Another Finished Painting and More in Progress. Happy yayy!

I have finally finished the painting I showed you last time. I worked on the last details yesterday and fixed tiny things that didn't look right. My sweetie took a photo of it and he also updated my website with the new image. I really really really appreciate that:)

 Here's the pic that's also up on my website

I Can't Please Everyone
oil on linen. 20"x24"

I started working on another one

I snapped this one with my camera. You can see the different in quality between these two images:). I'll be working on her for a while until the whole thing just looks right to me. Will keep you updated.

We're going to see Michael Shapcott's show today. It's called Onawa, which means wide awake. It should be a pretty cool show and I'm excited to see his works in person.

I hope you've had beautiful Spring so far and have a great weekend:)

Painting in progress and Happy Easter

It's quite warm today and feels really pleasant although my creativity seems to get along better with overcast day. Don't ask me why:) I grew up in a tropical island, so I should have loved sunny days more, right?
I've been drawing and painting. Got two new drawings that I had transferred on canvas. Currently working on this one (taken using my digital camera). I only ask my personal photographer (^_^) to take the final photo. I can only press the button...that's how lousy I am.

I used slightly different approach. Normally, I would paint loosely on the underpainting stage and worked further refining it on the later stages. But I tried to spend time on the first underpainting layer on this one. We'll see how it goes.

Something that I really look forward this month. Mark Ryden will have a solo show in New York..wohoo. I'm so excited. Fingers crossed that nothing will prevent us from going there.
I first saw his paintings around 2006/2007. I didn't paint that time. In fact, I didn't do any art related things at all. Finding him, and also other artists on the internet and magazines like Hi Fructose had really opened my eyes that I wanted to follow my passion and develop my own artistic style.
That's the reason I really look forward to seeing his show. I bet the show will be super packed and there is small chance I can say hello to him. Oh well, seeing his beautiful paintings is good enough for me.

Enjoy your weekend and Happy Easter

Paintings Inspired by Studio Ghibli

I have previously mentioned how I adored Studio Ghibli. The way they created the characters, beautiful artworks throughout the whole story and built such an emotional story.

Spirited Away  (Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi) was the first Studio Ghibli movie I saw. I was in awe. It just felt so magical. The friendship between Chihiro and Haku was really sweet. I don't want to spoil the story if you haven't seen it. Oh, the soundtrack is also beautiful and soothing. Movies like My Neighbor Totoro and Ponyo were just so cute and adorable in so many ways.
Grave of The Fireflies, was the only movie that managed to make me cry for the entire day. My eyes got so puffy the next day. The movie took place at the end of WW II in Japan. It was a story about two orphaned children, Seita and his little sister, Setsuko. They lost everything in the war, their extended family didn't want them, and they had to do everything they could to survive. It was such a powerful movie. I got teary thinking of that. I just wanted to hug those kids and gave them food during that movie. I know that doesn't make sense since they're just animated characters, but that's how powerful the movie is.


I posted some low resolution photos using my digital camera before. As I promised, here are the high resolution taken by my sweetie.
I just recently finished the painting of the girl who's holding fire with fireflies background (title: I Can't Survive If You Take My Fire Away). I got a bit held up finishing the painting since every time I painted her, my mind went to Setsuko (the little girl). I got really really sad.

Title: I Can't Survive if You Take My Fire Away

oil on linen. 18"x24". ©2010

Grave of The Fireflies Inspired

Title: Only You Accept Me for Who I Am

oil on linen. 18"x24". ©2010

Spirited Away  (Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi) Inspired

My cinta has also updated my website. I hope you like it:)

Sunshine Award

My blogger friend, Jackie, gave me this award. It really put smile on my face. Thank you for being so supportive and I'm glad that you enjoy visiting my humble blog:)

Whenever I get a chance, I like to visit these artists. So the award should go to
Jackie Me, down to a fine art
Sean  Luhring
Ana  Adventure of Anra
Nathan The Artwork of Nathan DeYoung
Dominique Fung
Mari  Sekaiseifuku
Eric Fortune
Kathy Hare
Zoe in Wonderland
Shawn Escott Illustration
Tessar Lo
Mia

I can go on and on but the rules only allow me to give it to 12 people:)

Beautiful Weekend and More Progress

It's been bright and sunny here for the past few days. It's beautiful although I still personally like it a bit gloomy.
Sorry for the lack of updating my blog. I've been painting and sometimes when I'm fully occupied, it's hard to do other things. Let's just say I'm not a multitasker.
The process of creating one painting is different from another. There are times where I have to struggle and need to take it slow. Well, I enjoy that struggle and I don't mind to take it slow.

These two paintings are inspired by Studio Ghibli. The always manage to create cute characters who deliver the story. Their gestures, their expressions, the way they move....they're just right.

Anyway, I'll tell you more about the paintings later. I took these two with my digital camera. It was the closest I had around my room. There will be better resolution pictures once they're uploaded on my website.

Farewell Renee

Renee is one of the bloggers  who has been incredibly sweet throughout my art blogging journey. Something that I will never forget. She has been fighting breast cancer for a while and today I just found out that she has moved on:(  May she rest in peace.

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