Original Art Stories - Xueling Zou

Tuesday has become one of the busiest days each week. Went to Fogarty Vineyards Woodside for Plein Air, and then live model study in the evening. The temperature dropped dramatically in our area. It was still the summer hot feeling during day only a couple of days ago. It was only 51 degrees, not only cold, it was also windy when I got Fogarty Vineyards. Found a hidden and not windy place to paint. My warmest jacket helped me, and it was getting a little warm by noon. We brought little snacks and chatted a short while after our work was done. Autumn colors were gorgeous at the vineyard. Looked around and took some reference photos, then said "Goodbye" to the other artists. As usual I turned on my car GPS, and got my smartphone ready, because there was no signal from the location. There was about 30 miles to my home in total, I had been back and forth several times. I noticed that my car GPS acted a little strange, and the mileage showing I had to drive more than 30

It was a tiring day. Went to Fogarty Vineyards in Woodside, I got a little lost and ran into slower traffic due to  road work. It was a beautiful morning at the location and I met many local artists painting there. I painted Sue in my painting, who was one of our organizers, Captured some fall feeling... Went to draw live model after Plein Air in the evening. Short pose female live model. Tested new drawing paper, I liked it. But the delivery took over two weeks.  (October 5 2021)

COIVID-19 has changed many ways in our lives. I haven't seen my family for over two years, and I don't know when I will be able to get a visa and go back to my motherland for a visit. Especially on the Mid Autumn Moon Festival when all families should be together celebrating the annual harvest while enjoying watching the brightest full moon.   My husband is a Caucasian who understands Asian Culture better than most of Westerners.  He got up earlier and baked a delicious dark chocolate cake for us, because we ate most of the mooncakes earlier.  I was supposed to go Plein Air today.  Might be my nostalgia, I didn't want to go out for an excuse of hot weather.  Didn't feel productive, but I did go to the evening live model drawing drop-in class.   Wow, I wasn't the only one Chinese there!   I guessed that drawing the live model helped us to forget homesickness.  We even went out watching the full moon during the break.  What a great way to celebrate our traditional Moo

Today's 3-hour session live model study, painted on another used panel 18"x14". The top left was captured outdoors. The model is an artist herself, she really understands how to stay still. Working on a larger used panel was easier, and I liked the background color showing through from the previous painting, not sure if I should painted it over again... Going to another session to complete the painting, wish me luck! (September 16 2021)  Photos were taken from the first session. In today's 3-hour session I continued to work on this work from last week.  The model did not have her make-up on like last week. She told me that she was worried the make-up would melt because it was too hot today.  Never mind, she was a very good model and showed us consistent position to last week.  Glad that I was able to finish the painting.  Only a few retouches when the paint will be dry.  Can't wait for the next session. (September 23, 2021)

Today's 3-hour live model session. Even a very experienced model still changes position, and the light changed too. I should have followed my original plan to retouch the work I did from last week only. Instead, I tried to correct the painting. But it was great to meet a Chinese master painter. Got some feedback from him, and reconnect my expression of feeling, then time was up. Couldn't finish it, felt frustrated...  

Today's 3-hour session live model oil painting.  Getting better for managing time.  Not sure if I should start a new one for the next section, or if I should work on the same one to add more details? The light indoors and outdoors can make the same painting looks so different.  I like outdoors' lighting, it needs to be retouched.

  Today's 3-hour session live model oil painting session. Painted on a previously used panel 9"x12". Managed time better than last time. Tried to take reference photos for the record during each break. Needs some retouch. The light indoors and outdoors can make the same painting look so different.  Or I should say that any different environment can make the same the same thing look different.  Enjoyed doing it!  (August 31 2021)

Miss figurative studio painting so much! Back to real model figure oil study after a long break. Used an old painted panel 12"x12", didn't manage time well... Almost forgot how enjoyable oil painting was, and it was a great way to practice!  (August 26 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!

 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.

  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)

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....