L a v e n n z o s y

Still Life No.1

2015-10-09T16:11:00.000-04:00

Still Life No.1
8"x10" Oil on Panel

I can't believe it's was a year ago, since I learnt about classical atelier and signed up Sadie Valeri's online atelier. And, I'm glad that I was able to complete her curriculum and the last work is still life painting with indirect technique, painting from life. I choosed and organized my still life setup, drew the block-in followed by layers of oil paintings as you will see in these photos.

Still Life Painting Setup

My setup was very simple, and tended to monochromatic. The photo was taken from a different angle compared to the position I painted it.

First layer, Open Grisaille

My open grisaille was too dark; thus, I was advised to 'brighten up' my painting in closed grisaille layers. It's always good to paint the beginning layers lighter than actual colors because we can darker it easily in later layers.

Closed Grisaille

Color layers cost most of the time and efforts. I believe I painted about 3 to 4 layers of colors to adjust the shapes, light, shadow and colors.

Result of several layers of color oil painting.

Once the overall looked right to be, I did a single layer of refining and glazing. In this layer, I adjust the ceramic into colder tone, refined the subtle reflection and highlight on the ceramic, adding more pattern on the sand dollar, smoothen all the edges; and lastly, increase the chroma and adding 'texture' on the 'table top'.

Finished painting after refining and glazing.

The closed up.

Elements of Happiness

2015-09-28T22:00:00.000-04:00

Element of Happiness
11"X14"
Oil & Aluminium on Panel

My first painting with animal in symbolism. I had explained the symbols in my earlier post about the study (drawing) of this artwork. Thus, I'm going to quote from that old post here:

"Doves represent the love and peace.
Anchor means hope and strength.
Endless loop is the symbol of wisdom and companion."

I believe satisfaction is the key of happiness, and the Love, Wisdom, Hopes & Peacefulness are some of the elements or guides to be happy.

I'm not going to publish this painting in my ETSY shop in near future; however, if you interested to buy it, please contact me for detail.

TRAVEL: UP NORTH

2015-09-18T16:16:00.000-04:00

I can't say it's not art related post but it's indirectly related. An escape to natural is a great way to freshen up our mind and get inspired! I spent my weekends drove north to Acadia National Park to enjoy the breeze, oceans, lake, summit, beach, trees....it's just wonderful and refreshing.

On our road trip, we stopped at Camden Town and Rockport Town. Both towns are beautiful with scenery and buildings.

This is my second time in second year travel up north. I guess I would love to do it annually.

Study of Hesitating

2015-09-11T15:08:00.000-04:00

Hesitating
11"x11" Graphite on Paper

New study. Inspired from my dreams, which probably affected by my daily thoughts and movies like 'Castle In The Sky' and 'Maze Runner'. I have this feeling of peoples trapped in the maze willingly. The maze is floating and changing from time to time, made by hundreds or thousands of stone bricks. People can easily push any brick that's blocking their way; yet, they do nothing but stay in the maze. I guess the feeling was influenced by our urban lifestyle. Peoples are stress from their busy life and high commitment; yet, they remain in the same lifestyle, even though there is a way out.

Visit to Metropolitan Museum of Art

2015-09-04T21:49:00.000-04:00

Building and steps of Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET)

I was back from my trip to New York City on Monday afternoon with Shawn. It's a big city, busier than the Capital of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, a city once I lived in; but, it's not as hullabaloo as I imagined. We spent our first afternoon in Metropolitan Musuem of Art (MET), the largest art museum in the United States and among the most visited art museums in the world.

Wall of Rembrandt Art

We didn't know the closing time of the museum is 5:30pm, we stayed in the Europen 14th to 19th century Paintings areas for too long that we were not able to walk through the whole museum, and not even a glance on Hudson River School landscape paintings. Other than the European classical painting areas, we visited Egyptian Art, European Sculpture, Drawing & Printing, Modern & Contemporary Art and Asian Art.

Herman Doomer by Rembrandt, 1640

Portrait of a Woman by Rembrandt, 1633

Young Woman with a Water Pitcher by Vermeer, 1662

Anyhow, at least my main objective had been fulfilled. I had viewed Rembrandt's, Vermeer's, and other great masters' paintings in person. I did not take many photos because I was looking at the painting carefully, admiring while analyzing. I wasn't really into photographing the paintings, it will not be able to capture the paintings as real as our eyes and brain. I just jotted down the titles of the painting that caught my eyes.

Boatmen of Barcelona by Dionisio Baixeras y Verdaguer, 1886

Asters and Fruit on Table by Henri Fantin-Latour, 1868

Gamepiece with a Dead Heron by Kan Weenix, 1695

We were disappointed and regretted in spending minutes in the Chinese section under Asian Art area. We were questioning if it is exhibition/collection of Chinese Art & Culture; we thought it looks more like a fashion exhibition, showing the contemporary fashion design inspired by Chinese traditional costume. The rest of the Asian Art as well as the Chinese/Japanese ceramic collections are worth while to visit.

Small Vase, Qing Dynasty, Kang Xi Period, 1662-1722

It is a huge museum. My feet were pain like hell that I needed take a rest a few time in the visit. And the European Sculpture Court was my favorite place to relax my feets while enjoying the beautiful sculpture. The court was high, bright and cold, not too many people.

Photograph by Jean-Christophe BENOIST

Just before the closing of the museum, we were able to tour around the Egyptian Art. Time was limited, we just look around and were not reading the description. I am not sure if these are real or replica, but I can verify it from MET's website. They have detail information in their website.

We had visited Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) too, on Friday night, free ticket sponsored by Uniqlo. There were too many peoples in the museum. Everyone were busy taking photograph of the arts. A lot of them were looking at the arts through the screen of their digital camera instead of through their eyes on the actual painting. Ironically, I just think they are taking photos for recording their vacation, not coming to enjoy the arts. I dared not walk closer to the paintings, otherwise everyone will be screaming at me for blocking them to photograph. I guess if I want to write a post on my visit to MoMA, I will have to borrow photos from others in the Internet or MoMA website. Still thinking.

Anyway, thanks for reading! I'm 100% recommending you all spend your days in these two museum. If you are not an art person, MET is still a good place to visit as you can see the history heritage of different countries in this museum. MoMA is definitely a place for art person.

P/s: The stuffs in MET are very serious (like security custom in airport) and some are very impolite!!

Confidence

2015-08-24T20:51:00.000-04:00

Confidence
18"x18"
Oil & Gold Leaf on Cotton
2015

I had finished one of my super-exciting portrait painting, were inspired by three artists, the dark color (or limited light source) of Rembrandt's self-portrait; the portrait painting technique of David Kassan; and, the earth tone palette and gold leaf application of Brad Kunkle. This painting was painted indirectly which took me a few months to complete.

Indirect painting is a very forgiving and surprising technique, despite its long journey to complete. You can alway come back to fix your error in next layer, almost don't have to worry about making mistake. Furthermore, each layer always combining harmoniously yet standout vividly from its preceding and succeeding layers, you will always surprise by the end result, unless you are a master or professional who experienced enough to know what to do in each layer in achieving your ideal finished painting. This is my personal thoughts from my process of several indirect paintings. I hope my weird description is giving you the right image of indirect painting.

My underdrawing is a brief block-in drew with crimson red color pencil and indian red pan pastel on raw umber toned canvas.

I applied imitation gold leaf before I dry-brush the shadow with burnt umber, which is open grisaille, first layer of underpainting.

I did my second layer of underpainting in monochrome, commonly know as grisaille painting. I added a hint of redness on her nose, under eyes and lips in the same layer.

This was my experimental layer, I called it as skin-bronzing, sound like skin tanning. I was thinking of giving this girl a shining bronze skin, mainly painted with different shade of raw umber. There was a tattoo on her forehead which I added for experimenting too. Everything were covered up in my next layers as I don't find them beautiful. Painting is very personal.

I have a new approach in this painting. Most of my paintings have smooth textureless surface and this is an exception. I added texture built with W&N Oleopasto on the background, which I find it's very enjoying and planning to do it more in new paintings.

In the continuous layers, I keep adding the details and textures on the portrait painting, spent more time on her face since it's the center of the painting. You can see I used many small strokes to build up the texture.

After several layers of painting, I stopped at the stage where I find I had done with her, the moment I knew I don't want her on my easel anymore. I'm still confusing when is a painting is considered completed, especially painting indirectly for several weeks or months. I'm still judge it following my heart, very subjectively.

Thanks for reading! If you would like to know more about the painting or purchasing the painting, you can send me an email here. Good day!

Project : Minimalism Constellation

2015-08-11T19:02:00.000-04:00

I had always obsessed with metal leaf; yet, I had a difficult time to apply them seamlessly on my paintings. Therefore, I decided to try it on simple work as a practice; and this is the reason inspired me to create minimalism constellation design/artwork, partly inspired by Fred Wessel's constellation series.

At this moment, I have only done two designs, one inspired by Ursa Major and one inspired by Delphinus.

Silver North Pole

Acrylic & Metal Leaf on Paper

8"x10"

2015

Silver Northern Sky

Acrylic & Metal Leaf on Paper

8"x10"

2015

Excess gold leaf flakes, those removed after application

Liquid Gold Leaf

Both of the designs are available for sale in my Etsy shop. Here's the link if interested to purchase: Minimalism Constellation

ART FINDS VOL.2: Hudson River School

2015-08-07T19:11:00.002-04:00

Lake George by John F. Kensett

Registered my membership at local public library recently; then, I was enjoying my weeks within books I borrowed. One of many art books I checked out is "The Hudson River School: American Landscape Painting". Hudson River School is not a strange name among those who study Fine Art or interested in classical art or america art.

The Hudson River School, founded by an English American artist, Thomas Cole, was a mid-19th century American art movement embodied by a group of landscape painters, whose aesthetic vision was influenced by romanticism, were known from their realistic and detailed portrayal of American landscape and wilderness. ( reference: wikipedia )

While I enjoying the serenity from some of the muted colors landscape paintings, I also admires the vivid and fantasy realistic landscape paintings from this movement. I find they are very inspirational, even though I hardly do landscape painting. There's a long list of my favorite paintings from this movement and here are my top favorites.

Cotopaxi by Frederic E. Church

The Natural's Wonderland by Thomas Dauthy

Rainy Season in The Tropics by Frederic E. Church

Sunrise, Yosemite Valley by Albert Bierstadt

Expulsion form The Garden of Eden by Thomas Cole

Cliffs of The Green River by Thomas Moran

Moonlight Landscape by Washington Allston

The Titan's Goblet by Thomas Cole

These are just some of the top favorites from my list; and, there are a lots more of Hudson River Schools paintings not in my list. If you like to see more, just google "The Hudson River School".

Thanks for reading!

Single Brown Egg Painting

2015-08-01T07:00:00.000-04:00

Single Brown Egg
5"x7" Oil on Panel

My first completed and PASSED oil painting from my study in Sadie Valeri Atelier. It was painted by looking at the real egg placing under a warm yellow artificial light. This painting is the ticket to my next curriculum of 8"x10" still life painting. It's feels so good that I can finally do the 'real' painting after doing the fundamental course works and a lot of block-in. Here's the step-by-step of my indirect painting process.

First layer, open grisaille underpainting. Burnt umber were used and painted like drawing with pencil.

Two layers of monochrome as my closed grisaille underpainting. These are the base layers to build the form, light and shadow.

Finally, the color layer. I did my first layer of color wrongly, where the colors got a little too dirty and darker than it should be. It was the result of me trying to shift down the terminator pole on the right edge of the egg.

I applied a second layer of colors on top; and this time, Sadie said it's lovely! She thought I had successfully to increase the chroma on the areas of terminators and the edges, which are very important.

And the last and additional step, I further refining the painting. I added warm glazing and wood pattern on the surface to give a harmony atmosphere to the painting.

Giveaway: Passion Planner Index Tab

2015-07-26T18:16:00.001-04:00

Hello! As promised in my instagram, I'm sharing the downloadable link of my DIY planner index tabs, minimalism design, made for my passion planner. Before we get into the index tab, I would like to talk a little bit about how I feel about my new passion planner. It's not going to be a review really, just some comments.

I love all the good things of this planner: the passion aka goal setting pages, the layout of weekly planner and the questions in monthly reflection. The papers are bright white and bleedproof. Some people may not like the monochrome design but I think it give a professional look compare to colorful planner. If you want to brighten up the planner, just add some colors doodling, highlights, washi tape or stickers. What I think I could benefit the most from this planner is the story and concept of this planner. It's very inspiring and motivating. It makes me want to give my life a little change, and the hopes of reaching my dreams. You can learn more from their website.

There are also a few opportunity of improvement that passion planner can take advantages. They can consider to enhanced the edge of the cover or upgrade to a harder cover. They can improve their manufacturing quality as I personally feel the planner was made through a rush manufacturing process from the not-so-even rounded corners.

Regarding the layouts of the planner pages, I wish to have more space for mind mapping and writing in monthly pages; whereas, I think the monthly reflection pages have too much spaces. Two pages for seven questions, that's a lot to write in each questions. Besides, the academic version I bought left out the monthly additional blank pages that the normal planner have. This special version passion planner has only 20 grid pages, no blank pages. Unlike the 2015 planner, there is no mid-year passion roadmap, which I think it's a shortcoming. Lastly, adding index tabs will be a big big bonus!

Well, that's basically all my comments and first impression of the physical passion planner. I can't really comment much since I'm just starting to use it. So now, I am going to talk about my DIY index tab. It's a very simple index tab, as I said minimalism design. It's black & white because it's designed to be printed on colored paper or cardstock.

How to use this planner index tab?

Download from this link: Baremakers DIY Planner Tabs 2.
Print the pdf on a heavy-weight color cardstock!
Cut out the monthly tabs. Do not cut the curve corners at the center of the tabs. Do it in step 5.
For each monthly tab, fold the tab into half.
Cut the curve corners in between the texts. Since you already folded the tab, you are now cutting two layers at once.
Make a mark on your planner divider/page where you are going to paste the tab.
Apply glue on the blank side of the tab.
Paste it on your planner divider/page.
Lightly press both side of the tab to secure its position.

Please feel free to share this giveaway to your friends and family, remember to put this link on your blog, facebook, pinterest, instagram.... There's no limitation in printing and you can use it anyway you like as long as it's not for business purpose or commercial use. And drop me a 'hello' in the comment box if you like these monthly tabs :)

Fred Wessel

2015-07-23T07:00:00.000-04:00

Libra, Constellation Series Painting by Fred Wessel

Two major materials used in Fred Wessel's paintings always caught my curiosity, the gold leaf and egg tempera. I have never heard of painting with egg until I'm 20++. And till now, I am yet to try this medium. Gold leaf is always my top interest because the reflective effect on the leaf surface gives interesting interaction and dimension to the viewers in person. In the same time, it's decorative and beautiful.

The technique of Fred Wessel in using gold leaf is fabulous. He did not only applying the leaf on his painting, but he added a second advanced step: burnishing. Burnishing is a process of using a very smooth stone, such as agate stone, to polish the gold leaf which has been adhere on the surface. This process turning the reflective gold leaf surface into a mirror-like surface. As far I researched, the gold leaf (aka gilding) and burnishing was traditionally use in applying on frames and furnitures.

Capricorn, Constellation Series Painting by Fred Wessel

Gilders normally will burnish the entire surface; however, Fred Wessel did it in a very smart way. He did not burnished the whole surface; nonetheless, he burnished particular areas to achieve the decorative patterns he desired. The constellation patterns on the gold leaf in the background of his figure paintings were done by his method of burnishing.

Ursa Major, Constellation Series Painting by Fred Wessel

Virgro, Constellation Series Painting by Fred Wessel

Aquarius, Constellation Series Painting by Fred Wessel

Aren't his works amazing? His constellation series are my favorite from his works. He have other painting used only tempera without gold leaf. You can find these painting in his website along with still life painting and some drawings. If you interested with his process, he has a page called 'Technique' which solely for showing his step-by-step progress photos; or you can visit to his facebook page for his latest wip
.

Incomprehensible

2015-07-20T07:00:00.000-04:00

It was a long journey took to complete this painting, started in Feb 2015 and officially completed in July 2015. There were some intermediate on-hold period while I have lost interest on her, have no idea to paint her or was busy with other pieces. I used indirect painting method but started with color layers, no grisaille underpainting. It took me a lot of time in correcting the light and shadows, the portrait and background as well. The consequences of no planning or color study before painting. A piece that takes long time to complete sure have a lot of progress photos. And it is. Beware of the following progress photos spam!!!

It started with a super rough burnt umber sketching following by the flesh tones. The rough early stage cost me a lot of efforts in 'plastic surgery' her. Learnt my lesson. Always start the basic layers carefully.

Painting the body then the drapery and background.

Massive face structure plastic surgery.

Skin cooling tinting surgery.

And ta-da!! I decided to stop her 'plastic surgery'.

Incomprehensible
18 x 18 inches
Oil on Cotton

Art Finds Vol.1: Dawn

2015-07-13T07:00:00.000-04:00

Love Spell by Yelena Bryksenkova

Who love art will collect arts, physically or digitally. Of course I would love to own more original or genuine prints of my favorite arts; however, I can't afford them. Thus, collecting their digital images if my preliminary way of art collection. Before we have pinterest, I keep the images in my computer. And now, I keep them in pinterest, all the drawings, paintings or sculptures that I like. I have decided to pick few artworks from my daily art finds, which share similar color palette or theme, and post them in my blog occasionally, perhaps weekly or monthly. Still deciding.

So, please enjoy my art finds!

Confetti by Danna Ray

Lily Pond by Becca Stadtlander

What's Await at The Station by Elly MacKay

Wave on Still Water by Kai Samuels-Davis

Interrogative

2015-07-12T16:09:00.000-04:00

Study of Interrogative

Graphite drawing on cream paper, measured 11 inches x 14 inches, another study exploring the topic of inner voice, struggling, confusion and breakthrough. This is one of very few works that were referring to my own selfie. I used a DSLR camera, tripod and remote shutter to take a 'hand-free' self portrait for art reference. I don't always use myself because I don't really like to paint myself :/

If you notice, most of my recent works on paper will have a red ink seal beneath the drawing. It is my not-so-new chinese seal, hand carved on stone with my Chinese name. I order it from an ETSY shop. The shop owner is based was in China, a certified seal carver. He provided very good customer service and was very patient with all my request of customization. Here's the link in case you would like to have one: https://www.etsy.com/shop/chineseseal

Rice Dumplings

2015-07-05T18:38:00.003-04:00

Well, the first month of summer is officially finished. We were suppose to get more heats in that month, one of the excuse for us to stay outdoor; but, this June turned out a little unusual. We had some days below 50F though most of the days stay between 60 to 75F. We still need extra layer in cloudy or windy days. I feel it's more like a spring than summer. Nonetheless, we still have fun in this June.

In the rainy weekends, we stayed in our friend's apartment, had a tiny indoor picnic with delicious rice dumpling made by another friends. Rice dumpling is a traditional Chinese food we eat during Duanwu Festival (dragon boat festival), fifth day of fifth month in Lunar calendar. It is made with glutinous rice wrapped in bamboo leaf with various filling ingredients based on own preference and tradition. The common rice dumplings we have in Malaysia use salted duck egg yolk, pork belly, shiitake mushroom; and some will have chestnut, black eyed peas, red bean paste etc. The taste is salty and aromatic.

I have never make or help in making rice dumpling before. I know the process is complicate. It requires good skill in wrapping the rice in bamboo leaf; otherwise, water will leak into the dumpling or vice versa when boiling it. My friends, a couple, were very successful in their first trial making the rice dumplings. I grabbed their work in progress photos from facebook. Firstly, you need to cook thoroughly and seasoned all the ingredients, except the glutinous rice, which was lightly stir-fried to increase its aroma, browned with dark soy sauce and seasoned well.

Ingredients of rice dumpling, photograph by Hsiao Hui & ZJ.

For each dumpling, you have to make a cone shape with the lotus leaf, stuff in the rice and fillings, then tied with twine.

Wrapping the rice dumpling, photograph by Hsiao Hui & ZJ.

Once all dumplings were tied together in a bunch, they will be boiled for several hours to cook the rice.

Boiling to cook the glutinous rice, aka sticky rice. Photograph by Hsiao Hui & ZJ.

The cooked dumplings will be drained, eat when it's warm or set aside to let it cold. When we going to eat the dumpling, we will reheat them with a steamer. To me, cold dumpling taste not bad but warm is the best.

Cooked rice dumpling. Photograph by Hsiao Hui & ZJ

This is how it look like! Don't judge with the look, it's taste really good.

How I Archive & Record Artwork Inventory

2015-06-29T22:06:00.003-04:00

OK. Today, I'm going to share a secret of mine. It's about How I Record My Arts. It's very important to keep a detail list of every piece you have created, including the informations and a hi-res photos. You don't know if you want to make prints from one of your work in future; or, you may forgotten the title or the dimension of a piece you have sold. Therefore, a good art archiving or art inventory system might be your lifesaver in future.

At this moment, I have three major system to keep my arts:
1. Local Hard Drive
2. Online Portfolio
3. Google Site

1. Local Hard Drive

Since I started treating my art seriously, I have been keeping a 300dpi resolution JPEG file in my computer for all of my artworks. The image size is one-to-one ratio, exactly same size as the original. To get a digital image of your artworks, you can hire a scanner or photographer to take a picture of your artworks; or, do it yourself to save some costs. I use a flatbed scanner of my all-in-one printer to scan my works on paper; and, I use my Canon EOS T3i DSLR camera to photograph my paintings. Then, I will edit the digital image to make the color as closed to the original as possible. When I'm satisfy with the color correction, the picture will be saved with the title of the artwork.

I keep all my digital images in my local drive folder. There are many sub-folder in this folder. Each folder named after the artwork contains in them; and, any important photos related to that artworks will be keep inside the sub-folder, including the hi-res image and the photographs taken for my shop listings.

Pros:
Easy to create or view.
Easy to access without requirement of Internet.
Zero cost if you have a computer, a scanner and a camera.
No file size limit as long as your local drive have free space.

Cons:
No detail information unless you created additional text files to record them.
Require backup in case you couldn't to access to your computer, e.g. hard disk damaged, files corrupted etc.
Can only access to the data with your computer.

2. Online Portfolio

I am sure I don't have to say much about this. My online portfolio is my website: www.lavennzosy.com. The portfolio gallery contains my selected works along with their title, dimension, medium and year of creation. The image used has lower resolution, 72dpi, typical web use resolution so the image loading time can be minimized. Since my online portfolio is open to public, I published the selected artworks only. Therefore, it's not a good archiving system.

When you click on thumbnail, large image of the artwork& basic information is shown below the image.

Pros:
Easy to view.
Including basic information.
Maybe easy to create depending on your hosting system.
Your website host will maintain the server and backup (if you signed up this feature).

Cons:
Contains only selected artworks.
Require hosting system.
Require Internet but you can access to it with any device.
No further detail information such as price, current location, exhibition history etc.
May have limitation depending on hosting plan you signed up.
Not a good way to keep the hi-res digital images.

3. Google Site

This is the newest system I created for archiving my works. I take it as a advanced alternative of spreadsheet inventory system; and, a budget alternative of the art inventory program such as ArtBase, Art Archive, Artsystems etc. I think it's the best method compare to my other two methods; because it's easy to access and contains very detail information.

You can create a google site as long as you have a gmail account. The main page of my google site inventory system is the master list of works. I can view all the works at a glance. It's easy to create list in google site by using the ready made List Template. You can customize the list to include the basic information you want to see in the master list. For me, I keep the master list simple with the inventory number, title, year of creation, status and location only. In each list, there will be a link to the page of detail information.

The image shown above is the template of my detail information page for each artwork. This template was created by me so you will not be able to find it in the google site page template. It was created by customizing the google site ready made Web Page template. Since it's super customizable, I can have whatever information I would like to include.

I have artwork image on the top left, basic information in the top center and other information at top right, including current location of the artwork, the gallery's name if it's in the gallery, the collector's name if it has been sold, the cost of artwork (COGS), selling price and status. If I have made some prints or other reproduction of that artwork, I will included the information of print edition, inventory, selling price and selling location in this detail page as well.

When scrolling down the detail page, i will have the information of exhibition history, competition history, location history and other information. Pretty detail right?

Pros:
Can be customize into your preference.
Easy to view & edit.
Including very detail information.
Zero cost. Just sign up a free gmail account.
No additional hosting require. Use google plus photo to host the images.
Google will maintain the server and backup.
Can be set to private, share to certain peoples or open to public.

Cons:
Require a little time in learning using google site; but don't worry, it's very easy.
Require Internet but you can access to it with any device.
Not a good way to keep hi-res digital images.

In overall, I think all the three methods I'm using have their own 'outstanding' advantages; hence, I use all the three methods, each method will cover the shortcoming of the other methods. Now I have finished sharing about my methods in archiving artworks, how about you tell me your method? I mig ht want to switch over to your method if I find it's more reliable and easier to use.

Thanks for reading!
-Lavennz-

Nonchalantly

2015-06-23T17:07:00.000-04:00

I was really having fun with watercolor wash on graphite drawing. It was painted abstractly but able to bring out the rhythm of the whole drawing.

I completed this study for my new body of oil painting in April. This drawing centered at the young lady who has a careless expression, wearing a swimsuit, tied up with black string, floating on top of seawater. Her body does not touching the surface of water but ripples appeared on the surface, and bottom of her body turning into dust and liquid, dissolving into the seawater. The slowly vanishing of her body is something dangerous that she should be afraid of; yet, she's acting unconcerned.

Nonchalantly, 11x14 inches, 2014, Graphite & Watercolor on Paper

I tried not to talk about my shop too often; but, I just want to mention that this drawing is now available in my shop. Check out my shop if you interested.

Thanks for reading! Have a good day!

Lavennz

Getting Hands in Soil

2015-06-19T04:00:00.000-04:00

Lavenders, the survival through last winter

Firstly, I want to tell you that these photos are taken almost a month ago; but I think I have took some nice photos and wanted to share with you here. It's my shared garden with some friends, who were Shawn's (my husband) colleagues. All of them moved over to Maine due to job relocation. This is our second year of maintaining this tiny garden bed. We lived in city in Malaysia and we have no space for gardening other than plant in pot. Well, even we moved to Maine, we're still living in apartment with no extra land for gardening. Fortunately, we are lucky that one of our friend, Regina's apartment has a small piece of space for the household's gardening. So, we rented one bed.

These year, we removed all of the flowers and vegetables we planted last year, except lavender. They're strong. So strong. They survived through the brutal winter without shield covered them.

We planted more vegetables and herbs for this year. No more flowers. Everything is edible!

Watering is a fun thing to do. Aim the hose higher, let the sun shine through the water and we'll see rainbow.

And we had our first picnic in 2015, right beside our garden.

Just some wings, popcorn chicken, grapes and beer. Nothing fancy.

Well, this was how I spent my Sunday afternoon (of two weeks ago). I am going to visit the garden this weekend. The lavenders have grew so much taller than the first picture showed. I'll take more photos and update you here.

Have a great Friday!
-Lavennz-

Elements of Happiness

2015-06-18T19:30:00.000-04:00

You can hardly see animals in my drawings or paintings in traditional media. I used to combine girl with natural or animal in my old days' illustration. One of the reason I aware is I'm avoiding complicated subjects mixed into my artwork since I'm still practicing to improve my technique in painting portraits and figures.

2015
Elements of Happiness
11 x 14 inches
Graphite & Watercolor on Paper

I keep the composition simple, hoping the collaboration of these objects can bring something interesting out. This is a heavy symbolic artwork. I using each of them as a symbol that bring us happiness, the true happiness.

Doves represent the love and peace.

Anchor means hope and strength.

Endless loop is the symbol of wisdom and companion.

I truly believe these are the key to be happy. Though there are more. It's easy to be happy; just depend on how you look at your life. Simple satisfaction brings greatest happiness.

p/s: this drawing is available through my shop.

-Be happy-

Lavennz

ETSY Shop Reopen

2015-06-17T16:07:00.000-04:00

OK! I'm so excited to make this announcement. My ETSY store is finally REOPEN! After 2 years of sleeping mode and almost a year of long vacation mode, I had decided to wake it up. And this time, I'm serious in running this business. Yeah, because I'm a full time artist and a full time ETSY store runner. It's my job, no excuse to put it aside.

Shop url remain the same but minor changes on my shop title. It was just Lavennzosy and now it's Lavennzosy Atelier Gallery. I want the customers know what I'm selling from my shop name. Here are the screenshot of how my shop look like on your computer, not mobile. I really love my new designs. Everything's look so clean and my artworks look really pop from the white background.

I had also written a very long story about my shop. Not going to post it here but I am inviting you over there to read it: http://etsy.me/1G9oVmg

And my new logo.

Everything went smoothly, still left some items in my to-do list. Going to setup my newsletter, considering sign up a hosting plan, maybe moving my blog over wordpress...all these secondary tasks. My top priority mission is relaunch my ETSY shop and start earning for my studio bills. I'll be optimistic. And I'm happy with the attentions and views I received since my shop reopen. What to do now is wait for my order patiently.

-XO
Lavennz

István Sándorfi

2015-06-13T07:00:00.000-04:00

Lately, I am very inspired by this artist: István Sándorfi, a hyperrealist oil painter.

Sándorfi was born in 1948 in Budapest, Hungary then move to France; where he received his diploma at Ecole des Beaux-Arts and Ecole des Arts Decoratifs. He grew up in a chaos environment, experienced 5 years prison life during communist regime, violence of revolution and aberration of political systems, he choosed drawing and paintings as his refuge. His painful childhood may be the main influence of his earlier works, usually depicting aggressive character in a dark and blue environment, yield a mysterious and disturbing atmosphere.

In 1988, he changed his style to concentrate on elaborating his techniques and switching to warm color palette. It is the turning point where his art career becoming real success. Sándorfi died in 2007 and it's an unfortunate that we hardly found further information about the artist in the Internet other than the brief bio I shared here (referred to Wikipedia & Jane Kahan Gallery).

I met the artworks of Istvan Sandorfi when I was browsing through Pinterest many moons ago. I was immediately falling in love with his painting at the first sight. His works gives me an illusion of several realistic painted scene and figure overlapping to each other, with a few bold and wide strokes of paints crossing the figure, making a effect of smearing the painting. It is hard to describe my personal interpretation from his works. I can just say a few random words like parallel space, timeline and history. These are just my personal views and the rest will let the artworks speak to you.

PROJECT : 30 Days of My Life

2015-06-12T05:00:00.000-04:00

It's a project I started this week.
I got the idea when I was taking a bath (**always the best place for thinking**).

There must be a lot of random thoughts flash through our mind everyday; and, some must be really interesting and worth a few second to jot them down. But we don't want to write them in our planners and not everyone have a habit of writing journal, like me. So, how about writing them like a book? And it will be small, write in few sentences or short story, even a sketch. Most importantly, don't have to write it everyday. Just 30days from my whole life?

It's not a notebook or a typical journal, a theme journal is a better category for this project. It's designed to imitate a real published book, with front cover, inner cover with authur name (your name), content page, page number....so, when you finished writing it, you can put it on your bookshelf and say: i write this book!

This is the concept of my project. I just finished making a basic prototype and want to add some illustrations inside.

I'm thinking, if I made it for sale, do you think it will get your interest? Will you buy it?

Isabey's Kolinsky Sable Brush

2015-06-11T18:18:00.000-04:00

I have a number of brushes and I used some of them more frequent. One of my top favorite is Isabey's pure kolinsky sable round brush no.2, handmade brush from France. It's a natural hair brush and cost about $15 for the size no#2 round brush. This short handle brush measures 2mm in diameter and 12mm length. It's a very small brush but it can load up quite a lot of paints. I find it's easy to control. The strong and sharp brush tip allow me to draw a very fine line or make a very subtle changes on my painting. This brush was made for watercolor painting but I find it works well with oil paint.

A few facts of kolinsky sable brush.

It is different from the typical sable brush.
The bristle was obtained from the tail of kolinsky, also known as Siberian weasel, a medium size species of weasel living in Asia.
The finest kolinsky sable brushes were made from the male kolinsky in winter.
Pure kolinsky bristle tends to have yellowish red color and glossy surface. Each strand looks straight and firm.
It's an expensive fine paintbrush because kolinsky bristle is difficult to harvest.
The fake kolinsky brushe made from yellow dyed goat hairs cost only 10 percent of the price of a genuine kolinsky sable brush; however, it's almost cannot be used.

Though kolinsky fall under the less concern category in International Union for Consevation of Natural (IUCN), it is inclusion in Convention of International Trade in Endanger Species (CITES) resulting an importing issue of kolinsky brushes into United States in 2013 where a shipment to US of kolinsky hair were seized by the US Fish and Wildlife Service. It looks like the issue is yet to resolve and I guess what you can see in the art supply store are the inventory they bought earlier. I need to find more information to support 'my guess'.

I'm not an animal activist and I am yet a vegetarian. However, I find myself guilty of using the natural hair brushes whenever I think about where the hair came from, especially when I look at their pictures. I know what I can do now is take a really good care for all the natural hair brushes I have. Make sure they can sustain for a long time. I washed my brushes after every painting session using artist's soap or natural tupernoid (eco-friendly). I don't use solvent.

And let's wish, there are more synthetic brushes as good as the natural hair brushes in the market.

Stamp Collection

2015-06-10T05:00:00.000-04:00

I love stamps and I collect them.

I only have a few.

I don't always use them.

I especially like the rubber stamp with wood mount.

Tiny stamps with zakka patterns always caught my eyes.

I keep them in Cadbury metal box.

I definitely want to add more into my collection.

Let me have more budget first.

Please say hi if you collect stamps too.

And type a few more, tell me what kind of stamp and pattern you like the most :)

Portrait Study

2015-06-08T16:14:00.000-04:00

Incomprehensible, 11"x14", graphite on paper, 2015

A quick update for one of my study done in 2015. I named it "Incomprehensible", describing a moment when we were overwhelmed by mixed emotions or involved in complicated situation. The moment we were speechless; or maybe, helpless. The whole drawing were done in two days. The process can be simplified into three steps:

Step 1: Block-in. Repeatedly measure, draw with 2H pencil and refine until I satisfied with the contour of the portrait. Then, I briefly shaded the dark areas just to give me basic information for step 2.

Step 2: This is the longest step. I started rendering the portrait with 2H & H pencil to change the two dimensional block-in into three dimensional drawing.

Step 3: The purpose of this step is basically same as step 2. When I finished rendering the portrait, I will refine the drawing by either shading with softer pencil (HB) to enhance the darkest shadow (terminator) or erase the lightest area to make the highlight glow.

The process sound easy but it really take a lot of practice to do the block-in correctly, which I'm still in practice, and need a lot of patient in building up the shadows and transition from dark to light. I always draw lightly even I'm shading the shadow. I prefer shading in light pencil stroke then using a very soft pencil (4B above) to shade a very dark shadow in once. Slow process give me better control!