Original Art Stories - Xueling Zou

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

October 31 Day 1 My second year participating the annual Plein Air. Very happy to see Laurie, the event chair, and other artists when I checked in, though it was gray and cold, only 53 degrees. Luckily all the participants got parking permits next to the City Hall. Dragged my stuff walked partway through town and met several painters. Decided to paint on the pier, and got permission from the store owner to set up my gear in front of his shop. There were three or four older guys chatting across from me, some passers by dressed up Halloween outfits complimented my work. Then I moved back to my car, drank water and ate some snack. Went back and started painting my second one, smaller size, but I liked the colors of the building. It was getting colder, watercolor paper wasn't drying, and took much longer to do my next steps. It was about near sunset, so I decided to hit the road for home. November 1 Day 2 It was raining heavily at the location... November 2 Day 3 Arrived there and fou

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)

Painted Plein Air for the first time in a while, I really missed it. Today I went to Carmelite Monastery Santa Clara CA to paint this church building, which has been on my mind for a long time. It was a peaceful place, only saw a few people, including a nun who walked into the church from the side door. Drawing the architecture took me for a while, then painted the clouds with care. Because we don't usually have clouds besides during winter. Not much light and contrast. Then spent a lot of time for the details on the building. After that I realized that the details were too small and there wasn't any reason to include them in my Plein air work. Church bell rang twice during the time I painted there, it brought a lot peace. Hope it expends to the whole world....

Seems that working in the studio and Plein Air outdoors are quite different in many ways. Went to Carmel Plein Air painting with my friends for four days, missed the last session for short-pose live model drawing. So I found that I had difficult time to draw. No matter two minutes, five minutes or ten minutes, I could not draw fast and correctly enough, didn't have time to draw a leg or arm. This model was good, he worked very hard, I saw his body shaking during the pose. Of course we all pay good tips to our models. (May 10 2022)

Always look forward to drawing nude models for their short poses. But I felt it was super challenging to draw this one. His body proportions were unique, long and slim. He posed in many twisty positions while standing, I only could try my best, many other artist said that they felt not easy to draw him too. Felt better by knowing I was not the only one that had a hard time. Hahaha... (April 26 2022)

We were all ready, but the model hadn't arrived yet.  So the organizer asked for two people there to be temporary models.  Our model was African American female tonight, she lives in Oakland, and must have been in bad traffic for arriving 30 minutes late. When she started her pose, wow, each one was so inspiring.  Just a great model for sketching. Elegant lines and her poses were so interesting and dynamic.  Wish could have her more often. (April 19 2022)

It was challenging to draw this new male model, not sure why. But the other artists said the same. I think that it is harder to draw the male than the female body. Lots of practice but somehow never feel enough though. (April 12 2022).

  We all love this model, she was fun and happy. Most of models look sleepy or tired after an hour or two, she was always smile or laughing. If we weren't struggling painting, might want to know what she was thinking of. She must be a very positive person. (March 24 and March 31 2022) I knew that I should highlight a little bit after the 2 sessions. This 16"x20" figurative panel sat on a stool in my kitchen for weeks.  Finally I did a little retouch, though it might be need more, but I thought it could be finished up right now...  (April 11 2022)

April 5 happened to be Tomb Sweeping Day on the Chinese Calendar. In our culture, people usually go to visit their ancestors' tomb with flowers and clean off the dust. No one can get visas to travel home, and our visas were no longer valid in China because of COVID 19. I haven't visited my in family almost three years. I decided to paint at Hakone Gardens Japanese Garden in Saratoga.  There were many cars already parked at the entry to the place next to the Big Basin Way.  Quickly I parked my car at the last available space, because there was limited parking near by the entrance. My instinct was right, but I had to roll my painting stuff up the hill to the entrance.  My legs felt sore and I felt short of breath for walking up there with all my painting stuff.  There were so many people, more than 95% of them were Asian, I guessed that it was free day, and many people could not go to sweep their ancestors' tombs.  Not sure how my ancestors thought about me and rest of overse