Early experimentations.

Finding a style isn't quite easy. Few years ago I experimented with using painting knives.

I used the-cheaper-than-usual brand of oil for this piece. Turned out better than I had expected. The painting was done few months before the painting in the previous post, And I can definitely tell that the quality of the painting differs greatly with cheap and expensive oils, not just with the colors, but it is also quite noticeable with impasto.

I also had it framed to keep it as a memory.

Framed.

One of the few paintings I had bother to get framed. About 2-3 year old paintings, that just happened to pop out of storage when we were cleaning.

I forgot.

I forgot i even had a blog. ._.

At the roof

I went up the roof early morning to sketch, this is the view on the left side of our house, i plan to sketch the other side next time.

The clouds were wonderful that morning, too bad i wasn't skilled enough to capture how it really was.

Clouds are wonderful aren't they? They are just like us, the longer you look at them, they become more revealed, and they keep changing.... always.

Free Inspiration

Inspiration is free, the problem is finding it.  How would you find inspiration?

Inspiration could come from the simplest of things, you can find inspiration from a sleeping cat on the couch, the strong breeze of the wind flowing underneath your clothes as it touches your skin. Even if you close your eyes, your mind wonders on its own and mingles on ideas that can turn to a surge of inspiration. When you feel pain, your emotion heightens and can often lead to anger, strong emotions like anger, love, hate and even fear is the greatest source of inspiration.

"Inspiration is Everywhere", is what they said.
"It's easier said than done", is what i said.

 When you are in a deep frustration, you are blinded with despair, muted of confusion, and turn deaf by one's own conceited mind. Without those senses, how would you find inspiration? I don't know about you, but I've been definitely been there. So how did I get out?

I'm not completely out yet, and i think i will ever be. One foot will always be left on the puddle. I mean to say, you can't always be high up, there will be times that you will  have to go low and it would always be often. This being said, you can't always rely on having the right inspiration at the right time to start doing something. You can't always spend your whole day searching for inspiration, even if you stare at a rock and hope the strong wind blows and hit you with it on your head to get inspired.

The idea of being inspired is overrated. Even Thomas Edison only needed 1% inspiration to invent.

I'm not saying we don't need inspiration to work and/or start on brilliant masterpieces. We need it. We are humans after all, but we need to learn how to see inspiration bend around us and not us bending for inspiration. Took me a year to figure it out, and learned it the hard way.

Get on your feet, start exploring, start working. If you keep waiting, it won't come. If it does, it will come when you least expect it.

Inspiration is free, but time sure isn't.

Drawing of a Giant Tooth and Fake Flowers

Drew this while waiting in the dental clinic for my sisters.

It was pretty and neatly arranged on the corner. The flowers weren't real, they were made of shells.

Fixing a Canvas Dimple

Just now I just found out how to fix those canvas dimples, or dents. Better fix them than let them go to waste.

What I did,

Get a damp sponge, and lightly dab or press the sponge at the back of the damaged area. If you have a spray bottle filled with water and lightly spray, that works too. If you can't find any of those just get a nice piece of cloth. 

If you have neither any of those, a clean hand works well as substitute especially if the dented area is small. You can figure it out.

When the dampened area dries, the canvas should tighten itself.

A Painting of Me

Oil on Canvas 16 x 20 in.

Self-portrait. 

Still Life

Oil on Canvas 24 x 36

Yes, sunflowers again.

This is another painting done exclusively with painting knives, biggest i've done so far . It does not have a single brush stroke, except the signature maybe. This one took a while to finish, not sure how long, i began painting this back in Dec. 2012. The progress was quite slow because i was only spending a few hours a day or every 3 days.

Might take a while for me to do another painting with the exlusive use of painting knives, they are too expensive to do.

Sunflowers

Oil on Canvas 12x16 in.

I painted this in mid 2012, i was fascinated with the idea of the sole use of painting knives. I did not use any brush at all. I'm happy with the outcome, but i think i can do better.

The wonderful thing about exclusively using painting knives is that the colors are as intense as they were from the tube.