Original Art Stories - Xueling Zou

One of my favorite drawing exercises is face study. I prefer studying on different people and try to express the character of each one. Most models are trained to not showing emotion, but with people you know or are getting to know express their feelings while they are chatting or talking, that is what I try to catch. Today most of them they were talking about their kitchen tools. In few minutes I tried my best to draw them, challenging and fun! Maybe these are my last drawings in 2021.

Finally it started to rain! No one could ever complain a little bit, because California is desperate for it. I wanted to join my favorite morning sketch group. It took me more than twenty minutes to reset it up, that was a little annoying, but I was happy to draw with old and new friends. I could see myself that I have made a little improvement after practicing drawing with live models. Definitely I will try to catch up more.  (December 13 2021)

Close-up sketching is not as easy as I thought, though I had a little bit longer time for working on details.  Actually it was quite challenging!  Not sure how did we start talking about ear-rings. But our Zoom meeting host Doug is a very nice guy.  He really has great people skills on line to make each meeting interesting and encouraging each other sharing our life stories, and we all have fun.  Another wonderful practice morning!  (July 12 2021)

  I was a little bit late this morning. Yesterday was Independence day, the 4th of July. I probably missed some fun stories from concentrating, but always happy to listen and sketch with them. Maybe I could draw better if I focus more. Really I should start to prepare for the Paintout in Alameda that starts early next month. Feels more like I need a vacation somehow... (July 5 2021)

No matter how much I enjoyed listening to the stories everyone shared, I had a lot things needed to be done.  I joined  half way through, really had fun and sketched several people, tried to capture their expression.  Didn't get to share my story with the group. maybe next time.

Exercised profile sketches on Zoom this morning, never thought it could be as difficult as it was. Felt like I drew slower than usual, and had difficult time to capture the shapes, etc.. Everyone had a story to share. I shared the movie called "Goya's Ghosts", which was a very disturbing especially watching it before bed last night. Whole sleeping dreams surrounding the movie, felt very tired in the morning...(June 21 2021 )

As usual, we had great time together sharing our stories, wondered why there were fewer people on Zoom today, might be on vacation... Anyway, I talked about how much I enjoyed Zooming with them, I stopped painting outdoors since they are my favorite part of  Mondays now!

Lovely sunny day in Half Moon Bay. Set up my easel on a wine barrel and painted the grapevines in front of me. Another artist was sketching, of course she had became part of my painting. Lucky I painted the water fountain last time. Now, several Mexican guys were working on that area. Standing next to the them, I could hear the happy music they were listening to, and their conversation, though I had no idea what they said in Spanish, sounded very positive. So I painted it with a joyful and gorgeous environment. (June 9 2021)

 Many stories about grandparents, mostly about grandmas.  I was busy sketching while others were telling the old day's stories.  Some of them had photos to share.  How grateful we all have had a lot of memories, hopefully them are always sweet and stored away in our brains.  Another great day to meet with others and practice drawing.

A gorgeous day, went to Shoreline Park to meet other watercolor artists and paint together. Arrived at the Rengstorff House, there was a graduation party going on. Found a shady spot, set up my work station, then I found out that I didn't bring any watercolor paper. Haha, I was wondering why my gear bag was a slightly lighter in weight this morning.  So, I only completed my sketch.   Came back home and decided to organize my art supplies a little bit, those always occupy so much space.  I needed to find out if I have to buy more materials for Alameda Paintout Event coming up in August.  I would have plenty of  time to order online learning from my previous lessons.  Surprised to see a couple of my very old sketches.  They brought back memories, some of them were the doodles of my commissioned works. One of those I wrote down in "7 2006".  It was hard to believe about fifteen years already.  I still had my job working back then....

Dressed very warm to paint at this lovely winery, because it was only 50ish degrees. Looked like a lovely garden with beautiful blooming flowers. Found the subject and a spot, I talked a little loud that I wished the sun would come up, so I could capture the contrast of the light and shadow in the landscape. But my painting spot wasn't in the shade,  and when the sun really came out, it shone onto my extra white Fabiano Artistico 140b Cold press watercolor paper. I had to follow the light to keep moving. After I moved under a tree, the sun hid under clouds. Back and forth a couple of times, it might be the sun was playing game with me since I asked for it? Such a nice place, and I wanted to come and paint for a long time each time I was passing by on the way to Half Moon Bay. Certainly, I will be back soon again. (June 2 2021) I went to the same location to Plein Air again a week later, they had the major construction going on surround the fountain...

  Monday Sketch on Zoom has become one of my favorite activities since the pandemic. I always enjoy drawing people's faces with different characters. One good thing about a professional model is that they are trained not to move and can stay super-still, including their facial expression. But it isn't easy to express their characters through drawings. That is one of reasons that I love drawing regular people, especially with their emotion showing while talking about their life stories. The challenging part is that they cannot stay still, always move around, and minute drawing doesn't allow for too many mistakes, it has to be done correctly in a very short time. That is another reason why my visual brain and listening part need to be better connected.  (May 31 2021)

A long term friend of my husband's invited us over to stay during this memorial weekend in Sonoma county. They bought a 20 acre property in Cloverdale 10 years ago, and moved in a couple years back. They love the country lifestyle and fit into it so well. We live in a suburban area. It is hard to imagine the hard work and many projects that have to be done out there. After our personal tour, we were super impressed by their great clean up job and endless efforts. Michele is a fabulous cook, and she is fond of Julia Child so we were in for a treat. We enjoyed her cooking, barbecued food, and her husband Raul's cocktail refreshments. We ate, hiked, wine tasted, watched TV shows, watched birds visiting all of their feeders, played games, chatted and laughed as we caught up on years of friendship. During our visit, I had a little time to squeeze in two very fast works. One was of the corner of their house, I saw the beautiful light coming through the fence in the morning...

Another wonderful Monday morning doing sketching and listening to each person's story. Not everyone had a story about uniforms, but it was nice to see others and get to know them more each time we meet on Zoom. I still keep learning how to sketch and listen to the talking at the same time. I missed some part of the stories, just because my sketching brain and listening part are not connected well yet, but I enjoyed it a lot for sure.

Never thought I would love Mondays, but it has me changed after I started drawing with this group of friendly people on Zoom. Today our topic was pets. Everyone shared their stories. One lady had got an adopted shelter dog birthday present from her sister - a couple of month old Husky. We all felt she was so joyful and exhausted taking care of the new baby dog. Another guy shared his sad story that his beloved 15-years cat just past away. I really enjoy listening each of the stories, very hard to focus on drawing.

  Yesterday was Mother's Day, today we shared our mothers' stories during the Zoom meeting. I believe that we all love our mothers, though we all know that no one is perfect. The topic brought many of us emotional feelings, some sweet or bitter... I was quite busy and tried to sketch each one of their special expressions. Just love it, and I could not believe that I had already forgotten what our topic is for next week. Hope it only was because I was too focused and not due to getting old and forgetful, hahaha...

Always feel welcome and encouraged in this friendly group, drawing them was fun and frustrating at the same time.  We shared our pets' stories today on Zoom.  Each one of had stories about their experiences and personal love and care for their beloved pets.  It was so interesting that I could not concentrate drawing well. I had pets back when I was in China, and continue to have interesting experiences and connections with wildlife in nature and even in the neighborhood.  Only several minutes to talk, I only shared the most current story about my hummingbird neighbors. I keep watching them growing, will share the story later.

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...