Guilin

Guilin(桂林) is a city in China, situated in the northeast of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on the west bank of the Li River. It is a beautiful place I wish to visit in future.

Peace

There are no one else besides her and the lake, where I find peace.

Op Aceo : Taiwan (12 cards)

I just done a set of ACEO total 12 cards depict the Taiwan scenery during the days I had travelling in Taiwan. All of them was painted using MUNGYO Oil Pastel.


西门町 Xi Men Ting

Xi Men Ting is one of the famous place that always filled with teenagers in Taipei. You can find a lot of delicious food as well as nitch products over there.


阳明山 Yang Ming Shan

Yang Ming Shan is a mountainous area, surrounding by colourful flowers and trees.


九份 Jiu Fen

Jiu Fen is a special place near Taipei, you find a lot of unique houses surrounding the cliff.


日月潭 Sun Moon Lake

Sun Mon Lake is a famous tourist spot, remember to take a good ride over there.


奋起湖 Fen Qi Hu

If you enjoy hiking, you definitely loves Fen Qi Hu, the tracks are all well done for the hikers.


阿里山 Alishan

Alishan is a mountain resort and natural preserve located in the mountains of Chiayi County in Taiwan. I was there during sunrise moment of 01 Jan 2009.


阿里山人工林 Alishan artificial forest

This place is where the spirit lives. They are hiding themselves while we walk across and only come out if no one else is there.


鹿港 Lu Gang

Lu Gang means Deer Harbour is an urban township in northwestern Changhua County, Taiwan.


冬山河畔 Dong Shan He

Dong Shan He located at Yi Lan. Have a walk over there enjoying the cold wind is relaxing.


鹿港天后宫 Lu Gang Tian Hou Gong

Tian Hou Gong is a Chinese temple. I was there and the place is full of prayers.


宜兰海边 Beach at Yi Lan

The sand is in black, I love the beach at Yi Lan.


龙潭湖 Long Tan Hu

Long Tan Hu means dragon lake, we have a ride surrounding this lake and brings back only the good luck.

Bronze Age of Ancient China

Recently, I have read an article regarding Bronze Age of Ancient China（青铜时代） in the UNESCO magazine, it covers the historical stories regarding Dynasty Shang （商朝）as well as includes a lots of beautiful photo.

I picked up my cray-pas expressionist oil pastel, refers to the images on the magazine and started to paint it on ATC size black mounting board.


I got the image as reference from the cover of the magazine, I don't know what is this statue depict, it is a kind of 'dog' for me, which made of clay and bronze.


This is bronze human mask （青铜人面）which I call it Bronze Goblin Mask. Regarding to the article, this kind of mask is very rare, archaeologist believes that is how ancient chinese in Dynastic Shang looks like. The usage of the mask is still unknown.


This is one of uncommon set of bronze age objects. This bronze statue looks very different from others. Archaeologist believes this statue must be depict the King or God. I didn't know Frankenstein already exist during Dynastic Shang, it was a great discover! :P


This is a weapon for the war, Bronze Tomahawk (青铜钺).

ACEO to Canada

Three cards for the ACEO exchange project reached Canada at the same day.

20th, "Alone on the beach"


21th, "Sunshine"


22th, "Thaipusam"


All of them painted using cray-pas expressionist oil pastel.

Michelle and Daisy

Another two ATC reached the destination.

18th. Daisy reached Danville, USA


19th. Michelle reached Ponte Vedra Beach, USA

More ACEO for exchange project reached destination safely

I have more cards that reached the destination.


14th Elephant, reached Punta Gorda, FL USA.


15th Woman's BWM, reached California USA.


16th Harvest, Paddy reached Klamath Falls, USA.


17th An old ape reached Clarington, OH USA.

Cock

"Cock" is the 13th ACEO for the exchange project.



It was reached California, USA safely.

Snail

My snail was reached Holbrook, USA safely. This is the 12th ACEO for the exchange project.



I remember I painted it during Hari Raya Holidays at Penang Malaysia, with my cray-pas expressionist.

Step by step: Brighten your life ACEO

I still remember two months ago, I am surfing the net for info of creating ACEO, as I have some doubts such as what kind of paper should I use? what paper color is suitable for oil pastel? Should I use pencil for sketching before painting it with OP? What are the additional tools do I need to create this mini size of art.

Today, I have done more than 30 pieces of Art trading card, I have my doubt answered, and continue to accumulate more experiences on creating Oil Pastel ACEO. While enjoying the weekend and waiting for more cards to reach the destination for the exchange project, I created another card and take photo shots my work in progress.

This is my first ACEO WIP post, I would like to do it as details as possible. I welcome any comments and suggestions regarding where to improve as well as tips and tricks.

For creating ATC, the card size is important, it must be 2.5 x 3.5 inches. I couldn't find any ready made ATC size paper from the art suppliers, therefore I bought a large black color mounting board and cut them into pieces myself.





I realized that, graphite pencil may blend with OP and produces dirty color, and also it is hard to see on black color mounting board. Therefore I bought a white pastel pencil.



I can't draw something from nothing, well I always need a photo for a reference. Fortunately I can get the photo of the object I wanna draw from the net. Here is a good site that finds me a series of images from flickr based on the tags I specified.

Study the image I picked, the color tone, the shades, the focus point and the beauty. This is important, I may have to love the painting before I start the painting. After that, I sketch it with white pastel pencil.



Next, I picked out the OP from the box to another container, those are all the important colors I need it for the painting.



I am quite new to cray-pas OP, although I have using it for quite sometimes. Still, some of the colors doesn't blend well on black mounting board, which I have yet to discover. Therefore, I usually trying it out for a small portion to build up my confidence.



Alright! It seems to goes well, so I continue ...


I like to use white a lots, I find it blends well with any other colors.



Yellow is always a headache for me, because of the opacity it gives, it looks dirty on black. I don't have any other materials for underpaint, I heard acrylic is good for underpaint, but I am yet to try.


This is not yet final, I will come back for the details. But at the moment, its time to go goes for the background.


My intention is to create a blurry background where some how you can feel the flower is surrounding by other flowers.

I have mixed various colors at various portion by circling it, then I blend them together, with the help of grey color OP.

After done on background, I come back for the details of the main object.


This is the secrete tool for details on a mini card. It is call tortillon, but I call it color blender, which I helps me blends colors to produce the intended textures.


I come back for the background, adding white color at certain portion.



Finally it is done, I hold it with my hand to feel the size as I always do.



Lets have a closer peek!



Alright, hope you enjoy my step by step walk through. I hope this will brighten your life as well as my life too.

Resting boat

This is the 11th ACEO, "Resting Boat" and today it reach Texas, USA.



cray-pas expressionist oil pastel on black mounting board.

10th ACEO Moth

My ACEO "Moth" for the exchange project reach Eufaula, USA today.



This is the 10th ATC that reached the destination safely.