Original Art Stories - Xueling Zou

We had a young girl sitter today who was wearing a red dress. She sat on a piece of greenish color cloth. I liked it, because I finally got to use some "left over" colors, expecially Veridian Green which I had a huge tube of for over twenty years and had only used a tiny squeeze of. Started sketching on a 16"x20" used panel, I painted in a more comtemporary color scheme by using Cadmium Red and Veridian Green together as complementary colors. I painted her full figure, just because I liked her black shoes. During each break, she studied with a pack of flash cards cards in her hands, seemed like she was in school and preparing exams. Three-hour sessions are never enough time for a portrait, so I went home to correct and add a few more details after. Happy with the result. (March 5 2024)

It was a rainy Saturday this Easter weekend.  I went to an evening live model session at Lynn's studio by chance that I found through Instagram, also it was very close where I live.   About 10 artists showed up, and one came all the way from Oakland on such a rainy weekend.  Painting and photography are unique arts. As we see in the work of old masters, great painting captures instead the outward molding of inner feeling that is truer to the individual than any momentary expression.  Because artist adds emotion into the painting it is unique to the individual.  Different color palettes, brushstrocks, or different perpectives to catch the likelness of the model.   Painting a model in realistic style isn't as important to me as capturing the essence of the model's expression.  I don't use a reference photo to copy a model, instead I use my eye and my hands to capture the expression from life, practise during the precious moments of the painting session. Of course, I use r

A good model can inspire an artist to be creative and productive. Studying from a live model is always challenging. We were lucky to have very profession model Zoe being our sitter for two sections. The first week I did a full body study. Though I went to the studio half an hour early, most of the good seats were already taken. I grabbed the last middle one, so painted Zoe straight on. A week later, I brought my first figurative study back and correct a little bit. Then I worked on a 12"x16" portrait. Both sections I used pallet knives mostly and painted on used canvases.  The figurative one is 16"x20".  Nice of her that she posed herself next to our paintings in the end. Went back home and worked for hours correcting as the limited time wasn't allow me to do the details. For instance, her eyes looked more like she was meditating. And I added to my own interpretation into the portrait. Short pose drawing in the evening, Short pose drawings from our favorite ball

I went back to the studio working on live model study again after a long break. It felt challenging, especially the short poses. I couldn't finish one nude whole body sketch in two minutes. It was OK for the five-minute poses. The three-hour long pose wasn't enough time for figuring out the whole body structure. There was a very nice younger Korean female artist there that helped me a little bit during the break. Then I was able to push my work further. Added more hours at home painting till it looked fine basically. I don't think I should add too much time working on it, otherwise I won't able to paint my own work. (January 9 2024)

I will continue my drawing studies but consolidate into one post each month from now on.  So I will add the dates for each study. (May 9 2023) Tuesday night again, our model was several minutes late. She immediately got ready and started from the two minutes pose.  I had a difficult time to draw her, and kept changing my pencils and charcoals.  I know the papers I use are too smooth.  After a while I found my favorite charcoals, instantly I could draw better. Haha, tools are very important! From her stable poses I could tell she was an experienced model. I had her long pose portraiture study before.  I don't think I remember the models' name, but I remember each face for sure.

It was Easter Friday. We rented a studio behind the Triton Museum of Art. More than ten artists, most of us live nearby, some of them drove from Sacramento and Northern Beach (north of Marin county). We were all ready, waiting for our model who came from San Francisco, an hour drive away. We got started at 11 o'clock. Ended up it worked out for two sessions, because the lunch break was cut by a half an hour, and extended to another half hour long. Nice studio, quite spacious. I started with a used canvas panel 16"x20", actually I sanded my last week's model study off. I noticed that I didn't have enough space for continuing my work after the first break, then I wiped it off, restarted it again. Our model was not very stable, so it was challenging for us to settle down our sketches and continue on with our work. We all painted quietly, only could hear the sound of brushes moving up and down on canvas. One of the artists brought a half bag of mandarins from her tree

We are lucky to have a program that allow us practice on live figures in the studio.  I have been working on drawing and painting from live models for a year and a half now.  Found out that good models are very important to artists when studying them live.   Tonight we had a new model, she was introduced as working towards her graduation at Stanford University.  What a smart student and working hard too.  Also she is a good model, deserved generous tips. Short pose drawings are challenging, never feel that you have enough time to draw one properly. Actually it really depends on the artist, how many years experience of the drawing skill, what the artist wants to experiment with etc.  Some of artists now draw on an electric device like iPad for digital drawing.  To me after I stopped working as a graphic designer, I don't have much interest in working on computer any more, because I feel I have had enough.  I really enjoy working with traditional drawing and painting tools, like cha

I haven't done a figure study for a while. Went to studio earlier to get a better seat.   Might be the model was too directly in front of me, and it wasn't easy to adjust her legs crossing each other. Not happy with the result after one three-hour session, I am not going back to correct my work next session, because I know that I should practice more.  (March 30 2023) Also I haven't practiced figure drawings. Glad that I went to draw from the live model.  Not only she was a good one, but I know I need to work on m anatomy to understand the human body better. (April 4 2023)

Missed the long pose live model study on Tuesday, so I went to the studio Thursday.  Got caught in traffic again, there was almost a full house of artists waiting for the model.  My first time painting this model, even though I was a little late I got a lucky spot, and I liked her pose.  A professional model too. After over a year of live model studies, I have come to a major  discovery.  I used too measure carefully instead of using my eyes to understand dimensionality in my drawings and portraiture works.  This time I used my objective feeling and exaggerated some features to get dimension, didn't measure everything exactly. I paid more attention to follow my instant feeling of her body instead of measuring.  Only one 3-hour session, I think I have done better using this approach.  Next step I should continue to work on my objective understanding of the subject and after that my style. I was so glad that I went to the studio, not so much for the  improvement in the painting, but

John is one of the popular models in the San Francisco Bay Area, all the artists draw or paint him so many times.  Interestingly, I missed so many times to paint him.  Finally I didn't want to miss this afternoon's opportunity.   It wasn't easy to start his portrait. I had a higher expectations for myself after I saw many beautiful drawings or portrait work from great artists nearby.  Or maybe it was my first live model with beer or bald head.  I corrected my basic drawings more than usual, each time I lightened the color, then it turned out the portrait itself looked too creamy after this one 3-hour session done, and the proportion wasn't good either.  My husband said it looks fine, but please understand why I decided not to post it. In the evening we had a new good model, her poses were beautiful.  And she always asked if we like her standing or sitting down.  Ended up too many positions where she was standing. (February 21 2023)

I planned to continue my last week's portrait study of this model. Arrived at the studio, I saw the profile of the model from a different angle, and then decided to paint a new 12"x16" portrait study. Tried to paint her hand as well. Used some leftover paints from my last week's pallet. I rushed everything so I could do in one three-hour session. (January 10 2023) I thought that I'd just retouch a little bit, but ended up spending 6 hours working on the same painting, and I didn't even want to paint her hand anymore. The challenging and the life-learning parts of painting is knowing when to stop, because it has no undo button, lol... ( Updated on January 20 2023. Both are the same image, the 1st one was taken outdoors, and 2nd one was an indoor image) Evening we had the same model again for short poses. Ten or twenty minute poses were fine, but I still had hard time to draw her in less than five minutes. Drawing is really a daily study/progression I can real

I really needed a break from online social media, including my blog.  I didn't do much during the holiday season, besides seeing museums based in Los Angeles in Southern California.  It was called our "vacation" before the Christmas in 2022, since we didn't travel like most of people in past three plus years, only went to Boise last summer to meet my brother-in-law there.   Weather was warmer than our location in the Bay Area, especially during the day time.  The food was delicious, traffic was as expected.   The most exciting part of our trip was seeing about hundred of dolphins swimming and jumping around the boat when we were on the way to the Channel Island National Park.  But the hiking was super-challenging, we could not reach Pelican Beach in time. Getty Villa and Getty Center were both must-see museums with enormous collections.  Norton Simon is always one of my favorites.  Saw the special exhibition of "Picasso Ingres - Face to Face" there. There wa

I changed my mind and wanted to correct my portraiture study a little bit from the week before. Went to the studio and set up my stuff, even asked another artist to move so I could be in the same spot I painted before. Then I realized that I didn't bring the work with me. Not only me though, one artist forgot to bring her brushes. Another artist forgot to bring her phone, borrowed mine for a photo reference. Lol... I had to start another new one 12"x16". I liked the fresh look of the paints on the new white panel, no need to worry that the painting would dry darker or highlights not be strong enough. The artist who borrowed my phone to take photos, gave me a really helpful suggestion. I didn't think painting her cloths was necessary at the end. That was after a three hour session.   After a one hour break having dinner snack with an artist friend in the car, we started to draw the short pose model.  She was a little bit late.  During the minutes drawings, found sh

After a whole week of Plein Air painting at Capitola and exhibition sales, only had Monday for managing home and personal stuff. Rained a lot, it was necessary for California. We had Courtney as our long pose.  She arrived a little earlier,  dressed up very trendy with make-up, she looked very pretty in black and red outfit, including her bag. I designed the painting on a16"x20" used panel.  She was a good model, and got back to the correct position after each break.   I painted loosely the whole the whole figure, including her bag.  Three hours gone, time was up, and I realized that I painted her head a little bigger than it should be.  Then I decided not changing anything, just because my original brushes and design fit her funky style.  May do a new one next week. Evening we had a new model Allen.  His short poses were very good, and his body shape seemed perfectly built for modelling.  Wish he could be our long pose model someday. (November 8 2022)

Same painting: left indoor and right outdoor. In the early afternoon when we were waiting for our model to arrive at the studio, several artists chatted together. I told them that I would love to have a regular person be our model rather than a professional one, I could feel a more personal message from the face expression, and therefore more interesting to paint for a portrait. One or two agreed with me. Then we got our model's message that she just had a car accident,  wasn't able to be here. Hope she was OK. One of the artists volunteered to be our long pose model, so we started painting. Not sure if I should have said what I did about painting regular people, but this artist was a good model. She stayed still, and her face's expression really was more interesting to me. By using palette knife, I worked on a used panel 12"x16". Everything worked out smoothly, and First time I was done when the time was up. Being a visual artist working in the studio or

Enjoyed drawing the double models, but it was very challenging. Generally, short poses do not allow us to have enough time to study like for a single model. So two models are even harder, and you have to add in the relationship between two of them. I did as much as I could, one model's body is rounder than the other. After all was done, I wish we could draw double models more often.  (July 5 2022)

A formal ballerina was our long post live model today.  She brought a three sit chair with her and her point shoes on her feet.  I was a little bit earlier, but it was hard to get a good painting spot.  Her position was lying down, very beautiful and elegant, but difficult.  Painting through with struggle for the form and corrected the figure through, three hours wasn't long enough.  Not sure I should continue to correct this one, or start over again next session. (June 16 2022)

Not sure why I could not get myself motivated, the laziness was all over my mind and body. Some of my works are half way done, I keep reminding myself that I should fix or finish them... Day by day I sink into the sofa, barely move around, and found all kinds of excuses for myself to do nothing. Till I noticed that I had gained a couple pounds again. It makes a big difference for me - each time I gain weight, I loose motivation. After Memorial Day, I started doing exercise again, dragged myself to the art center studio and took the second long pose session of the same live model to finish this portraiture. And I continued on to the evening short pose session. Found my arm even hard to reach where I wanted to draw. Unbelievable that only few ponds could cause so much unwillingness all over me. But glad I did it! (May 31 2022)

Our first time to paint this new model Melisa today. I started with a used 12"x16" canvas.  One artist friend mentioned to me that she would be confused working on uncovered used canvas.  I felt OK, and tried to paint with new style after not working at the studio about two weeks. My speed and correction were not as good as two weeks ago.  The painting wasn't near finished after 3-hour-session.  (May 10 2022)  Spent two or three hours or more fixing this portrait.  Tried to work like expressionist with black outlines, sometimes using a palette knife.  Hard to paint with consistency, in the studio and at home.  I had to stop before I changed too much from my original idea.  That was challenging working at home without a model, I decided to leave the arm area the way it was, lucky it was used canvas, the colors  matched well...