Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Qiang Huang workshop

I worked on two paintings during the wonderful workshop with Qiang Huang (Chong Wong).  They were really practice sketches of his method.  The first day I didn't quite get it, but I think that I did better on this one done the second and third day.  I started to show signs of promise as far as working with his method is concerned.

Monday, June 14, 2010

Day Three - Qiang Huang

The schedule for the third day was a smaller (a daily painting sized) painting demo--this time the subject was glass objects.  After the demo we all returned to our easels to either work further on the practice painting of the previous day's setup or work on a smaller sketch to practice the glass idea.  As I woke up in the morning feeling more clear-headed about this technique, I worked on the previous painting and felt quite a bit better with those results. 
After lunch I participated in a business of marketing workshop that was very well presented and explained and Q&A on that subject ensued.  I learned a lot even though I already have a good foundation in that regard.  I would very highly recommend Qiang's workshop to anyone.
During the painting of the demo, there was a little worm in the orange that was a hit with the crowd as he kept sticking his head up like a periscope and looking around.  It was noticeable as he was in the spotlight and silhouetted against the dark background!
At the end I purchased the demo of the flower painting and will post it here when I unpack the camera.  It will be a constant reminder of my wonderful workshop with Qiang and his instruction.  I say instruction because there are many demos where the painter doesn't explain much; with Qiang this is not the case.  He is patient and as generous as possible with his knowledge and technique, and I understood and will incorporate many of his methods.  Many of which I have heard before, but it just didn't stick in my head until now!

Day Two - Qiang Huang

Following another excellent Powerpoint instructional presentation, Chong (pronounciation for Qiang) demonstrated painting flowers.  It was mesmerizing to watch his decision-making process and careful placement of strokes of color that were only placed after mixing the perfect clean color with the correct size brush.  After lunch everyone's set-up included flowers to practice his method.  Since I haven't painted still-life for a while, it was probably easier for me to experiment with his style, but I felt that I failed in the end.  I noticed that most people, although they probably tried, didn't paint anything like the careful stroke put-it-down-and-leave-it-alone method either.