Original Art Stories - Xueling Zou

We had this new model I missed the first session, had to catch up to paint this portrait in three hours. She sat stable, had a little Mona Lisa smile kind of expression on her face. Continued to painting in duotone, might touch up later. (March 22 2022)

I thought my study was done after a 3-hour session, because we had a different model the following week. Glad that this model came back, and we could continue finishing work on his portrait study.  The light on his face had changed, so did his position.  Not only spent 3 hours correcting my work, totally invested more than 10 hours for this 12"x16" work.  And I have to wait for the painting to dry a little bit to see if I am satisfied with the result.  I worked in duotone, so it is challenging in a different way.  (March 8 2022)

Pray for World Peace !I brought my portrait study for retouching today. Surprised to see a different model, he was our evening live model for drawing class. Lucky I brought a new canvas panel to work on. Our model was a new one, and he had a little difficult time to stand still. I continued to use two colors, and it was a good exercise session. (March 1 2022)

I don't even remember the last time I did a male portrait study. Today we had the same model that did our previous short pose session, he was a very good model who was Egyptian from Boston, stayed still. I could see his nose and mouth area, because he wore a plastic transparent mask, but all the reflection made me confused. So I had to work with a photo reference. Went home, continued working on the same portrait for two more hours. Practice is not fun, but it a must be done.  (February 22, 24 2022)

It is the first day of our Chinese New Year.  After my hesitation as to whether I should go painting, I finally decided to follow my passion and go paint.  Though in our culture we celebrate new year for 15 days usually, lifestyle has to be adapted to living in a different culture.  Our model was a very tall and beautiful professional African American model, she was from a very artsy San Jose family.  She sat very still and had kept her facial expression too.  I'm still trying to work on my duotone style in oil, struggling through for 3 hours.  Our model liked the result, it made me happy. (February 1 2022)

One of our Chinese artist masters, Eric Guan, has a studio in Palo Alto. When he wants to paint a model he invites other great painter friends paint with him. Another artist friend, she helps to organize and schedule models for us. We all appreciate the great opportunity of painting together and learning from masters. The other day I took Eric's advice that I should focus on my own style. Because painting with others, it is quite easy to copy each other. Today's model she was young and beautiful. Even though I painted next to Eric, I decided only to use two colors. Three hours painting together, we were all happy with our own results. I know that I have a lot of improvements to make, but I wasn't distracted by other's style. (January 19 2022)