I needed to come up with something Cosmo and I can do together due to Easter Holiday. So I used Lazertan dical transfer. This is something I picked up at a local Art and Craft shop last week and I wanted to experiment how it works. It sounded fascinating as they can be printed on virtually anything, from glass, wood and rocks to canvas, silk and metal.
The process was so easy, Cosmo and I picked up several images we liked from a retro car collection book and printed the images onto the decal paper, the surface looked like eggshell and felt silky smooth. We used the one for Inkjet printers and there were detailed instruction available on their website, so you can rarely make mistake, I suppose.
We cut the images neatly and soaked them in a warm water for a minute or so, the images started to slide off from backing paper. I carefully lifted the thin, translucent image pieces from water and placed them onto a large porcelain plate and Cosmo arranged them as he liked.
It took about 2 hours to dry, the background dried white. I applied transparent nail vanish to make the white bits back to transparent. There were instructions to use oil/spirits based vanish, so I was right to use nail vanish as an alternative ! I am going to apply acrylic varnish to protect the surface since it is waterbased and non-toxic. Then, it should be durable enough for everyday use in theory (not dishwasher, of course).
Artwork 22: "Dinky Toys" Size: 30cm (12") diameter Media: Dical transfer on porcelain
This is the detail before applying acrylic varnish.
Well, it is not much of art, but I really liked this new medium and would love to try it for more serious art project.
Artwork 18: "Untitled" Size: 50cm x 40cm(20" x 16") Media: Oil on Canvas
I finished artwork 18, abstract/landscape oil painting which I started on Thursday. The scheme is the colour of Green - Spring Greens.
Green is closely associated with Fertility and Growth, as well as Peace and Hope. Really nice optimistic words, I love them. It's the perfect colour to work on Day 16, the turning point of my 30 dayartist.
When I thought about painting my vision of green, I wanted this painting to be "Healing" as well as "Calming" and "Rejuvenating".
The underpainting I did on Thursday dried quickly and nicely, so it was such a joy to overlay more pigments. I set my easel next to the window overlooking my little patio garden. I squeezed out all the green pigments I have, Viridian, Sap Green, Windsor Green, Pathalo Green, Terre Verte and Permanent Green , as well as some yellow, brown, blue and white and started mix them as I see different hue and tone of greens. I mixed every shades of green, like grasses growing in a field. I then applied them in dots, thousands and millions of dots, as I overlayed the colours in dots on the canvas, they become accidentally mixed and merged, then suddenly I see a green I could not imagine. I admire this effect in oils. Very spontaneous and intuitive.
The process of this dots painting was very meditating. As I type this, I cannot recall what I was thinking while I was painting.
Here is the detail of the painting.
I layered millions of dots in every green I could see and imagine.
I normally title my artwork, and it comes to me natually by the time I finish the piece. But with this oil painting, I did not receive the words, so I shall keep it untitled.
Artwork 23: " The Abundance - No1, Apathy " Size: A4- 29.7cm x 21cm(11.7" x 8.3") Media: Japanese/Chinese Ink and Gold Ink on White Card
Artwork 24: " The Abundance - No2, Residue " Size: A4- 29.7cm x 21cm(11.7" x 8.3") Media: Japanese/Chinese Ink and Gold Ink on White Card
Artwork 25: "The Abundance - No3, Indolence" Size: 10cm x 27.5cm (4" x 11") Media: Japanese/Chinese Ink and Gold Ink on Handmade Japanese Paper
Artwork 26: " The Abundance - No4, Debauch" Size: 28cm x 27.5cm (11" x 11") Media: Japanese/Chinese Ink and Gold Ink on Handmade Japanese Paper
I have practiced Japanese calligraphy for 10 years and hold Nana-dan, a 7th masters qualification, but I put my brushes down when I could not stand its strictures and discipline.
Today I picked up a brush again after 12 years. It did not come back to me suddenly, rather, I struggled to express through the brush. But I enjoyed this more freer approach in brush and ink, in a style of Chinese washer drawing.
I wish to remain less words today since I am confident that my works and their titles show what I need to say.
First of all, I ve finally solved the server problem this morning. I telephoned my Internet Provider and made a complaint, then my problem was finally treated seriously. I have been given a new IP address to access to 30dayartist.com. Hooray !
I checked all the comments. While I was offline, there were very interesting, heated discussion were going on regarding me posting photographs as work of art.
I received ChinYew's concern with respect and wish to follow his definition of artwork in 30dayartist that "40 works must be in real-touchable-solid form", "finishing". There are a few things I would like to confirm. I do not just take pictures for a sake of making up 40 artwork. I think about concepts (my message to convey), then locations and motifs or I sometimes come across with an interesting object which inspires me a concept. Like "Trivia" series - Artwork 12 & 13 (precisely speaking, I used a flat bed scanner to capture the images) were inspired by weed in my patio garden while I was weeding out with Cosmo in one Sunday afternoon. On the other hand, "Ever" - Artwork 6 & 21 or "Where blue meets green" - Artwork 19 & 20 (35mm negative film) were to express my admiration of beautiful scenery of South England, so I had images in my mind what to capture, so I chose locations accordingly. I actually get there by bus, train or on foot, since I do not have own transport. With a packed lunch, it is kinda picnic really.
Above all, for me, photography on location can be more physical and touching than oil painting with reference photos in my living room. As a whole process, it takes as much as I can finish one 30 x 30 cm(1' x 1') oil painting or 4 x A4 wash drawings.
Anyway, I will get photo paper to print and frame or mount them onto form board. I wanted to frame all the 40 artwork when my 30 days are over, but ChinYew's comment just pushes me to do it NOW than later. Once framed, I will want to think about next step forward, my 30dayartist exhibition in the UK. Who will let me exhibit ?
I am posting a reply to comments here :-)
To Ming Thanks for posting me the tips for paintings. I am working on more oil paintings this week, and your advice was very helpful. As you mentioned, there is only very limited time during 30dayartist, determining a good time to stop one painting and move on to next is very important. The pearl painting was indeed, I would not call it a finished piece in a real world, but I felt that I captured the essence of what I wanted to depict and decided to move on. If I had done it as you suggested, "less here and more there" approach, the Pearl would have looked more complete. If you love the green painting, then for sale, of course. :-)
To Dragon Thanks for supportive comment on my photography.
To Jordan Well said. I love the way you put things into words, intelligent and precise. Are you a Thaneeya's friend ?
To Kai I am grad that you like my work and thanks for posting comments regularly.
To Thaneeya Lazertran is fun and the possibilities are endless. I am sure you could produce funky teapot ! How was Brighton on Friday ? I hope to see you next time when you are around.
To ChinYew OK, I will frame them ! Make them nice finished pieces for wall. You are the king of 30dayartist. I ve got a limited budget, though.
To Deadpo8t Nice to meet you. Yeah, I liked some of Perng Fey's work and followed his 30days in January as well. I ve heard that he is famous in Malaysia. I would love to see his landscapes. Does he have a website ?
PHEW, lots to catch up, but its all good to interact with others. I missed this.
Talking about today's art chronologically.
I finally did a bit of touch up on Artwork 9, Self-Portrait. And I do not like it. I do not know what to do now. I am trying to depict my roots here, so may be I should be wearing kimono in this picture, yeah, more Japanese motifs and scheme... Sorry I forgot to take a picture of this artwork.
Then I started a new impressionism/Abstractionism landscape painting. The colour theme is blue/black. The colour of mid night sky, sea and tempest. I do not know whether i will be doing same dots style as artwork 18, may be not, not dots... I just finished underpainting today.
Artwork 27 IN PROGRESS: "Untitled" Size: 50cm x 40cm(20" x 16") Media: Oil on Canvas
After that I decided to do more Still lifes. I picked a dandelion, the only flower happily blooming in my patio under this cold weather. I have used it as a motif for a photographic work. I started liking this energetic, lively, vigorous weed. Again this is only a touch more underpainting. I will finish this tomorrow.
Artwork 28 IN PROGRESS: "Untitled" Size: 30cm x 30cm(12" x 12") Media: Oil on Canvas
Finally, I did a rough undersketch with pale coloured pencil for Artwork 29 another oil painting, and the last of "It belongs to me" series, with perfume bottles as a motif. I will post a picture, once I finished underpainting.
Things are starting to pick up after lazy Easter Holiday.
Artwork 29 IN PROGRESS: "It belongs to me - Still Life No3, Perfumes" Size: 30.5cm x 25.5cm(12" x 10") Media: Oil on Canvas Board
I carried on oil painting today. This is the last of of the series and I chose a very difficult motif, grass bottles filled with transparent liquid. And I regret it. For someone like me, a beginner oil painter, they are so hard, almost annoying really. I tried not to be so meticulous about the detail, but after 3 hours battling with the light and shadow of the bottles and the golden liquid show through the scarf pattern beneath, I needed to have a rest, a cup of strong coffee and a packet of greasy crisps and a slice of cherry pie. You know how stressed I was. I will work on the scarf and background on Friday and hopefully finish it.
Then I decided to put it aside and finish Artwork 27, Impressionist/Abstract painting in Black and Blue.
With this painting, I wanted experiment masculine approach, well, I call it masculine is that dynamic brush stroke and bold definitions created by that. I was very uncomfortable to start with, because I am a such a detail person who likes gentle strokes and smaller brushes. As I finished it and I am not comfortable with the outcome either. I take it as an experiment, but I am not comfortable even posting the picture to be viewed by whole world. This painting does not belong to me really, it does not look like my work of art. It is very strange trying to do something which is not ME.
I have followed a book called "The Artist Way" by Julia Cameron and in that, author keep going on about stay true to oneself, and I think I understand why it is so important. It is almost painful to call this work "my piece" because it is so far from me. I feel so uncomfortable. Then I wanted to think about why I feel so uncomfortable, there must be something deep psycholosical about it.
I think the picture is so dark and annoying. It may be something about me here. It may be a Blind Self or Hidden Self in the Johari Window. "The Johari Window" is a Psychological term and it describes the process of human interaction.
The principal of the Johari window is that, if I open myself to others and if I allow others to show me more of myself, the I enlarge the Open area and all four areas are affected. Through Feedback from others, the size of "Open" area increased and "Blind Self" decreased. Through self disclosure, the "Hidden Self" is decreased and "Open" increased.
So according to Luft and Ingram, the inventors of the Johari Window, by showing the picture of the painting to the audience(others) my "Open Self" increases and Hidden and Unknown Self decreases.
The process of moving previously unknown information into the Open and enlarging its area is linked to Maslow's concept of self-actualization described in "Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs" or in other words, "pyramid of needs" where the needs at each level need to have met before the next level can be approached meaningfully.
According to Maslow, we, human are always striving for self-improvement and goes beyond the simple meeting of our basic needs.
So, here is the picture of the painting. What do you think ?
Artwork 27: "Untitled" Size: 50cm x 40cm(20" x 16") Media: Oil on Canvas
Reply to comments here
To Kai, Do you have a sushi restaurant in Malaysia ? I do not know much about Malaysia, I know the famous twin tower, though :-) Through 30dayartist, I met(well, in the cyber world) lots of Malaysian people and I feel really stupid not knowing about their country. It was a surprise that there seems lots of Chinese people living there and communicate in English. So cosmopolitan, so fascinating. Reading and researching about South East Asia and its art and culture will be my next mission !
By the way, I do not use Acrylics at all. I use oils for paintings and I used black calligraphy ink and gold ink for artwork 23~26. I may try to experiment something in Acrylics as I am getting fed up with long drying time of oils
To Ming Thanks for such a wonderful comment ! I feel what a sensitive person you are and I really appreciate your comment. I really wish to meet two of you, Ming and Chinyew to talk about art face to face. When I visit Japan next year(wishful thinking), I may be able to stopover at Kuala Lumpur to see both of you.
When I was younger, I could do and did anything and everything I wanted to do, I had a good support from my family and I was a spoiled child who was given everything but was always complaining, like someone(Chinyew). I have changed or forced to change lots since I had Cosmo but I still complained that I have no time for myself, no time to do art. Then I came across a short fascinating message at the Artist Way discussion board, here I am, I am the April's artist. Well, I still complain that 30dayartist are tiring, my shoulders hurts and I have little budget, but at least I have been creating again for last 20 days, and it has been wonderful.
Anyway, today I rambled on Psychology, but then art is art, it may not be anything to do with those definitions and concepts.
I've done lots of oil paintings this week and I wanted a change for today.
When I decided to go for oil paintings instead of acrylics during 30dayartist, I was worried whether I would get them done on time, the worry came true oils are so slow to dry, but I wanted to stick to them since I had never done oil painting until a few month before and it was a part of my 2006 new year's resolution that I will be good at painting in oils.
So far I was forced to do something else in between to allow each painting to dry before touching up, which I ve found very stimulating way of working. This is definitely my style - Everyday is different.
One moment i am so passionate, intense and depth in thought but superficial at times. My mind fragments. All the time I am wishing something tangible and solid, yet thrilled by taking risks and change at the same time.
I could never decide my specialism, in other words, I am capable of using wide variety of methods and media, but that also means I am never a master of any field. This is quite worrying when I want to make living from art.
Anyway, let me talk about today's art making now.
I looked back last 20 days and thought I have not done any printmaking yet. So, here I am, I am doing lino cut. Now I need to think about what to do with lino. Its already day 20, and I ve created 29 artwork so far, 11 more to create and 10 days to go. I ve got a few oil paintings to finish next week... yes, time is pressing. For me, the quality is as important as the quantity, so I decided to create something small but beautiful at close.
I have been telling myself for months that I should have business card, but then, I did not want stereotypical, machine printed piece of paper. I wanted something special. Original, beautiful, colourful and handmade are the keywords. I wanted "State of Art" business cards in small quantity.
I cut a A4 lino sheet into 8 pieces. These will be Artwork 30 ~ 33. The images are inspired by retro Japanese textile for children's clothing. They will be printed in pairs and layered one another. The pairs represents particular seasons,
the birds and seashore/beach - Summer
the rabbit and Japanese pampas grass - Autumn(Fall)
the dragonfly with river/rice paddy field - Late summer
the butterfly and cherry blossom - Spring
I did not make one for Winter, but never mind. I pulled out painting colour chart for inspirations. You can see my large mug in the photo as well !
The lino sheet I bought is much tougher than the one I ve used before. It is a bit of struggle try to get nice curved lines as well as sharp straight lines in one go.
I will print them tomorrow.
Finally, I am re-posting artwork 27. I took a picture under natural light, so this is much closer to the original. If time allows towards the end of the month, I would love to experiment with grazing, which Verna suggested in her comment.
Artwork 27: "Untitled" Size: 50cm x 40cm(20" x 16") Media: Oil on Canvas
Reply to comments here. They are also to all of you.
To Anonymous person who left a comment to Artwork 22 "Dinky Toys" I m glad that you appreciate what children does. Their spontaneity sometimes create a great work of art, something we, adults never could come up with after day and weeks contemplation.
To Anonymous person who left a comment to Artwork 23 ~ 26 "The Abundance" series. I appreciate those who pay attention to the titles of my art. Because I always give a title to my work and I do think of then very carefully. Sometimes I spend more time thinking about titles than actually creating the piece. In order to come up with a good title, I need to carefully examine my mind, thoughts and the actual work. It is a very goods way of analysing the piece, I am the creator of the art, but at the same time, I become the curator and the audience. I enjoy this interaction between emotions and intellect. The titles occupies large part of my art really. When the title is "Untitled" that means lots to me, that I cannot even comprehend the work, which is quite rare for me, but happens...
To Verna Thank you so much for your advice. I do not know much about oils, so you post was enlightening. I have a large piece of pure, organic beeswax in my kitchen cupboard. I sometimes make soaps and lipbalms with it. I just wanted to check about the quantity and the method you mentioned before doing it. You mean - to add 30% of pigments into the melted wax in the pan. Is this what you mean ? Do you use brush to apply onto the canvas or palette knives ? If you use brush, how do you wash them ? Due to the time limit of 30dayartist, It is unlikely that I have time for this painting to experiment your advice, but I will definitely try it in other occasions. I posted a better picture today, so you may be able to examine in detail. :-) It is really spooky that you mentioned about starfish or lizard in the water. I did not intend to paint fish nor a pool of water there, it meant to be just strong brush strokes in blues, but while I was painting, I saw fish as well, to me it was kind of Koi carp, large bight read fish under the water. I did a 3 month course in counseling and Psychology, and I still read books at my spare times. Psychology is so fascinating, at the same time ridiculous. Trying to define every human behaviour in words... must be a task of impossible. But I can say for certain, that studying Psychology helped me to understand myself and others' motivation in general. Maybe you can start reading textbooks which are available in libraries.
Artwork 30: "Linocut print - No1, Chidori" Size: 50cm x 23cm in whole, 21cm x 14.8cm (5.8" x 8.3") each Media: Linocut printed with Acrylics on 300gsm cards
Artwork 31: "Linocut print - No2, Chyou" Size: 50cm x 23cm in whole, 21cm x 14.8cm (5.8" x 8.3") each Media: Linocut printed with Acrylics on 300gsm cards
Artwork 32: "Linocut print - No3, Tombo" Size: 50cm x 23cm in whole, 21cm x 14.8cm (5.8" x 8.3") each Media: Linocut printed with Acrylics on 300gsm cards
Artwork 33: "Linocut print - No4, Usagi" Size: 50cm x 23cm in whole, 21cm x 14.8cm (5.8" x 8.3") each Media: Linocut printed with Acrylics on 300gsm cards
After test prints, I noticed they need to be cut much deeper, so I cut the lino all over again....More hard work. I used normal acrylics slightly thinned with water, instead of block printing ink, I applied acrylics with brushes instead of a roller. I wanted to experiment whether these alternatives work or not, if they do, whats the point buying "special" block printing ink ? Acrylics and block inks are very similar, but block printing ink contains gum to make the ink sticker, so that the ink on the block surface stick to the paper nicely when printed. I found printing them with acrylics was a bit tricky, but i managed it at the end. With small pieces like these, brushes and acrylics work nicely.
I intended to make handprinted business cards, but I put that idea aside to make the final pieces look more interesting. The good thing about printmaking is that once you made the plate/block, you can re-use them later to create same or different prints at ease. Once i finish 30dayartist, I will hand-print my business cards with some of the blocks I made with these series, in a different size, colour and arrangement. With these kind of design, I would normally use Adobe Illustrator and print them digitally, but it was a nice change to go back to old days, slow manual reproduction process. The finished pieces certainly have very authentic and tangible feeling.
I feel that I need a Yoga exercise, hot bath and go to bed early tonight, so I am not going to ramble anything tonight, if I start, I would be typing until mid-night, better not to start at all. After 3 weeks of intensive art making as well as coping with all the domestic chores, my body is screaming to rest and be kind to myself. Art should not be so spartan.
Nite
Oh, here is reply to comments
To Verna Thanks for your detailed explanation. I really want to try it soon, and I agree that I should try it first at small scale. I often use a microwave oven to melt beeswax quickly, so I will do that way first before ruining my pan with pigments.
To Kai I would love to eat Malaysian style sushi one day. My favourites are, salmon, squid, prawn, grilled eel. I personally think some of sushi toppings are really disgusting and grotesque. I much prefer Chinese dishes or spicy, exotic curries. Do you manage to eat sushi ? I m sure it can be a torture if you do not like them at all. There are many other very tasty Japanese dishes such as ramen-noodles, donburi dishes and tempuras. Try them instead. :-)
