Finished Painting and Other Progress

It's snowing today...sooo pretty. I may have thought differently if I had to wander outside:)
Anyway, my sweetie took a photo of my finished painting today. He's going to take another photo for the website when the day isn't so gloomy. If you read my blog then you are probably aware of how not fond I'm at taking photo let alone editing it. Camera and I don't go along well.

                                     Title: Can We Live in Bed?

18"x24" oil on linen.©Heidi Alamanda  2010

And my progress from the latest one

It's still long way to go and I'll keep you posted the progress.

Curt Anderson, from Urban-Muse just "Indonesian at Heart" as their favorite fan submission. You can check it here.  

Time for me to paint some more until my tummy whines "please Heidi, feed me"
Have a great weekend:)

New Painting. New Progress

The previous painting I posted is still in the making. It needs some touch ups, but it gives me time to work on another painting. I've transferred the drawing to canvas, refined it a bit, then laid underpainting to the whole thing. That way I can start working on that on Monday after the paint is dry.

I just found this really cool blog from Richard Scarry and The Chipster (Chippy Coates) http://coatesandscarry.wordpress.com/. You may have read some of the interviews they wrote on Juxtapoz.

Have a great weekend!

Slowly Emerging

I know I know I've been a slacker in updating. If you paint in oils, perhaps you know that sometimes your day goes by from giving lots of love to your paint:)
I got two new drawings done. I only took picture one of them. I'm still working on the same girl. She still needs tons of love, but I'll share her progress.

New drawing that is going to be my next project.
I will keep you posted for more progress.
Also, my sweetie just posted two more images and updated my website, www.heidialamanda.com

Other fun things
Peter Chan tweeted about this funny thing of living as an artist. I think it's hilarious.

The talented Tessar Lo also just blogged about his recent solo opening at Show&Tell Gallery. There was also a short interview with him on late night in the bedroom. After watching that interview, I began to understand more of his artwork. It was interesting of how he thought Indonesia as a big jungle since he relocated to Canada when he was little..hehe. Well, I only thought it was funny since I was born and raised there. If I weren't from there I might have had super crazy imagination about it.

Enjoy your day:)

Progress Painting from My Sketch

Remember that sketch I just posted? Well, I did transfer it on canvas and start working on it. The idea came up when I was working on my latest painting. I sketched really quick on my moleskine, so I wouldn't forget the idea. I worked on a drawing of it, then transferred it on canvas.

It's still part of the underpaintings. I'll put some colors today. will keep you posted:)

Latest Painting and New Sketch

I hope you have a productive Monday:)
Here's the photo of my latest painting as I promised.

Indonesian at Heart
oil on linen
18x24 inches

It has a special meaning like the rest of my paintings, but I'll just leave it to the viewer.

There's a new painting that I just started. It was based on this rough drawing on my moleskine.


Other interesting things:
- Eric Fortune recently posted something really inspiring on his blog titled Tips and Tricks from an Art Slave. It's a nice reminder for us as an artist to be patient in doing what we love.
- Richard Scarry and The Chipster just put this interview with Sas and Colin Christian on Juxtapoz . It's a really cool interview. It explored a bit of Sas Christian's painting process and showed some images of her latest paintings. You could also tell from the interview that they were such a loving couple. Really sweet:)
- I just found this cool blog of Danny Roberts, a fashion illustrator. You may have seen his works on some fashion magazines like Vogue.

First (late) Posting in 2010 with Painting in Progress

Hello again:) I can't believe how slow I am in updating this and how time flies so fast. I hope it's been a wonderful start for you guys.

I'm still working on painting, of course, and let me share what I've been doing on my canvas so far. It's still far from final result.

I'm really not good at photography *grin*. It a painting from the sketch I made before with some adjustments here and there in the middle of working on it.

I just bought a children book illustrated by Nicoletta Ceccoli. She's a wonderful illustrator and her dreamy style always makes my eyes happy. I don't think I can afford to buy her beautiful artwork at this moment, so a beautifully illustrated book by her isn't a bad substitution:)

Oh, the one on the left is a signed Amy Sol card from her show at Copro Nason Gallery. Around a month ago, I put a comment on Arrested Motion's FB page. I didn't know that AM will draw a winner from the comments. Hung-Hei Yung, a nice guy from AM, told me that I was the winner and sent that adorable card. Lucky me...hehehe

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