Original Art Stories - Xueling Zou

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)

It was a beautiful and warm day, first time I drove to this amazing Sikh Gurdwara in San Jose up in the middle of the hills after passing downtown San Jose.  From Google Search: The Sikh Gurdwara of San Jose is a gurdwara located in the Evergreen district of San Jose, California. It was founded in 1984 by leaders of the then-rapidly growing community of Sikhs in the area. It is the largest Gurdwara in the world outside of India. I could spot the domes through the trees on my way up the hill, the Gurdwara is nestled in the hills and I  really wanted to stop along the roadside to paint it from a distance, but I kept driving up to the location. When I arrived, I saw three generations of families in traditional dress, woman wearing beautiful saris and men wearing turbans together with their children.  While I was there, I walked around and got to say "hi" to some new and old artist friends.  I found a nice spot to the side and started working.  Took a long time to finish because

My last Plein Air painting in Half Moon Bay was done in July last year.  I remember it was such a cold day.  Today I caught only light traffic and little road work on the way.   It was a gorgeous day, hills turned green, and flowers started blooming after days of rain.  I was looking for the Giusti farm in Half Moon Bay CA without knowing the address.  Luckily, I found it by noticing other artists painting along the High Way #1, only had one extra turn.  There were acres of mustard flowers in the fields and up to the hills. Some were lemon yellow, some already had turned to Indian yellow.  They were more attractive contrasted with the fresh spring green grasses in between.   Usually start with a small sketch, not this time since I was a little bit behind schedule.  I reminded myself that I should focus on the main subject to paint.  It didn't take too long, and I was happy with the result.   Very nice to see some old and new artists painting as well.   (February 8 2023)

Arrived 30 minutes earlier at the studio, because the model is one of my favorites. Our model she is African and Irish mixed. Today she wore a long white silk gown which contrasted her skin, very beautiful. But I didn't get the spot where I wanted to paint. She looked exactly straight to me, and her hands and feet were all together in the middle. Depends on my years of Plein Air experience, I know I must make decision quickly. Almost the same moment she moved her hand to touch her face, I captured the moment, so I could had a reference photo to paint while her two hands were positioned one horizontal, and one vertical. I already had done two portraits of her before, both were 12"x16". Today I worked on a new colored panel 16"x20". During the work, I noticed that her gown was quite challenging to paint, because of the white silky and reflective material. So I just focused on her whole shape, and used my left over color palette. Three hours was too shor

Because of the Chinese Lunar New Year, I didn't go painting last week. Cleaning up was the major activity, got ready for the New Year.   Rain finally stopped, and the news said that there was enough water restored in our area. I only had one three-hour session for the long pose model in the afternoon. Working on an used 16"x20" canvas panel, quickly sketched, than started to put colors on. Even I have been practicing over a year, still certain proportions were not right after the session was finished. I know the challenging part is the correction.  Spent extra 6 hours to correct it after. In the evening, we had this African American female model back.  She is pretty and tall.  Each of her poses was nice, but I never could fit her onto my paper.  Just might be that she was very tall, and I was not used to it.  Of course I didn't expect I could draw figures super well, maybe someday soon.  One thing I have no doubt that practicing helps me to get work done bette

After weeks of rain, our weather is getting warmer and clear, spring is on the way.  Very happy to start my first Plein Air of the Year. I didn't set up my spot, just thought to follow whatever caught my eye. Didn't drive too far, and I couldn't help myself to stop at the orchard next to the Campbell Seventh-day Adventist Church.  I just love this unique place.  It's hard to believe that it still hasn't been developed into a new condos.   Felt warm in the sun.  Set up my equipment, looked through the chicken wire fences, and started with a small sketch on a pad, then on my regular Fabriano Artistico 140 lb Cold Press watercolor paper.  I decided to "relocate" the truck for a new layout. During the painting, a truck stopped in front of my view.  A young guy started taking photos.  Being a Plein Air painter, you must make decisions quickly depending on the situation when unexpected things happen.  So I decided to let him know that he blocked what I was work

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)

My first time going to this park next to Vasona Lake County Park.  Nice fall afternoon with warm sunshine.  My artist friend guided me to this lovely spot with a railway racks in front of the old buildings.  Instantly a huge "wildcat" moving on the roof scared me.  Haha, there was Halloween decoration for the kids.  We set up our equipment and started to paint.  It was a quiet park, some people walking around, some of them took their dogs.  They gave us some compliments.  After our work was done, walked around and found several paintable spots for coming back to do more paintings.  (October 27 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

Gorgeous day for outdoor paintings. While I was drawing, a train was running on the railway, I took short video. I didn't know how many cars the train carried, but it ran at least ten minutes long. Struggling with the layout, and the details of the historic train I was painting. Came home I realized that I didn't need that much. Just cropped it, and it looked much better. And would you believe, I found some charming artwork in the public bathroom. Several years ago I went to this historic charming town for Plein Air. Walked around and found a good spot to set up my painting station, then found out I didn't bring any paper at all. LOL, had to go home... (October 24 2022)

In the morning on the way back from my dentist, found this old factory warehouse surrounded by new buildings. Felt an urgent need to paint it, because it might be gone someday soon... I painted under the open air roof protecting machines and tools from the sun, so I kept moving to stay in the shade.  A bell rang once for several times in the distance, I couldn't detect where it came from. A guy drove by in a pick up truck and stopped next to where I was painting.  He politely asked me if he could help.  I told him that I was painting the buildings.  Seemed that he really understood as he said that we need to keep record of it before they were destroyed. All the land is getting more expensive in Silicon Valley. But this area looked so peaceful, there were orange orchards and this precious old part of a warehouse remaining.  A couple of private properties were hiding behind but I couldn't go in to see them.  (September 23 2022)

I didn't go out painting last week, because of the dog day week. There were several painting location ideas in my mind this morning, so I drove the car to check out some locations. Non of them worked, might be the gray morning. So, I set my work station up in front of the catholic church so I could paint the old adobe building.  Spent a long time drawing.  I saw a guy was standing in front of the campus wall.  He stood there for a long time, I was able to draw him into my work. I always could get inspired by the beautiful campus at Santa Clara university. There was a construction nearby, I could hear the loud noise. A lady carried a child walked by asking me for directions, felt bad that I could not help. Later a Mexican gardening guy came blowing leaves by the church. He was kind and tried to avoid the area where I was painting. Took much longer to finish and it was getting hot around noon. (September 12 2022)

Went to Portola Vineyard, my car GPS still directed me to the wrong spot, had to make a three-point turn on such a narrow road. Glad that I went there and met several other artists. Except for one artist who was at the Alameda Plein Air Paint Out last week, the others I hadn't seen for a long time. My subject was the pool house, because the grape vines have not changed colors yet. It was nice to see other artists, and make a little progress as well, though I felt burnt out after Alameda Plein Air event. (August 10 2022)

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)