Happy New Year 2010!

I just want to wish Happy New Year to anyone who reads my blog. I hope 2010 bring you health, happiness, and prosperity.
Thank you for all your nice comments throughout this year. You all motivated me to be a better artist *grin*
I'm not on hiatus...just a bit slow with everything. I can't wait to update something new soon. I guess it'll be for 2010.
Stay safe peeps and have a great NYE party.
xoxo

Painting in Progress and My Creative Process

Hello Hello....
I hope you guys stay warm in this cold cold world. It's been in the highest of 30ish F lately. PJ pants and long sleeves shirt are pretty much my uniform lately:)
Anyway, my latest painting is slowly emerging. I think I may be able to finish it next week, and of course I'll post it the final result.
I have found an idea for my next painting. When I got an idea in my head, I would immediately sketch it on my moleskine. It'll be my preliminary sketch of what I want to include on my canvas. Then I'll sketch it on a bigger paper. On this stage, I'll work on a specific expression of the girl....I give her a personality:) I will then transfer it on a canvas. You know the rest...underpainting and layers of oil paints.

Here is my progress from my latest painting

Latest sketch

Well, now I'm hungry. I'll make flatbread topped with baby bella in tomato cream cheese sauce plus mozarella cheese. Have a wonderful weekend!

I'll be Your Best Friend painting and twitter

I just realized that I haven't posted my latest finished painting. So there it is, and I promise I'll post picture or at least progress shots of my current painting. It'll be a bit slower, though. This weather has made each layer dries longer. I'm hoping to finish it before Christmas.
Speaking of Christmas, how is your Christmas preparation? Are you done with Christmas gifts shopping? I'm glad I'm done:) Everything is wrapped and ready to be shipped out.

Anyway, I'm wondering what you think of twitter. I joined because one of my good friends was there, then I found lots of artists also had twitter. I'm doing it because everybody is doing it, but I'm not a huge fan of it. The newsfeeds keeps coming really fast so that sometimes you wind up ignoring somebody's response. I don't like that part.

See you soon!

New Painting in Progress

I've shown you sneek peek of what I did with my drawing before. Like the rest of my paintings, I've been also struggling with this one. More and more layers until I'm happy with the way it looks *crossing fingers*
At least, the smooth surface of linen has made it easier to apply the layers:)

Anyway, Thanksgiving is coming. Do you have any special cooking plans?
It would be the two of us, so I'll be in charge in making pumpkin roll, pumpkin pie, and sweet potatoes souffle. Yup, I love desserts and I'll stick in that section for Thanksgiving:)

Happy Monday

I hope you all had a wonderful relaxing weekend. It's been a while since my last update. I've been basically trying to get myself into a more structured schedule in painting. Time off for a week was bad for my self-discipline:)
I wrote earlier that I might turn one of my sketches into a painting and I did it. It was still the initial layer on my linen (it does sound fancy, eh?)
Other random things:
- I posted two of my paintings on Juxtapoz Forum for their reader art section. Not sure if anyone will notice it....so many artists posted their works in hoping to be featured in the reader art. Well, if you ever feel like checking it out:)
- I've been craving breads from Koryodang bakery in Koreatown, NYC. Yes yes...I love my sweet fluffy buns.
- If you read my blog, you may have noticed that I like a lot of different styles of artwork. One of my favorites is the art of Donato Giancola. He's a realist painter who specializes in sci-fi and fantasy illustration. His technique is just sooo good.
- Sour Harvest visited Audrey Kawasaki's painting studio and uploaded some pictures. She has one cozy studio, and I love the first painting (Geisha) she did.

Initial stage of my painting. Girl with little robot (temporary title)

Hello and a bit of Pics from 'Go East' LeBasse Projects NYC

Other than leftover (annoying) chores around the house, it seems that I can finally paint again...hooray! It's really nice hanging out with my family, but I do miss painting a lot. Now I could totally relate to anyone who mentioned how their hands were itchy to paint again. I just couldn't understand it that time. Now I know:)

A little bit of art related news. We went to see 'Go East' LeBasse Projects in NYC. The gallery was at Lower East Side. We went to The Met for Vermeer exhibition prior to that. Vermeer Exhibition is only until Nov. 29th and we definitely didn't want to miss that. It was truly amazing to see The Milkmaid upclose. Anyway, we went to LeBasse show afterwards. The crowd wasn't that packed when we got there but boy, it got cramped pretty fast. All the paintings from Yoskay Yamamoto, Tessar Lo, Edwin Ushiro, Joao Ruas, Mia Araujo, Nate Frizzell, and Eric Fortune were just beautiful. I got a chance to say hi to Beau Basse, the owner of the gallery, Yoskay, Mia, and Joao. I'm pretty much shy in nature but the whole environment encouraged me to do that. They were super friendly.

One of our favorite paintings by Yoskay Yamamoto

Saying hello to Mia Araujo

One of Mia Araujo's gorgeous paintings.

One of my favorite paintings from Joao RuasMe and Yoskay

We love this painting from Eric Fortune.
Finally got to see Tessar Lo's work up close

Beau Basse

Mia, Me, and Joao

Hello world

Forgive me for my lacking to update this blog. We were out of town last weekend. My girlfriend had a baby shower. It was Indonesian style baby shower, so there were plenty Indonesian foods around. Mostly we just hung out, shared laughter and love. It was really fun.
My parents-in-laws will be in town today and stay at our place. I have tons of things to do around the house before their arrival.
Not much painting done and it makes me a bit grumpy. My hands are itching itching itching to do more paintings.
I even haven't finished my latest one. Did some changes to the squids but the rest is still untouched...frustrating. Hmmpphhh.

New Hi Fructose and Rough Drawings

There have been too many interruptions for my creativity flow recently. Frustrating!
I haven't been able to focus on my painting this week. We're going to be out of town for this weekend. I'm going to visit an Indonesian friend and meet other new friends. It'll be nice chatting in my mother tongue.Then my parents in laws are going to stay with us. Busy busy busy. Need to clean the house right after we return home. I have decided to put painting off first and focus on spending time with them.
Meanwhile, I just put some ideas on my moleskine or do rough drawings on sketch book.


I can't wait to turn two of those drawings into paintings. Gotta wait gotta wait:)


By the way, thanks for reading and/or leaving some comments and feedbacks on my modest blog. I really appreciate it a lot. It's always nice to meet new friends. I did also visit your blogs, but couldn't leave any comments to some of you who use embedded comments. But I did read your blogs:)

Happy Tuesday:)

Random things that crossed in my mind from the past few days.
- Tessar Lo just sent out his newsletter to let his fans know of what he's been up to. I like his casual way to reach into his readers. Often times, newsletter just really turns me off because I can smell the whole marketing tone in it.
- Still related to Tessar. He'll have upcoming show in nyc held by LeBasse Projects. It'll be a group show with Edwin Ushiro, Eric Fortune, Nate Frizzell, Mia , and Yoskay Yamamoto (I think I mentioned everyone:))
- I found a bakery here in New Haven. One thing that I miss from Jakarta is its malls, and tons of bakeries inside the mall. They sell lots of squeezy milky bread with tasty fillings or toppings. So last week, I spotted a chinese bakery next to asian store. Bought 4 buns plus 2 sesame dumplings (balls) for $6. They were actually quite good.
- I've been struggling on my last painting. She challenged me from the beginning.
Her face kept changing during the whole process from rough sketching till the painting.. I also had the hardest time in getting her to look right. She's one stubborn girl ...frustrating! I think I've passed the worst part though:)

Things that I love today

- Waking up with the sound of rain outside
- Having a cup of coffee with sweetened condensed milk. It just reminds me of home.
- Watching Audrey Kawasaki at Baby Tattooville on youtube. It's always interesting to see an artist on action.
- Viewing Ana Bagayan's preview of her upcoming show at Roq La Rue. It's nice to see how she keeps evolving.
- Daydreaming of vacation to Bali after getting email about SQ's ticket promo.
- Laying more layer on my painting. I did things a bit different with this painting. The process is different and a bit out of my comfort zone. Experimenting is always good to challenge yourself. I hope it turns out okay. I like this girl, it'll give me big tears if I mess her up...hehe. Anyway, it's still early stage.

New Sketch and Progress Shot

I learned to transfer my drawing using our projector. My cinta helped me with resizing the image and set up the projector. I still need to get a hang of it. But it was way better than using transfer paper or drawing it directly on canvas. Somehow the girl turned out different than the girl in my initial drawing on paper, but I liked her so I kept her that way. It's still early rough drawing...not that pretty.


And another progress shot of the latest painting.

I just adopted Coraline

We went to downtown New Haven to get hair cut. I feel a bit stylish now:)
The weather was nice, so we decided to walk around downtown a bit. Got a yummy bagel with smoked salmon and cream cheese, then we went to a comic store for me to get the latest Hi Fructose since B&N (Yale's bookstore) didn't seem to carry it anymore. Alternate Universe (the comic store) didn't have the newest magazine, but I spotted 3 little Coraline figurines. One in PJs, one in shirt and denim, and one in yellow raincoat. I would have adopted all of them if I were rich:) they could be like cute triplets hanging out in my room. I took the one in yellow raincoat. She has the cutest expression and looks inquisitive.

Little Coraline is hanging out near my painting. Isn't she adorable?
And yes, that's the sneak peak of my latest painting. It's not the best quality photo. I'm not a good photographer. All I can do is just pressing the button...that's it..hehe.
I think it's almost done...there is still some itty bitty things that need my attention:)


Alrighty now it's time to draw draw draw:)

I don't feel cute

I've been busy messing around with the latest painting. It was fun:) Well, painting is always fun and relaxing for me, but somehow the current piece has different feeling.
I tried oil painting for the first time in 2007. I didn't know how when I first started it...completely blank..hehe. After getting to know a bit of basic oil painting, there was long pause. I started again around August 2008, but not really full time since we were still in the middle of settling in our new place. You know, unpacking, cleaning, painting this room and that....I got so many distractions. It wasn't until 2009 that I did it full time. Since I'm self taught, each piece is my self expression and also learning process.
The current piece I previously posted feels special because I felt like I express myself better. I also realized that I was a bit less over analyzing. I know I still have so many things to learn.

I'll update the progress soon. Meanwhile, I'm posting the other painting.

I don't feel cute

Happy Wednesday!

Some paintings I've just finished.

Flirtation isn't a sin

and this one

I just laid underpainting and some initial colors to the painting. We'll see how it goes. I just hope I won't mess it up...hehe.

I've been feeling motivated after our trip to NYC last weekend. We went to Society of Illustrators to see Spectrum Exhibition. D introduced me to Spectrum books couple years ago before I even thought about pursuing career in art. I was ecstatic to finally have a chance to view all those amazing works from my favorite artists, such as Donato Giancola, Kinuko Craft, Eric Fortune, David Bowers, and more, in person and up close. They're just so amazing! I feel so lucky.
We also went to Kinokuniya book store. They had bigger selections of art books than when we were there last time. We had lunch at their cafe on 2nd floor. Tasty tasty food. The cakes were delicious and the green tea frappe was so addictive. Way better than at Starbucks. The weather was also really pleasant. What a great weekend:)
Some pictures from our fun weekend.

What's wrong with Blogger embedded comment?

Something totally unrelated to art. I've been trying to leave comments to some blogs who use embedded comments. I typed the message, hit submit, and nothing happened. Weird.

Group show @Creative Arts Workshop

I have one painting @ Creative Arts Workshop Gallery in New Haven. The opening was really great. The gallery was full of people for the entire two hours. It was a really great show with a lot of talented artists and tasty hors d'œuvre . Two spacious stories in the gallery were dedicated for this group show.

View from upstairs.

The flyer of the show

Me and my painting.
View across from the gallery. It was a gorgeous day.

Is this eucalyptus?

There's a hungry chubby little koala goes hunting for eucalyptus. Lil Koala sniffs something smells tasty. It's bright red but it smells good. Chubby koala climbs on that silky bright red thing, and starts chewing on it. It doesn't look like eucalyptus leaf but it sure tastes good.

Another painting (this time with chubby Koala)

I did a bit of my other painting today since I felt uninspired with my current girl. It's pretty common with me . I'll get uninspired while I'm still working on something so I'll get back to my other unfinished paintings. That progress pic is kinda cropped in a weird way...hmmm. Will take better image of it next time.

Painting in rainy day

It's finally cooling down..pheww. My room feels way nicer for painting. Things have been kind of slow with my paintings. A bit of errands and fun. We went to see D-9 last week. Nice movie but just way too sad.
Anyway, D took mr. canon today so I only relied on mr. casio to take pictures of what I'm currently working on.
As you can see, the smaller canvas is actually resting on a chair. It's still an early stage. I just started yesterday. I've already had an idea of what I'm going to paint for my next big canvas, so I really need to get my current painting done ^_^

Painting in the weekend

It's morning and feels humid already. Being born and raised in a tropical island doesn't mean I'm used to it. I'm having my morning caffeine boost at the moment and thinking how lucky I am. I'll take care of laundry and go back to paint some more. I hope you have a wonderful weekend.
That painting is one of my early paintings not so long ago.

Another painting in progress in this hot day

It's almost 11 PM and it's still hot. I worked on the big canvas again today. I need to work more on the background and little details around it. Pardon me for the quality. I'm just not a good photographer. Also, my room is kind of small so it's hard to move the easel around for picture.

Painting break

I didn’t get much painting done today for a fun reason. We went to see District 9. Although it was sad, the movie was really good. I had to cover my face couple times when they showed throwing up scene ( I can’t stand it) or when there was bloody chopping scene. The actor reminded me of Steve Carrell from The Office, in fact, the opening scene was kind of a depressing Dunder MifflinJ

I also finally got Hi Fructose from Borders. I couldn’t find it at B&N so I was excited to find the one and only copy at Borders. All those talents sometimes make me depressed because they are just so crazy skilled and I just don’t know when I can reach their skill.

I haven’t taken any pictures of my painting progress. I will post this cute picture from the anime I’ve been watching recently before bedtime. Yes, I’m watching anime from the cute one, cheesy one to robot. I really am not that grown up.

Painting in this hot day

It really is hot today. My studio/office doesn't have a/c, so it's really miserable for me to paint under this heat.
I'm working on the other painting that I've been abandoning for weeks. I started the girl with black hair then it didn't feel right, so I changed it to auburn tone. She's almost done and now I have to work on other tiny details surrounding her.




A bit recap of my weekend. We went to Chelsea for opening reception of Summer Exhibition at Joshua Liner gallery. The place got packed really fast. We spent enough time in the gallery until it was difficult for us to move around.
The painting below is by Tat Ito. The image is only partially of the real one. the painting itself was huge (84x72). It was really interesting. He painted a maze with lot of little people trying to get away from it. Each of those people had different facial expression.

Sweet Koala Studio

I doodled a koala and posted it, so I guess I have a blog now. This will be where I'm going to put my art related stuff.
I finally got myself a big easel last week. Painting a big canvas while sitting on the floor was quite rough for my back. The easel was a good bargain. It's pretty basic but works nicely.