Original Art Stories - Xueling Zou

A couple of months practicing sketches at the Monday Zoom meeting. Now, I feel that I've gotten a bit better at managing time. At the beginning, I was always worried to draw people wearing glasses, because every second counted when sketching a portrait, put a glasses in the right position for each drawing took about a minute. Now the glasses don't take extra minutes to draw, they all have become part of the sketching process. And I feel happy to be participate, still learning how to concentrate on drawing with listening other people's chat though....

(April 19 2021) We decided to celebrate the Earth Day two day early today. But I was more interested in studying the  expression on all the faces. Several minutes were not long enough for capturing and drawing the uniqueness of these individuals, I tried. Happy to catch up with them each week, we talked about a lot of things, mainly focused on Earth Day.  I organized my paintings for the rest of day...

Got on Zoom for a minutes sketch - one of my favorite activities since COVID-19. Sketched in this small group of nice and friendly people, I enjoyed the conversations and had fun just being with them through Zoom. Though I have not improved to the level I want. Sometimes I might listen or chat too much and easily forget what I'm doing, and slow down my sketching speed. Really want to learn the new combinations - listen, chat and sketch all together at the same time, hahaha...

Joined a quick sketch in Zoom half way through. Wanted to get vaccinated, but could not find a vacant spot through the internet. Forgot about it, happy to draw out that frustration, happened that everyone had a hat on that day, interesting. Kept practice was more important!

Escaped one sketch class in Zoom last week and went to The Old Mission San Juan Bautista CA. This morning I was in the rush to join, but mistakenly clicked the wrong Zoom meeting button, and got in to the Santa Fe location. Then I had to wait to explain why I got into their group before I quited so I wasn't being rude. Finally, I got into the right class and it was nice to practice and study on people's faces again. The challenging part is always not enough time to capture little more information to express the persons character. Usually I use a small size pad for sketching. I bought a 18"x12" 70 pages sketch book years ago, and had only started to use last year. Now it looks has a quarter of the book left. Definitely I would love to continue sketching, probably will search for a slightly smaller size sketch book next time.

Haven't gone out painting for over a week. Just wish I could physically overcome these allergy attacks. Short one hour, feels like jetlag. Arrived late this Monday morning to a Zoom sketch for an hour, excuse was that I was sneezing like crazy, just because one of my indoor plants has one little blooming flower. Those portrait sketches I did, had noticed that each one of them had the glasses on. For quick sketch, every second counted, but the glasses added more work. Also, I tried to draw smaller size, and the smaller area even harder to work with charcoals, I never sharpen my charcoals anyway. Enjoyed the practice though.

"There is nothing stronger than a broken woman who has rebuilt herself."(Don't remember who said it) Joining Monday morning zoom in sketch. Just happened that they were all women I drew. Tried to express each of their character in minutes, need to keep practicing...

 Feb. 1 Joined a zoom minute figure drawing from life models meeting. . out of my comfort zone, frustrated, and quit... Never thought drawing could make me exhausted. Every second passed extremely fast during each pose. All the life models were super-professional. Felt that I didn't have time to breath, the faster I tried to draw, the less connected my brain, eyes and hands became... Felt out of control. Felt hopeless, I had to quit after trying for around two hours. How could I improve my drawing speed? Everyone knows the answer - practice more....

  My annual allergies have started up again, and it has me "locked" indoors, can't go out painting often. Joined a zoom meeting for drawing minute sketches. Focused on value study. Frustrating and enjoyable at the same time...

Add caption 2020 Day15 40% chance to rain, then I decided to stay at home. Thought I could paint my aloe vera, but I just discovered they were so sick from the rain without sun. It was one of my most favorite plants, and I used it so many times to recover from sunburns, cuts or cooking burns. I felt bad that I didn't take good care of my plant, though most of them were succulents. Spent an hour or two to clean up. Tried not to upset myself. Then I found a rat pot holder I bought sometime ago that I forgot about it. The Year of Rat is coming in 10 days. Did a watercolor black and white sketch before starting to use it.

I had this opportunity to create a booklet by using mixed media for a Japanese Twin Sister's story. This was the design for the cover and the intruction page. The story is about Japanese twin sisters who were separated since they were born, one lived in the east and other one lived in the west. Finally, they found each other after 20 years, but their destiny could not make their joyful reunion easy, or stay for long... Additional changes were required for adding the cherry blossom to the design. It was just the right timing as they were blooming in our location in April. So, I took a perfect "Twin blossom" and added to it.  Cherry trees and their blossoms in Japan go by the name of sakura and carry a great cultural meaning and significance for the people of Japan. The word sakura would translate as the Japanese flowering cherry tree in English whereas the blossoms are referred to as cherry blossoms. Originally, the purpose of hanami excursions was to ponder the tra

This is one of my first paintings from when I started almost 10 years ago.  I aimed to capture the old Beijing culture with an old man and his bicycle. Typically the retired people enjoy hobbies like carrying pet birds in cages to nearby parks for a morning walk, Chigong, chat, chess game with others... Often they would carry small radios to listen to their favorite channels playing Chinese operas, traditional novels or historical stories. Afternoons would pass with a nap in the park or sitting out enjoying sunlit porches. My painting expresses a moment typical of a day like this in Beijing where I was born and grew up. Please view a better image at:  http://fineartamerica.com/featured/old-man-and-his-bike-xueling-zou.html .   Please view more photos at my Photography - China Gallery: http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/xueling-zou.html?tab=artworkgalleries&artworkgalleryid=47756