Rooster Booster

Hello all. For this week, I’ve focused on the future, in particular, the turnover of Chinese New Year 2017. The year 2017 will be the year of the rooster. It is yet to happen obviously, but I was inspired by rooster paintings and videos on the internet and I thought I’d do my own. Here’s what I did!

Firstly, I watched a few videos about roosters and chickens. No, I haven’t gone mad (though I’ll be honest, I really enjoyed watching), but I did this as research to help me understand how a rooster moves and holds it’s natural posture. Gaining this insight allowed me to draw a more convincing looking rooster.

Whilst watching the videos I would pause from time to time in order to sketch some interesting positions. Above, you can see the resulting sketches.

Using the sketches, I made my take of two Chinese Brush style paintings, appropriate for the subject of Chinese New Year. The top one has more hot colours in it to symbolise it being the year of the fire rooster. The pose is also unusual: I was attracted to this pose and wanted to paint it because it looked more dynamic.

Lastly, I added some Chinese calligraphy, (please note, I’m not a chinese calligrapher in the least…). Apparently, it means ‘rooster’, I tried to draw it from existing calligraphy I saw on the internet which was written in black ink. I used three colours loaded onto one brush to achieve the gradient effect… again this is to reflect fire.

This one is more traditional in stance. Roosters standing on one leg (particularly on a rock) are more traditional in Chinese Brush painting. I’m slightly dissappointed with the lack in depth of the rock I painted, however, I can forgive myself as the rooster is the main focus here. I am pleased with the spontaneity incorporated into it’s construction though. (Please excuse the rips in the paper on both paintings.)

I have to admit that I don’t have that signiature flowing style associated with Chinese Brush painting, though I did have a lot of fun doing my version of it.

Well, that’s it for now, I do hope you enjoy my work. Please feel free to leave any comments. Thank you for stopping by and I shall see you next time. Bye for now!

Dragon and Carp (finally done!)

Dragon and Carp – Watercolours and Chinese sumi ink on Sugar paper.

Bottom right it reads (in simplified Chinese): “As water turns to mist, so you will work hard to become the dragon”.

This quote I made up as well as the whole piece is inspired by Chinese mythology, specifically the story of the “Carp leaping over Dragon’s gate”.

For the story, check this out: http://www.zengyotaku.com/carp_jump_dragon_gate.html

I’ll admit I slightly rushed this because I felt guilty being ill and not doing anything. I made a huge mistake in the beginning with the colours of the two creatures… I wanted to use bright reds and purples, but this soon went disastrous, so I turned it into burgendy and added green.

I learned how to do clouds from watching a few tutorials on Chinese landscape painting and painted clouds in this piece to represent mist for the dragon and for overall atmosphere. This went rather well, but it dried a bit too subtle, so I increased its intensity…(unintentionally, a bit too much) and I spoiled the host cloud on the bottom…now it kind of competes with the dragon and fish, which is bad.

I added the Carp to the piece and some water behind it to represent the hard working carp and water aspect respectively. The water is fine, it does it’s job well enough. I’m just about happy with the fish.

Overall, I’m slightly happy with it, but wished I hadn’t broken what wasn’t required to be fixed. I reckon this concludes the oriental theme. I’ve learned quite a bit and I’ve had fun playing with other concepts, but now? It’s time to return to my own again. 🙂

That’s all for today my friends. I wish you the best, a nice relaxing Sunday, and a good week ahead. Cheers!

Beginning to get better!

Hello all. I’m still a bit ill, but I’m finally beginning to get better! I still havent been able to do much at all as I have been resting and taking strong medication, so I am now starting to run out of anything new to upload. But I came up with a small solution to this problem…

Please see the bamboo sketch below. Another sketch inspired by the oriental theme.

Quick sketch done in chinese sumi ink on budget printer paper. It’s as simple as that.

But how long exactly did this take me to draw I hear you cry? Just look below.

That’s right. A little over 3 mins and 29 seconds. I timed myself on my mobile phone. This is the perfect excercise to do when you’re in a rush to rest.

Enjoy. See you next time.

Ever so sorry…

So sorry people, but I’ve come down with a nasty ear infection all this week and am still suffering with it. Haven’t been able to complete my dragon or do much else at all.

Above is a 5 min line and wash sketch of a heron in a pond inspired by Chinese brush painting. Poster paint on watercolour paper, I did this a few weeks ago.

Autumn always makes me ill, I don’t know why…

Bye for now best wishes.

More Chinese Doodling Fun

Hello once again, I did the painting of two tigers above in Chinese ink and watercolours. It took me approximately 15 – 20mins to complete in a spontaneous style. The title of this piece is “Two Tigers”, but it has an added message I did in Simplified Chinese…

” Two Tigers sit by my bedside. Their presence is as strong as steel”.

I wrote that because this is literally by my bed. Tigers are strong in addition…as strong as steel perhaps. So this message is to give me strength. It’s also a tradition to put a message like this in a Chinese painting, so I have done so, but in my way, and from left to right and not the normal way of writing right to left.

I also put “2015 year of the goat”, as this is the year of the goat in the Chinese zodiac. Fun fact: I was born in 1991, which is again a year of the goat.

This drawing of a Chinese dragon I did on olive coloured sugar paper is unfinished, but I want to take my time with this one. I want it to be one of my more detailed good pieces. I drew this in pencil first and went over it in pen. Stay tuned to see it finished.

Thats all for now, and as usual, have a relaxing weekend!

Stamp!

Here it is everybody. My stamp is finally finished! I carved my logo design into a rubber block to make it. I may or may not do a neater one again as I came across a better design transfer method, but until then, its done.

It’s my nan’s birthday pretty soon, so I decided to create a bookmark for her. I didn’t have any ideas to begin with, so I decided to trawl the internet. As I did, I saw some beautiful Chinese and Japanese sumi paintings of koi carp and bamboo among other subjects.

“Bingo!” I thought. “Why not do that for her?”. I’ve always been a big fan of oriental artwork, especially Chinese brush paintings. (although I’m not really a painter, I like to draw rather than paint).

I got to work, and using line and wash, I made the bookmark design below. It’s entitled “Calm Water”, and this was the perfect opportunity to use my stamp on the back of the piece.

Top: Calm Water bookmark artwork.

Bottom: the reverse of the bookmark stamped, signed, and finished.

From then on, I got a huge burst of inspiration. The brush painting videos and images I saw gave me an appetite to try to experiment with similar techniques myself. I began to see that this sort of art, was almost like drawing, but with brushes. There are so many impressive things that can be achieved, I’ve only just touched the surface…and this is just all for the fun of it.

I took a photo of one of my cats, Murphy, and decided to do a 5 minute spontaneous brush painting of him, just for the laughs. Before I even thought of the idea, I brought some authentic Chinese sumi brushes and liquid ink… I was dying to practice this using the real typical materials.

This is Murphy. (bless him 😛 )

 

And this is my spontaneous 5 minute sketch of the little rascal, entitled, “Murphy Sitting”. I’ll be brutally honest: I’m mildly outraged at the amount of errors here, ( even the chinese lettering I did, which says the title, is stiff and plain), but that isn’t the point of this piece. I wanted to just bury myself in the fun. I find it an achievement that I managed to just let go for once and find solace in playing with the art.

In the image above, you can see the Chinese brushes I brought. And I absolutely love them, you can manipulate the brush, and to some extent, it will keep its shape! The liquid ink I got is totally amazing as well. It has a rich, nearly clingy sort of consistency. Furthermore, the amount you can paint with just one brush stroke is gorgeous. Only a little is needed for excellent coverage, and you can add as little or as much water as you need. Excellent stuff.

And with the finished piece, I put my stamp on the bottom right hand corner. The stamp in this instance, believe it or not, was stamped using the same gorgeous Chinese ink. It really is impressive and versatile in my eyes.

That’s all for now. What do you think? Have you done any similar projects to clear your mind before? What do you do different to unwind? Feel free to comment as usual.

Bye for now all. Have a great weekend!