Salmon on a Roll: Process

Here are the steps to a recent oil piece I did which completes the series of sushi studies. I took awhile to figure out the composition of this piece as I wanted it to complement the other 2.  I used a basic palette of: white, lemon yellow, yellow ochre, raw umber, cad orange, cad red (Old Holland), viridian green, cerulean blue and black. (All Winsor and Newton, except for cad red and orange which are Old Holland). I begin with a brown campitura. 

Drawing using raw umber and blocking in of the white shapes.

Blocking in of the rest of the shapes, and creating a basic gradient for the background.

 Adding gradients to give form or 3-dimensionality to the various individual shapes.

Working on the details only at the very last stage.

Check out these links to the other pieces in the series:

Give me Salmon (1/3) 

https://www.facebook.com/alvinmark.art/photos/a.736765696381483.1073741856.312232912168099/739354599455926/?type=3&theater

It's your Tuna! (2/3)

https://www.facebook.com/alvinmark.art/photos/a.736765696381483.1073741856.312232912168099/741369242587795/?type=3&theater

Train of Thoughts

One more month of before the Fall term begins. How quick! But good that there's still time to sketch and travel around the vicinity.  My sketchwalk this past week or so has taken me to the nearby train stations. There I am able to study both tourists and all that goes on behind the scenes like  people waiting in line, delays, ticketing, scrambling of feet to catch train, long goodbye kisses... . All abroad!! 

Santa Maria Novella Basilica with the main train station of Florence (with the same name) in the background

30cm x 40cm, ink on Fabriano

Track 15 and 16 inside Santa Maria Novella train station 

30cm x 40cm, ink on Fabriano 

 View from track 3 of the Campo di Marte Train Station

30cm x 40cm, ink on Fabriano 

Inside one of the coaches of the regional train heading south (study)

digital

CGA meets AAA

I am indeed very grateful for having the privilege to study under Colleen Barry from the Grand Central Academy, New York.  She ran the last workshop at the Angel Academy of Art this summer: Drawing the Human Figure. A private benefactor and a couple sketches and prints sold allowed me to take this one of a kind opportunity here in Florence. I'm spilling the beans now...

After a year of studying the human figure in graphite and charcoal in the traditional 'less is more' French academic method, it is time to push the boundaries a little to see where I can advance to in the next phase of drawing.  The answer is clear and simple.

I journey back 200 years to the time of the Renaissance when drawings were not formularised and were a lot freer.  Where forms were pushed a little more in context of the overall drawing. Michelangelo understood this technique very well.  It's being able to add a little more of what's inside of the artist to produce a looser and yet aesthetically sound drawing.

The height of the figure is 60cm.

Fabriano Hot Press toned paper is very forgiving. 

The Col-erase pencil by Prisma also allows more control over the values than the regular 2B graphite. 

Sketching in the gesture after a quick thumbnail. 

A skeletal structure can help in understanding the forms of the figure. 

And voila!! 

Having a Creme al Caffe with Colleen at the end of the session to beat the summer heat! 

Breathe Summer

I took a break from Florence and went for an adventure north of Italy and the southeastern part of France. My first stop was in Turin. I spent a night there and had enough time to visit the Cathedral believed to house the Holy Shroud, and the informative Cinema Museum. Turin after all, was the first Italian city to have brought in the moving pictures from France. After spending the morning sketching the open air market, it was time to head to Grenoble via Bla Bla Car. 

I spent 6 days in Grenoble with my schoolmates painting, eating, painting, eating and painting and eating. Not to mention sleep. Grenoble is trapped between 3 enormous mountain ranges: Chartreuse, Belledonne and Vercors. This creates ample opportunity to paint landscapes. But it rained for 3.5 days leaving very little time to paint outdoors. So we stayed indoors to paint. 

The Grenoble Museum is home to many great art pieces which made that visit exceptionally worth the while! :) Among my favourites are the room exhibiting works from the 17th, 18th band 19th century. And some of the beautiful displays includes works from Delacroix, Ingres and Rubens. There were many other works from artists like Guétal, Baader & Champaigne who are unheard of but own works of exceptional quality.  An Art Jam or Rencontre Artistique was organised by a local artist, Flore Henocque,  and we were invited to mingle with fellow artists: musicians, painters, illustrators, writers, photographers, etc.  Grenoble is a small city compared to Paris, but for its size, I think the art scene is pretty good. :) 

Finally, the journey home to Florence via Milan. And the most unexpected thing was to be able to see The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci at the Cenacolo Viciano.  Usually, during the summer, one has to book a week in advance, but all I did was to ask if there was any cancelled bookings.  And voilà !

Looking forward to see what other surprises this summer has for me. :)

Duomo of Torino

Chartreuse from Coublevie 

A4, ink on Moleskine watercolour paper

Spending time studying some horses in Claix

 

I sliced my paper palette in half lengthwise for this particular plein air session - very compact

Marius, watercolour 18cm x 23cm

Art Jam AA#8, Grenoble

A4, ink on Moleskine watercolour paper

Cenacolo Viciano, Milano

A4, ink on Moleskine watercolour paper

Rolling with the Punches

So now that summer's running full steam ahead, I'm out there in the open with no classes to attend,  no studio sessions to go to, no official super long projects to complete, no models to draw, no models to draw and no models to draw (I know I mentioned it three times!)... I can lose sight of my navigation at times especially when the year has ended. But life will always be filled with surprises, and all it takes is a little adaptation to turn regular everyday mundane situation and turn it into opportunity.  

European Boxing Union welterweight reigning champion Leonard Bundu is training in town because his coach and mentor, Boncinelli, lives here in Florence.  The match will be in London come August 1st.  This reminds me of two things: Chlorine and the Rocky movie series we used to watch at Tae-Kwon-Do camps!! (Wait! Why do I hear John Cafferty's Hearts on Fire? )

It's great seeing people passionate about their thing in life! But enough of reminiscing the past, here are the short poses that I did. You only live once.  Make it awesome!  To Leonard... in boca al lupo!! 

Coach Boncinelli (right) and Leonard before the training begins

 It took a while before I got used to the speed 

Short poses #1 (graphite, full pad)

 Short poses #2 (graphite, full pad)

 Short poses #3 (graphite, full pad)

Short poses #4 (graphite, full pad)

Can't Hurry Curry

I completed my first full still life piece recently in Martinho's Workshop and titled it Can't Hurry Curry. I named it so because making a good curry paste, like painting, takes a while to do. And you sure can't rush through the process! Having said that, I had about 10 days to bring this piece to fruition (a far cry from the Academy's 7 to 10-week duration for the first still life project) - from creating the shadow box to prepping up the individual ingredients, to tracing the drawing onto canvas and finally painting it. Setting up took a little more time then expected as it wasn't as straight forward as I thought it would be.  I had over 10 ingredients on my list (see image A), but had to cut down on the number of items so as to avoid clutter.  I spent the time arranging the items so that the turmeric would be the centre piece enclosed in a triangle so it keeps the eye moving around the canvas. 

The most fun part of it all was painting the mortar and pushing it, so even though it's a solid object, the reflections of the surrounding ingredients look like it's going into deep space. The next thing I enjoyed working on were the red hot chilli peppers (I just had to say that). 

I added a brightly coloured and highly decorated cloth as the background to hold the entire image together. But its other purpose is to also showcase the Peranakan culture and their cuisine that is very unique to South East Asia. 

Who's hungry now? 

image A

close-up of the chillies

behind the scenes

38cm x 50cm

Oil on Canvas

Still Life

The summer workshops have begun!! So I guess it's officially SUMMER!! And this time around, I'm assisting Martinho for Still Life.

These are really addictive to do.  Once you know the technique, it's paint, paint, paint all the way. While working on a large 40cm x 50cm piece, here are some small studies for your viewing pleasure that I did during this past week. In the meantime, you can try to guess what the final piece is.  Hint: These images posted here will give you an idea of what I might be working on ;)

 

(My first ever still-life!!) 

Pomodoro e Aglio
10cm x 15cm, oil on canvas board

The Dragonfruit
20cm x 30cm, oil on canvas

Mooncakes
20cm x 30cm, oil on canvas

 Sticky Rice Dumplings/ Zongzi
20cm x 30cm, oil on canvas

Salmon Sushi
10cm x 15cm, oil on canvas board