ambara

A TRIBUTE

2011-03-31T11:31:00.005-04:00

Wednesday was a sad day when I heard of the passing of Nabila Hilmi, a dear friend, family and world renowned artist.

Was not expected and was sudden, I was speechless but very emotional, she meant a lot to me and was a very inspiring person, she motivated me to expand my work and take it further than just few art workshop here and there.

I met her when I was eight years old as a friend of the family but she definitely left her impression as a good listener, she became a relative by marriage several years down the road, we became very close.

she recognized the artist in me and that's why the first thing she would ask me after a long time of not seeing each other would be : "how is your art?"

I can't find enough words to describe her, however the link at the top of the post takes you to her website.

Nabila, you will be sorely missed. Abeer

Portrait classes

2011-02-11T07:02:00.009-05:00

I went to a portrait class last Wednesday by Brian Smith, it was worth every minute of my time, we learned first how to do head gestures then a model posed for the rest of the afternoon for us to draw her, this is the result.

Charlevoix

2010-07-25T18:49:00.010-04:00

I spent last five days at Charlevoix, Quebec, and here are my skteches.

More pastel pencils

2008-12-29T07:30:00.007-05:00

We went to our chalet in blue Mountain for the Holidays, spend Christmas there, skied a little, ate a lot and had fun with my family, since I didn't pack with me much art tools I kept it simple, just sketching here and there, but the sketches I made were not worth posting. This one is.

I took this picture of this woman from a TV interview about elephant poachers, I am not sure if I am in violation of copy rights here or if this is allowed, but rest assured I will not be submitting it to any competition, I just did it for fun, I thought she has such compelling features that I decided to draw her , I discovered that drawing is my strongest skill at the moment, I thought of using watercolor, but since everybody knows how frustrating it is to get the features correct and how challenging it is, I decided to use pastel pencils, the vibrancy of the colours is what attracts me to this medium.

the paper I used is Casson, mi-teinte the rough side of it and the size is 12x18.

pastel

2008-12-17T09:43:00.004-05:00

I tried pastel pencils for the same portrait that was done in watercolour, I liked that I could mix colour on the paper without getting mud, on the contrary, I am getting luminous colours, I am having so much fun with these pencils, I am carrying them around with my purse.

Painting the figure

2008-12-15T06:34:00.007-05:00

I attended a workshop over the weekend about painting the figure, we had a live model (a different one each day), we did sketches with a charcoal pencil first and then painted, the first day was direct painting (and that was quite a challenge), I also painted on an easel while standing, that was my second challenge as I am always used to paint and draw sitting down, so I was out of my comfort zone for sure.

The sketches were fifteen minute poses, and the direct painting was half and hour (that was generous of the instructor). The next day, we had the model partially clothed and it was longer poses (the portrait and the model sitting with her hair in a pony tail down with her back to us).

the name of the instructor is Brian Smith, check his website http://drawn2life.com

he is a very generous artist and wonderful instructor. Oh I forgot to mention that everybody was working on acrylic except me, I am the only one who did watercolour, never did acrylic before and I am thinking of trying it, it looks like it is very forgiving and people were more relaxed, according to Brian "watercolour is from the devil" .

Contribute to the American people

2008-11-07T13:20:00.004-05:00

Since I couldn't vote in the Presidential Elections, this is my contribution.

Drawing with Conte

2008-11-03T17:58:00.010-05:00

I was experimenting with Conte over the weekend, I love to draw and using the Conte had a more dramatic effect than just a graphite pencil.I used canson grey paper, smooth surface.

The drawing of the little girl was a request from her mother, our accountant at the office, and the other portrait is a drawing exercise from the book "Keys to Drawing" by Bert Dodson.

p.s. anybody have tips on publishing the blog? I seem to have trouble placing the photos where I would like them to be and the paragraph seems to be breaking.

Frenchman

2008-09-25T10:38:00.003-04:00

Finally I am back to taking Myrna's challenges, this week's is to paint the "Frenchman's photo" by using line as a dominant elemnet with the emphasis on colour line. I worked for three days on this one trying different versions, finally I liked this one on hot pressed paper. I hope I passed...:)

Donna Zagotta's Workshop in Santa Clara

2008-09-22T17:50:00.002-04:00

I spent last week in San Jose California among my friends attending Donna Zagotta's workshop, it was conducted by Santa Clara Watercolor Society. It was very informative and quite inspiring. Donna mixes white gouache with watercolour to obtain an opaque effect. She did emphasize the importance of value patterns and design. Here are what I produced in the workshop.

Olive Oil

2008-07-10T09:15:00.003-04:00

This still life was done in 20 minutes, I was in a hurry to leave, but on my way out I pass by the office/studio (it is on the way to the garage), I had that bottle of olive oil sitting on my desk, so I added the peach and the lemon, and the box of tea. Although I am a watercolour painter, I like the feel and look of oil painting, so I added gouache to the painting for some highlights and that is the effect I get. The mess on the left side is a colour test.

Waiting for my car

2008-06-20T06:51:00.004-04:00

The other day I took my car in for service, it needed a couple of hours to be finished, rather than go home and come back, I opted to wait for it. I took Myrna's advice by having my sketch book with me wherever I go, and that's what I did, I sketched people waiting, and these are some of them, oh by the way I didn't know that dealerships now sell clothes. P.S. does anyone know a better way to upload pictures and have them neatly posted? I seem to have trouble doing that.

Still Life

2008-05-29T11:23:00.002-04:00

have been going to a still life course by Barry Coombs every Tuesday morning, this is one of the studies that we did and the subject was reflections, so we had all these black vases set-up for us, although the goal was how to achieve those reflections, to me the hardest thing was how to get black without using black colour, after experimenting I discovered (with the help of Barry) that mixing Alizarin Crimson with Thalo Green would do the trick and it did.

Wet in wet

2008-04-08T11:32:00.004-04:00

This morning I thought I would experiment with wet in wet technique, so I did these two paintings from a photo that I have, the one with the two girls is actually two separate pictures put together, I enjoyed this technique, I didn't do any value study or pencil, except for a few strokes as a guidline, and the whole thing took me about half an hour, I am happy with them given the time and effort I put in them (or didn't put in them), I guess I work better impulsive rather than long planning, I tend to be more relaxed doing this.
Over the weekend I picked up a book by Stephen Quiller, "Painter's guide to color", and he has a different approach to painting, he is talking in the beginning of the book about the neutral colors, it looks like a good book, I am going to work on his guidelines and see where it leads me.

Too tired

2008-03-31T09:43:00.004-04:00

My daughter came from work the other day, too tired she crashed on the sofa, I couldn't resist the urge to sketch her, and I thought of painting series of that sketch, so I attempted the first painting but it was so dull and lifeless compared to the lively sketch, I was very frustrated so I thought I would take a break from painting on the weekend, but that is when I remembered what Mike Bailey's advice was... when you get bored and frustrated that is when you should continue and you will get better results, so I give it another try and I was more satisfied with it. Stay tuned for more of this series.

Ballet memories

2008-03-12T14:08:00.012-04:00

I started these sketches as a challenge for Myrna's blog, which is to draw on a wet paper with India ink or nay other tool. I chose the ballet dancers becuase it brings memories from my childhood when I used to dance ballet.The first sketch was on saunders (200 lbs) and the second was on India paper ( 130 lbs) both with India ink. then the third attempt was on hotpress (140 lbs) paper with an acrylic marker, I really liked that effect epecially that I decided to paint it although hot press is quite challenging I still like the feel and effect of it, one day I will figure out how to master this paper.

My Second Bezzetto

2008-03-06T08:02:00.002-05:00

I finally finished my second Bezzetto for Zahra, she will probably be very happy when she gets notification from my blog. This took me longer because the photo that I was working from was very challenging, at some point I was very frustrated and almost didn't finish it but since I am always determined to finish my project regardless of how long it takes I kept going and now it is done. It is a great feeling especially when my project is my daughter.
Now I better go work on my March challenge.

Skiing

2008-02-23T13:59:00.001-05:00

Ok the secret is out, I have been exposed... the reason I haven't been painting enough is because I have been spending more time skiing.
Stay tuned, the ski season is almost over and you will see more of my work and less of my excuses.!!!

Sketches

2008-02-21T18:43:00.005-05:00

have been working on the February Challenge, but in the meantime I took Myrna's advise and did a lot of sketching and drawing, I am enjoying the elegant Writer very much as it gives a whimsical lively feel to the sketches. these are all items from my home and chalet.

Dada

2008-01-29T11:11:00.000-05:00

I am working on a new Bezetto for my younger daughter, I am posting this one because I can't wait to finish the whole thing to post it. Hopefully it will be finished by next week before her 19th birthday. I really had difficulty with this one, my daughter chose this picture and the expressions were very challenging but I kept working on it and I am happy with the result, it does look a lot like her especially the mannerism.

2007-12-06T18:09:00.000-05:00

This is my father's high school college, "Kulliat Al-Raouda" for those who know it. I always wanted to paint it and never got around to do it, until I took up the challenges that Myrna posts on her blog, and the challenge was to spend 5 hours on a drawing, ok, so I spent only 4 hours, but that took a lot of discipline, also it gave a better result because I took my time, although I feel that the perspective is not precise and I think it is the photo that I took, or maybe my hand is lob sided.

2007-11-19T18:22:00.000-05:00

I am experimenting with white Gouache, watercolour and hot pressed paper, I decided to paint the girl playing ukelele from my series that I did duirng my workshop with Donna Zagotta. I like the effect very much, I am also using the end of the brush to push the paint sometimes, and because of the hot press paper it makes of a beautiful technique.

2007-11-10T18:38:00.000-05:00

This is Friday's challenge, a contour drawing using photshop but posterizing the image. I think it is really cool, I know the people that I drew are not exact, but it was fun to do.

My october challenge

2007-11-08T17:28:00.000-05:00

This was October's challenge from Myrna's website ( I added her blog address for people to check it out), Myna is an inspiring artist that is constantly engaging people into working on improving their art.
This challenge involved painting according to our favorite artist/ artists style. As you may have noticed some styles are obvious like Matisse and Van Gogh, also Picasso (doesn't take a genius to figure that out). But I added artists from different parts of the world.
Working on this project was great and enjoyable, it also was very educating because it forced me to read and search different artists that I knew and some I just heard about, it also pushed me to work in different styles and techniques. I loved it especially Yafa is my subject matter. now my husband asked me to do the same for our younger daughter , Zahra, and that is my next project. I am getting busy.

Series

2007-10-29T19:58:00.000-04:00

I attended last weekend a workshop with Donna Zaggotta, it was fabulous, I tried to do series of the same image by changing the value study, I liked the result and I learned a lot from this workshop. I used watercolour on hotpress paper, I also used white gouache , which is what Donna recommended.