Today’s ‘daily’ painting is one of an apple done on a Phoenix brand canvas panel picked up at Art Friend. It’s incredibly cheap at S$1 for an 8x8" square, perfect for guilt-free amateur paintings. It tends to ‘flake’ when rubbed with fabric (during the underpainting process), though. Decided to give panels a try to see how different it is compared to painting on stretched canvas. What I know is I will definitely need to make a panel holder like everyone else because it’s not going to stay on my easel for edge painting very easily. Another plus for a person living in a small apartment, panels save me quite a lot of storage space!
 

I also picked up two Daler Rowney Graduate series white goat’s hair oval wash brushes to try out ‘blending’ like how Gary Jenkins did on his Farbi Flora Painting series. Saw his ‘blending mop’ was made from white goat’s hair and grabbed a similar. I used the 1/2 sized one on this apple and found it blends very smoothly when there is a lot of paint on the surface. Quite a fun experiment since these brushes are originally made for watercolours. Definitely no need to dip this in turpentine because it would also make for an efficient paint wiper right off your canvas… ^^; I don’t know what I was thinking. These are just like blending brushes for makeup and we don’t apply anything onto it before blending! Similar concept…
About this painting, I think it’s rather flat… I used French Ultramarine for my underpainting (another experiment to see how final product will look compared to the usual burnt umber), mixed it with Alizarin Crimson for shadows, and dabbed on some Cadmium Yellow and Cadmium Reds to add some spice, but think overall it’s still a flat piece. Oops… Hopefully through more practising and getting used to handling oil paints, some results will show…

I shall start document my learnings and share my new ventures in fine art and illustration here on the blog. I am hoping this year I will be more motivated and get back into the arting groove. I have tried back in 2013 but it died off again. Here’s hoping that I grow more disciplined once again.
This year I’ve signed up for an oil painting course with a local private artist studio called Artis. I have since attended two lessons and I welcome the in-depth teaching that my teacher goes through.
Learning foundations was what I was after because another oil painting course I attended last year at a local institution was a little too quick for my liking. I also didn’t overcome the fear of painting on my own at home because I just didn’t know where to start and how.
From these two lessons I’ve learnt how to tone my canvas and mark out objects based on their tones and key vertical lines. My teacher instructs that the eyes recognise light and shadow more than outlines + the importance of trusting our instincts.
Aside from learning oil painting through a strict course set by my teacher, I’ve decided to also try out stylised paintings at home. Basically experimenting and imitating other artists.
I’ve recently borrowed this wonderful book titled [DAILY PAINTING: Paint Small and Often to Become a More Creative, Productive, and Successful Artist] by Carol Marine. I wanted to get over my inertia/fear of making art at home. I can easily reach for a sketchbook to do gesture drawings, but setting up and painting was always tougher.
So I went out and got myself some 6x6" cotton canvases (only S$4.90 for 2 at Krafer’s Paradise) and bought some Colorpro Stifflon synthetic flat brushes from Straits Art Commercial to try. The right side popsicle is my embarrassing first attempt done last evening under an hour with a photo reference. I’m currently waiting for the paint to dry so I may attempt to salvage it.
I love how the Colorpro Stifflon synthetic brushes apply paint! So smooth and delicious! I imagine the Silver brand Bristlon’s I read about from the US has a comparable feel. I am using Winsor and Newton Winton paints here (nothing to shout about apparently, as it’s a student brand and filled with fillers and few pigments).

From this painting I learnt that I should daringly plot out my darks first before laying over lighter paints. You can see I lacked shadows under the melting white ice cream portion in the middle. Plus I didn’t make an effort to paint the dripping portions well. :p I’m now waiting for the paint to dry to see if I can salvage it by adding darks around the melted portions…
It was a pretty fun experience! I am now tempted to order some Ampersand gessobords to try but they are more for professional artists who are already painting very well… ;_; They ARE after all museum archival quality. And if I DO get those I will want to purchase some Rembrandt or Artist paints to paint with to make things worthwhile. Ahh… I’ve got a list of materials seated in my DickBlick shopping cart thanks to Dreama Tolle Perry’s workshop list. I was hoping to join her upcoming France Provence online course but found my finances to be wanting. :( It would quite an adventure learning her style of alla prima painting as well!
*edited: Left 12x12 as I do not think I will be able to cope. :( Will focus mostly on painting and drawing this year and see if I can move on to writing next year.