was observing what was happening right in front of him. He will be good at Plein Air very soon.

"Drummer 3"

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I have followed the momentum of painting Impressionistic figures. This one is slightly easier than my previous one. I started to develop a procedure of this kind of work. It is rather different from my still life painting. When this procedure gets mature enough, I will share with you.

"Drummer 2"

10" x 8", oil on board, framed, $850 + shipping

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I have spent more than a day on this painting. Boy! painting figure is hard. Especially the face and hands. They got to be absolutely correct. Artist's license will not work. This is my second drummer painting. When I posted my previous one, many friends did not know what the figure was doing. This one should be self-explanatory.

"Ring Man"

8" x 6", oil on board, framed, $750

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I have gained more momentum in figurative painting. I did another one today. For figurative work, I feel it is rather difficult to compose. Different from a still life, in which I can easily move the objects, figure is difficult to move because there is too much involved. In addition, I have a hard time to maintain the size of the figure. It changes a lot when I try to get the proportion correct. To solve the problem, I have stopped using pre-sized panels and canvases. I tape a piece of loose canvas on a board, and figure out my composition by cropping the canvas after the painting is finished.

"Mountain Labor"

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Last September, a group of artists and I arrived at the top of the Yellow Mountain (China) by cable car. However I have found that the most of supplies for hotels on the top of mountain was carried up manually. The work is very hard. I feel sorry, but that is their way of make a living. I took quite few photos. The painting was done based one of them.

It was a few days struggle to do this painting (no comparison to the person who carried a giant oxygen tank climbing who knows how many steps). Somehow I feel this is my self portrait as well, carrying a heavy load on my journey going up. There is no way back, and there is still a long way to go. Even I don't know if I can make it.

Tomorrow will be the deadline for my 2016 China trip. We still need a few more people to make this trip a "Go". I hope some of you can join us. I am very sure it will be a wonderful trip.

"Young Artist 2"

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I did a painting called "A Young Artist" many years ago. That boy must be a handsome young man now. Almost at the same location, I shot another photo a couple of weeks ago. Now this artist is doing almost exactly the same thing, innocent with the same concentration. Is the time really exist? I doubt it. If we don't individualize, We have already lived in the Eternity.

"Red Hair"

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Painting figures is really my dream. When I started painting, I immediately went into figurative. Very soon I have realized how difficult it could be. So I took a detour and went into still life painting to strengthen my foundations. You have seen I only occasionally paint head studies and figure practices. So fast, more than a decade has passed. Now I come back to my try love.

"Figure Study with Huihan Liu"

After my workshop at SAS. I decided to stay two more days in Scottsdale and sat in to a workshop by  another artist. I chose a figure class taught by Huihan Liu. I felt so great for being a student again. Huihan is one of the best figurative artists. He does spectacular narrative paintings of Tibetan people and American Indians. I felt very fortunate for being able to study from him.

This is the painting I did on Huihan's class. The value design is OK, but it has big problems in proportion. So I don't consider this painting is a successful one. Figurative painting is my weak spot. My foundation is not sound. I have realized that I can NOT paint what I SEE (like I do still life) when painting figure. I must paint from what I KNOW, and use the model only as reference. First, the model can not go back exactly the same pose after a break. If you chase the pose, you will doomed to fail. Secondly, the human body structure and foreshortening are so subtle. If you can't handle perspective and lack of knowledge of anatomy, forget it. All over places, I see beginner artists go to open studio to draw or paint nude figures. My sincere advice to my beginner artist friends is: If you want to be a good figurative artist, you need to know what you are doing. Please do not do parallel parking if you don't know how to drive straightly. Study perspective, anatomy, and figure illustration is a mandatory requirement for you.

"On a Street"

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This is a good exercise. Painting Abundance has been always a challenge to me. You might have remembered my exercise of painting leaves a while ago. I am glad I stepped into this domain again. I have approached to this painting a little different from the one I did yesterday. I painted the background first. Then I used the rubber tipped paint removing tool (I got it from the Jerry's Artarama) and clean the figure area then I painted on top.

"Party in a Park"

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You may have felt tired of my gray building landscape paintings. So I decided to do something else. I want to paint small figures and suggest a mass of crowd. It is another very interesting direction. It will go together with my landscape naturally. This is my first try. It wasn't bad, but it shows my lack of experience. I have a lot of unsure areas on this painting. It is a good start. It does show the effect I wanted. Improvement will come. I will get better from here.

"AAU Figure Painting Final Project (Day 5)"

Today is my last day at AAU. The summer semester is over. I have learned a lot from Zhaoming in this short seven and half weeks. I really enjoyed this short semester. I made quite a few new friends. I start to miss them already. Now my dream have come true. You will will see more of my figure and portrait work in the future. My today's image is my final project after 5 days of hard work. I don't know if I call it finished, but it is a major milestone on my art journey. Now I can include figure painting in my portfolio. I  have enjoyed San Francisco very much I wish I had more time blogging what I experienced and saw in this beautiful city. I will be back to Texas this Friday. I can't wait to see Song and Jonathan. Thank you for monitoring my art learning process, and I will keep you posted for my future activities.

"AAU Figure Painting 5 (Day 4)"

It was Day 4 on this painting. I did the hand pretty much from my imagination, and spent sometime on the background and the drapery. I don't think I will do the face so to keep the painting semi abstract. I have exhausted what I can do on this painting. I will see what Zhaoming wants me to do on Day  5.

"AAU Figure Painting Final Project (Day 3)"

I never thought that painting a large painting takes so much time and energy. I am still moving but very tired. I want to apologize to many people who expecting my emails dealing with future workshop arrangement and other art business issues. Please give me some time and I will write to you. I want to thank all the friend commented on my recent figure work.

This image is my final project on day 3. I have learned a hard lesson. It is very hard to add a head after you have painted the body first. I have to re-do the face a least three time trying to match the body. I have measured the face with very very very high precision. If you draw or paint figures, you may have the experience that if you do the head first and body second, very often you will find that the location of the feet vary in a very large range. If you are not careful, the feet can go off the page very easily. On the other hand if you painted body first, you will see that a tiny movement on the eyes or nose will cause figure going out of proportion. Anyway, the painting is progressing ok so far. I will try my best to finish it this weekend.

"AAU Figure Painting 5 (Day 3)"

This is my 3rd day on this figure painting from life. I did more colors and details, but I don't see much of progress. I have two more days to go on this project. To be honest with you, I don't feel very enthusiastic about the model. I wish I were Lucian Freud. But I am not. I still try to find beauty and share it with you. Well this one is really a challenge to me. If you have any suggestions, please let me know.

"AAU Figure Painting Final Project (Day 1)"

Time flies! One and half week from now, I will end my AAU journey for this summer. For the Figure class, I need to do my final project. This is again 30" x 40". The painting is from a reference photo. I started yesterday and worked whole day. This is what I got so far. I have spent most my time in the drawing stage to get the proportion, placement, and composition. Then I worked on the value with a monochromatic approach. Now the painting is just entered the third stage, which is color design. I got the shadow on the torso cooler and reflection on the leg warmer. The painting still has a monochromatic feel, but I am going work more today to show some color.