Life drawing 3, Dec 8, 2018

With my new job, now I feel more relaxed about spending some money on extracurricular activities :). I went back to life drawing yesterday. James came along as well. It was his first life drawing session. Until yesterday, he only used reference photos found on the web for figure painting practice.

The studio I went to a couple of months ago is now closed due to lease termination. The teacher recommended all the students to go to Alley 97, a 4-story old building serving as a cafe, a gallery and an art studio. The studio is much smaller than the previous art studio. You can see the model closely, if there isn't too many attendees.

Although I have been drawing people on the MRT 5 days a week for a few weeks, I still felt a bit rusty at the beginning of the session. Somehow it took me a few attempts to get the proportion close (I think it's still a bit off). I forgot what Charles Reid said about cast shadows. I thought I would be able to make 2 drawings but it still took me a good whole session to complete 1 painting.

I used Arches paper 300g watercolor paper. It's more expensive than all the other brands I've tried here in Taiwan, including Saunders, Canson Montval and a popular Chinese brand called Baohong. Arches paper beats all of them. It's just easy to work with and allows room to correct mistakes.

A young tea farmer

James and I took a day trip to Maokong, Taipei this Saturday. Maokong is a small town on one of the hills surrounding Taipei. It is famous for tea farms and tea factories. Or it was. More recently it is a touristy destination at the end of a MAT gondola line. Nowadays you walk out of the gondola station you still see some tea farms on the slope. Unfortunately you will see more fancy modern tea houses that sells coffee, bread and cakes with blasting western music.

I was a bit disappointed while walking around Maokong. It wasn't as quiet as I pictured it. James and I decided to take a trail downhills to get to another MRT station. That's when we saw this young tea farmer. The walking trail is the old path which farmers used to deliver tea to the city and its harbour. Now only old people walk on it for exercise and a few tourists take it to escape the noise in the town. The tea farmer was planting some young tea trees quietly in the afternoon sun and I stopped to sketch him. After a few moments, he invited us in for some tea. I thought he is running a tea house like all the other business people in the town but he isn't. His house is right next to the farm and there is where he studies and makes tea.

The tea farmer told us that the house and the tea making factory in the basement belonged to his grandfather. After his grandfather passed away 4 years ago, he quit his job at a biotech company and took over the family business. He is a certified tea tasting expert and runs occasional workshops to teach people how tea is made and how to taste tea. We ended up staying at his charming house for the whole afternoon and visited his tea making factory. Of course we tasted some nice tea there, too. It was such an unexpected experience. If I weren't an Urban Sketcher and didn't stop for a quick sketch, I wouldn't have had the chance to meet such an incredible young person. Don't you agree?

Macau

When I came back to Taiwan in August this year, I used my Aussie passport. That means I only have 3 months in Taiwan. Therefore I had to take a trip somewhere in November. James and I decided to go to Macau. It's close and the old town looks interesting. Besides, Macau is famous for its casinos, too.

We went to the famous Ruins of St. Pauls on the hill. It's right on the end of a busy touristy street. The whole church is gone except for the facade. Both James and I pulled out our sketch books and pretty soon we attracted quite a lot of attention. At one stage, James said I had about 10 people around me. Most of people asked me questions, but I also sensed some sneaky phones taking videos and photos of me sketching.

This sketch only took me about 30-40 minutes but I am quite happy with the end result. I am especially happy with the way I simplified the complicated patterns on the facade.

Life drawing is fun

 

Last time I attended a life drawing session at an art supply shop. I wouldn't say the other participants are all amateurs but I was sure there wasn't an art teacher in charge. Today's drawing session was held at a proper art school/studio, where an art teacher teaches, draws and paints, and many students study and draw and paint with him. To be honest, I was a bit nervous before I picked up the pencil. I walked in and saw all these people looking experienced but I didn't even know how to set up the easel! Once I started observing the model, I soon relaxed and forgot about the people around me. I did, however, try to remember what Charles Reid does in the DVD I watched. I couldn't get everything right just like Mr. Reid but I certainly had fun like what he described about life drawing.

Bonus? The host teacher, who happened to set up his easel behind me, gave me some nice feedback. He was surprised to hear that this was only my second life drawing session and I have never had formal training in drawing and painting. Ha, I hope the teacher wasn't just saying it because he would like me to keep going back to his studio :)