All Hallow's Eve

So Halloween night came and went. I had classes the entire day: from 9am to 10pm. The only thing close to a halloween ritual I did was probably to buy the above skull... muah ha ha ha... I just hope I don't get issues with security at the airport next month.

I've past the halfway mark, which means I haven't got much time left here. This is when I begin to feel that I should actually spend more time here to hone my craft. You don't just get better in 3 months. :D But overall, classes are going good. The amount of energy generated here keeps me going.

WOW! 7 Billion. I kinda know what 2 million people may look like... but 7 billion is just way over my head.

It's All Saints and and All Souls today and tomorrow... so I guess there's still time to celebrate. :o)

Live from the L.A. Zoo

Today seemed like a good day to visit the zoo, so that's what I did. Armed with my drawing tools I headed 15mins east of Pasadena.

I was partly here to scout The Tom Mankiewicz Conservation Carousel and several new attractions for my theme parks design class, but little did I know that today was the grand opening for this brand new carousel!

This must be mating season for the Masai long neck ungulates! So many visitors equipped with their camera phones waited patiently for Artimus to make his move on Neema. The wooing took ages! What a gentleman! :D I was almost there for 40 mins, nothing happened except for a couple of misfires! The only thing I got are several pages of sketches using col-erase Prisma pencils. I just used it once for an assignment recently and I thought why not use it today. The pencils feel like magic - an easy application! Ha ha... I was happy with the turn out of some of the sketching. After which, I popped into Swains to get some more!

See the sketches here http://imaginativeworkshop.blogspot.com/2011/10/live-from-la-zoo.html

The Norton Simon

Monday's painting class became a field trip to Pasadena's Norton Simon Museum (it's only five mins from where I live! :D) It is probably the most informative museum visit I have ever had. And the best part was that Karl got us in for free.

We started outside with Rodin's most famous piece Les Bourgeois de Calais. I never knew how animated this piece of artwork is until now. Moving on into the museum, we covered 14th - 17th century art, 18th - 19th century, and then finally to modern art. It was interested how some of the pieces in the modern art section were created by Karl's friends.

Take home: Every famous artist from Degas to Picasso, from Mondrian to Sargent, all went through lots of pain, either that or they were kicked out from convention to break out from what everyone else was doing. They took the risk. But before all of that happened, ALL of them understood the classical and traditional way of doing things... yes, even Mondrian. If you don't understand what's traditional, what are you going to break away from? Here's an example: We're all familiar with Picasso's style. But if we go way back, we'll see that he came from a traditional art background. Here is an image of his work when he was a student at 15 years old. Enough said.

Gouache Rocks

This past weekend, I attended a Mike Hernandez 3-day seminar on Gouache. The closest I came to dealing with gouache was doing colour swatches for Colour Theory oh so long ago.

The two plein air locations over the weekend were Vasquez Rocks and Laguna Beach. So besides learning a new medium, I get to see two pretty (and far away) sites within the LA county! Vasquez Rocks is a place many film productions use as a location for their shoot. But the minute I saw the rock formation for the first time, I thought to myself... Cars. Not only did I get to see breath-taking sites, I got to meet a wonderfully talented bunch of classmates too. :D The finishing texture of gouache reminds me of the fine sandy rough edges that Mary Blair's produces in her art pieces. I like!!

Gouache is here to stay. :D

To view the other pieces, click here.

Blairing out colourfully

Photo taken at the Disney Galley at the Disneyland, Anaheim to celebrate the art of Mary Blair and 45 years of the It's a Small World attraction.

Today, Google honours Mary Blair's 100th birthday. No wonder the Oscar hosted a tribute for her last night at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills. Yeah, I had class so I didn't go.

From Alice in Wonderland to Cinderella, to the It's a Small World Ride, Mary Blair has been the one behind the concept art for the Walt Disney Company. Her style so uniquely engaging and colourful, has definitely impacted the work I have done! *tear*

During character class last night, our lecturer confessed that he was almost to a point of shedding tears when he first stepped into his art class. (He studied something completely different and only got into art in his 2o's.) He realised that there were so many good artist out there, and that he was so way behind. But he pushed on. He loves what he does, and continues to do wonderful pieces, especially with animals! You can check out his work here. Later, during class, I mentioned that I am kinda going through the same phase right now. Of course I left out the fact that I'm as old as him which means I'm only, well, say... 14 years behind?? That's a lot of catching up! So... back to work. :P

See what happens at 12 noon at the It's a Small World Ride's Front at Hong Kong Disneyland:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4Ikg8RgM2w