Sketch in Beijing 3

I did more sketches in Beijing. The first one is from a photo I took from Zhouzhuang, and the other one is another copy I did from R. S. Oliver's work. I feel all artists should have adequate drawing skills. sketching is a good exercise and fun activity. Sketching is not only a big help to our paintings, but also a good art form by itself. I will practice this art form for sure.

Sketch in Beijing 2

These two sketches I did plein air at a park in Beijing call "Zi-Zhu-Yuan" (the Purple Bamboo Garden). Now I felt more comfortable to sketch at the site. I have been practicing on what to select and how to control the values to make the sketch more interesting. my pen-and-ink skill is still in the beginning stage, there are more patterns and technique can be added on. Learning is endless. I can't wait to get a mini watercolor set, so I can add water color effect on my sketches.

Sketch in Beijing 1

After the painting trip. I have been staying with my mother. After my father passed away in June, she has lived alone by herself. I try my best to stay with her as much as I can. Two days ago, she did cataract surgery. Everything went well. I am glad I am here to help her when she could not see well. I have not done any painting, but I had some time to think about sketching. During our painting trip, many artists brought their sketch books and portable water color set. I brought a sketch book as well, but I didn't do much. To be honest with you, I have not done enough sketch at the site, so I didn't have a good way to do it. During this time I am at my mom's place, I turned into my study mode again. I studied Robert S. Oliver's approach on sketches, and figured out a way I can effectively sketch the scene I like. This image I show today are two sketched I did. The upper one is from a photo I took from Zhouzhuang, and the lower one is a copy of Robert S. Oliver's work. I have more to show you next time

Farewell Our Painting Trip

Our Plein Air Painting in China trip has ended on September 20. I hope everybody have a safe trip back home. This photo shows the entire group in Zhouzhuang. I am so happy this event was very successful. It is another my dream came true. Very soon, I will plan my future China painting trip and let you know when it is ready.  Song and I will stay in Beijing for another week or so. Due to some technical difficulties I can not see DPW website here in Beijing, so I will hold posting my paintings until I am back to the States. 

Jaywalking in Beijing

This is our team members daring crossing a Beijing street. I don't think in China there is such a thing called Jaywalking. Road crossing needs a special skill of communication subconsciously  between pedestrians and vehicles. Our group learned so quickly, but I love everybody's expression in this photo.

Ladies in the Forbidden City

We visited the Forbidden City and ran into these two lovely ladies in beautiful dresses of the former Qing Dynasty. I think this photo will make a wonderful painting.

We are on the Great Wall

We have arrived at Beijing. It was a great challenge and test to our physical condition, and we appreciate more to the people who built it more than 2000 years ago.

An Old Fisherman

 

On the cruise ship from Guilin to Yangshuo, I spotted this old fisherman in the Li River.

Yu Long River

On our way to an old village, we got lost. I decided letting everybody get off the bus and give some time for the driver to figure out how to get our destination. I am so happy we got off. We were close to a bridge on the beautiful Yu Long river, and got the best location to photograph the rafts on the river. This is one of my shot. I am so glad we got lost in China.

On a Guilin Street

After a significant delay due to a heavy thunder storm in Shanghai, we arrived at Guilin almost 3:00 AM in the morning. Now we are in South China. Before we adventure more I shot this photo under the bright mid day sun. They paved the road with black marble, and used umbrellas to shade the sun light. There is no single drop of water in the scene. I can name this gendra (spelling? I mean the type of art) "sunny rain scape".

The beauty of Zhouzhuang

Zhouzhuang is incredibly beautiful. This is one of my photos. I am speechless here.  I wish I can stay for more days.

Painting in Zhouzhuang

We are in Zhouzhang for 3 days now. Every angle you will see a good painting. It has been very hot and humid here, but everybody were inspired by the beautiful scenes all over. We started our painting day at 6:00 AM. We are so enjoying here. I have no time for the Internet. Time goes by so fast.

The plein air painting in China team

All together our plein air painting in China team have 15 people coming from Australia, the Philippines, and the USA (Alabama, California, Florida, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, and Texas). The first day we spent in Shanghai sightseeing. We have visited the Shanghai Museum, the waterfront of the Huang Po river, a silk factory to see silk production process, and the Yu Garden. I also went to the local art supply store and get some odorless turp. It was a long day. This is our partial group photo in front of the Shanghai Museum. 

Good Morning Shanghai

I have arrived at Shanghai yesterday afternoon. The hotel is wonderful and the food is excellent. Due to the jet lag (11 hours time difference), I got up this morning about 4:30 AM. Shanghai is a big big city of 22 million people. There are about 6000 skyscrapers. When the sun just rises, I took this shot. Good morning Shanghai. All the members of our painting team arrived safely. the wonderful trip is starting right now.

"Pot and Pears" --- Sold

Click Here to Bid

This is the last painting I post before I get on my international flight for China. I did it with my Austin group. I kept the setup simple so the students can follow me easily.

Tomorrow I will step into something brand new. We have a wonderful group of 15 artists from the USA, Australia, and the Philippines. We will sketch, paint, and sightsee four places in China. During this trip, I will keep my blog and postcard going and share what I see and do. Please take a ride with me. The excitement will start soon.

"Tibor Nagy Study 3"

This period of study will end soon. I try my best to learn more with every minute I have. This is my third effort of studying Tibor Nagy's design. The difference of this one is its size. This one is 12" x 16", a relatively large painting. I used very large brushes to do this. In addition, it is combination of acrylic and oil. I did the transparent under painting with acrylic burnt umber, then used oil for the details and large opaque shapes. The advantage of using acrylic is it dries so fast. You can put oil on top without picking the underpainting color in a very short time.