Q & A #1

  It's Sunday in Singapore. I thought a good way to encourage you, yes you, to ask me questions would be to have a question and answer segment on my blog. I'm hoping to do them every fortnight on Sundays.

Question 1: Talent needed, or practice?

I was wondering if you just have to practice a lot or have to have talent to be able to draw/paint nicely because i'm not really talented but I'd love to draw better. Also, what are good ways to practice drawing and painting?

My Answer:

Having natural inclination to something (not talent, no one is born knowing how to do something) is good. However, if you do not work hard, that "talent" goes to waste. Someone who has talent but is lazy will easily be overtaken by someone who has not much talent but is full of passion and works hard.

Question 2: Any other artists like Thomas Cole?

His paintings are absolutely astounding, and I am just wondering if there artists like him, or any that come to mind?

My Answer:

There are SO MANY. :) Aside, you have excellent taste in Art. They are mid-nineteenth century American painters of the Hudson River School. Of which, I remember Frederic Church the best.

Click here for Hudson River School Painters Image Search

And here for Frederick Church Image Search

[His reply was: "This is exactly what I was looking for. Thank you!"]

Question 3: How to develop drawing style?

I started drawing in the 6th grade. I draw wolves and other animals. I'm 15 now, and I've been trying to mimic all these other art styles that I see because I can't seem to find my own, and if I don't do it perfectly, I get so angry and flip out. I've tried drawing in my own style but I can't seem to make it work.

What am I to do?

My Answer:

Style develops over time, without you noticing. Mimicking is good. Learn from the best. You can't just wake up one day and have "style". Style is built over what skills you have. Frustration, to an extent, is good. It means you want to be good at drawing very bad. But don't get discouraged. Keep at it. You'll get there eventually.

  And with that, I'll end this episode of Q & A. Coincidentally, this is my 100th post. Woohoo! I hope that was some help to you even if they were not your question. If you'd like to ask me a question, you can reach me at < stephanie_jennifer@ymail.com >. Or in the comments section below. Anonymous commenting is enabled. So, ask away.

Recommended Artist: Mark Demsteader

   He didn't have his biography on his website, so I had to search wikipedia and quote from there.

  "Born in Manchester in 1963, his formative years were spent in Manchester’s meat market where he would accompany his father (Fraser Stone) and his mother (Matteo Russo) to the family butchery and meat-packing business. Completely absorbed in the noise, smells, and sheer physicality of this environment, the young Mark learnt more about the structure of sinew, bone, and flesh—albeit livestock—than in any subsequent life drawing class."

  I find that highly interesting. He learned to observe anatomy from livestock and had a natural fascination with form from a very young age.  The article goes on to say that as a teenager he was inclined in Arts but the Art market was not kind to him. That did not stop him from pursuing Arts and he continued to take life classes throughout the 1990s even when his family business took a hit during the recession. He tried to bank in on his talents while still having time to build a portfolio. Thus, he took  a job as an art technician at an Oldham grammar school for another ten years.

  After which, he took a short course at the Slade School of Fine Art. It led him to an opportunity to tour the London galleries with his portfolio, but with Brit Art in the ascendency he found drawing out of favour. Eventually, a gallery in Greenwich offered him space in a mixed show where he sold six works.

  He is now represented in Daikanyama, Japan by Art Obsession. And according to The Daily Telegraph, he is "one of Britain's best-selling figurative painters".

  I like his drawings over his paintings, and maybe it's due to the fact that his drawings show more details of the subject's faces. I like the last painting because the girl is shrouded in darkness and her features are not clear- you don't quite know who she is. She blends into the background. She's there but not quite there. Life is like that for me sometimes. I'm still trying to figure out who I am, and it feels like I'm lost in a vast empty space of darkness with it slowly swallowing me up. I have to find my light again, find my path, find myself. And the painting is an analogy of me as I'm beginning to come out from the background, I'm coming out of the darkness as I start to understand who I am.

 Mark Demsteader's website can be found, here: http://demsteader.com/

Recommended Artist: Jeremy Lipking

Michael Zakian says of Lipking's Art, "Realism has been misunderstood through most of the twentieth century as an art of imitation. In truth, when practiced by a painter like Jeremy Lipking, realist painting is a powerful creative force. Many viewers are drawn to his art thinking that it looks just like a photograph. Actually Lipking's vision is the opposite of what a camera does. A photograph tends to flatten an image, reducing all relationships of color and shade to a stiff mechanical pattern. Lipking's skill lies in his ability to probe in and around his subject. With a highly sensitive eye, he sees nuances of value and hue that the camera and most people can never see. More incredibly, he is able to translate his highly nuanced vision into a painted image. Lipking's true subject is his pictorial fluency. Seeing one of his paintings involves entering into the pictorial world he has created. Like all great realists, he has the ability to generate powerful fictions."

  I think that's a brilliant way to put it. Jeremy Lipking's Art is more than a picture, it's more than slavish copying of a photograph. His Art shows subtleties that a camera could never capture. His Art shows emotion, character, a mood, a second in time.

  I really like his confident brushstrokes and excellent understanding of composition and anatomy. In particular, the last painting here is really interesting composition wise, with a very high horizon and a lot of negative space. It's a landscape, but doesn't fit into what you're used to seeing in landscapes. It reads as water very well even though there's very little detail, and shows a magical moment when the sun is just about to rise from the horizon. Magical.

  Visit his website at: http://www.lipking.com/gallery.htm

Recommended Artist: Alyssa Monks

  Born 1977 in Ridgewood, New Jersey, Alyssa Monks began oil painting as a child. She studied at The New School in New York and Montclair State University and earned her B.A. from Boston College in 1999. During this time she studied painting at Lorenzo de’Medici in Florence. She went on to earn her M.F.A from the New York Academy of Art, Graduate School of Figurative Art in 2001.

  She writes, "When I began painting the human body, I was obsessed with it and needed to create as much realism as possible. I chased realism until it began to unravel and deconstruct itself. I am exploring the possibility and potential where representational painting and abstraction meet - if both can coexist in the same moment."

  I find that notion very interesting. Realistic, yet abstract art. What you see is real, yet not quite. You are amazed, then taking two steps closer, begin to notice that the painting is merely strokes and dabs of colours which make an illusion of reality through your eyes.

I strongly suggest you seeing her full body of work via this link:

http://www.alyssamonks.com/

Painting of the Day: "What Dreams Are Made Of"

"What Dreams Are Made Of" by Arthur Shawcross.

  Arthur Shawcross, the creator of the above painting, was an American murderer known as The Genesee River Killer in Rochester, New York. He was born in Kittery, Maine, but his family moved to Watertown in New York State when he was young. In fifth grade, his IQ was tested to be "low-normal" (between 86 and 92). However, when tested in the army, Shawcross scored above average in intelligence tests. In May 1972, he murdered his first victim. In 1990, he was convicted of 11 murders and died in prison due to cardiac arrest on November 10, 2008 at the Albany Medical Center.

  A monk once said that if Hitler had not been rejected by the Vienna Academy of Art, he wouldn't have become destructive because he would have had an outlet for all his creative energy. I think the above Art piece is charming, and very much beautiful. It has good composition, and a very balanced use of colours. Though, I cannot help but wonder whether there is symbolism in the painting, and what it means to the artist. For example, the yellow and orange flames at the top right hand corner, does that represent hell? I thought it'd be interesting to show some Art done by not quite conventional artist, and I hope you've enjoyed it as much as I have.

DAISO in Singapore

  In another post (Art Stores In Singapore) I wrote saying that one could get some steals– as in cheap items or bargain, not actually taking illegally– from DAISO. I misspelled the shop's name, an oversight on my part, and my error was pointed out by a kind Anon. I rectified the error but found that people had followed the mis-spelled "DIASO" label on that post. To make up for that error, here's a post on all the DAISO shops in Singapore.

  DAISO's inventory differs with each store so what you can get at one store, you might not be able to find at another. The inventory also changes very quickly, to the extent that what you bought last month, you might not be able to find ever again at any of the DAISO stores due to discontinuation.

  Here's what I've seen/bought from DAISO.

  Resin. Apparently they sell resin in little 5g tubes. Still expensive, but good for people who just need small quantities for their own projects.

  Notebooks, and they still stock notebooks with white pages. Those are hard to come buy in other stores because they're difficult to clear. Most stores stock the ruled ones (those with lines) because that's what most people use. I like to use the un-ruled notebooks as diaries because I sometimes draw in them and my handwriting changes with my mood.

But don't make the mistake of buying too many too soon. I use one notebook in 2-3 months that's why I buy 3-4 notebooks at one go.

And they stock lots of other kinds of notebooks. Glittery ones. Plain ones. Cashier notebooks. Receipt notebooks. Ones with pretty covers. Small ones, big ones, thin ones, mini ones. They literally have 2 aisles in each store dedicated to just notebooks.

  They sell Japanese pen-brushes. It's like a pen, but with a bendy, slightly broader nib. The packaging says "Waterproof Ink" or sometimes "Indian Ink" but I think they use permanent marker ink. Try smelling one of them if you find one and you'll get why I think so. I have one of them... but I misplaced it... *fumbles around the house to find it* I have no clue where I last saw it. So, moving on.

  Oil pastels and normal pastels, acrylics, inks, oils, paintbrushes, Chinese brushes, coloured papers, sketchbooks. Yes, they sell art materials. Do keep in mind though, that you're paying just $2. They will not last long, nor have the same quality as artist grade (or even student grade) materials.

  The pastels I've tried- both oil and the normal type. They usually come in sets of 12, with an A set, and a B set of different colours. I like them. They're good for experimentation pieces.

A used set of oil pastels. They've got a good consistency. Well worth the $2.

  I really like the sketchbooks that DAISO stocks. They're sort of like cold-pressed watercolour paper with a medium tooth. They're wired-bound and come in different sizes. Try to get a plastic wrapped one if you're intending on buying because people like to touch and see what they're buying and fingers transfer oil to the paper through touch. You might get a nasty surprise later on when you use the sketchbook if you buy an opened one.

  Canvases. They're small, but good enough to use. Some come with a pre-printed composition of flowers or a landscape. I tried doing a watercolour piece using that but the watercolour didn't really stay. "Watercolours aren't meant for canvases," I hear you say. Yes, but in my defence I would like to say that the packaging said I could, so I tried... to not much success, unfortunately. Acrylics, or oils should fare better with these canvases.

  Crafty stuffs, like scissors, erasers, pencils, pens, markers, and craft punchers. There are lots of different kinds to choose from. Do keep in mind what's worth the $2 and what's not. For example, I wouldn't buy erasers from DAISO. I can get a high quality art eraser from Art Friend at under $2, so that's just not worth my dough. I bought this awesome mechanical pencil that stores thick leads which are great for me to bring out to sketch en plein air, and it was an excellent bargain because pencils with thick leads usually cost $15 and up in Art stores.

The pencil come with 4 leads and a box to keep them in. The back end of the pencil

 (essentially, the cap) doubles as a sharpener for the lead. Genius, isn't it?

  I mostly go to the IMM branch. To get to the pens and notebooks you turn right after entering the store. The craft section of that store, where all the acrylics, papers, sketchbooks  are located near the cashier side. It gets crowded there during the weekends though. The Orchard branch is a little squeezy, but I found lots of interesting things there. And the other ones I've been to was the Bukit Panjang and Rivervale Mall one. They're both small, and not very well stocked in their craft department.

And of course, the list of all the DAISO branches around our island:

IMM
2 Jurong East Street 21
#03-50 IMM S609601

Vivocity
1 Harbourfront Walk
#03-06 Vivocity S098585

City Square Mall
180 Kitchener Road, #04-05/06/07/08/09/10
Singapore 208539

Plaza Singapura
68 Orchard Road
#05-01/02/03 Plaza Singapura S238839

ION Orchard
2 Orchard Turn
#B4-47 ION Orchard S238801

Rivervale Mall
11 Rivervale Crescent
#02-01 Rivervale Mall S545082

Parkway Parade
80 Marine Parade Road, #03-26B Parkway Parade, Singapore 449269

Sembawang Shopping Centre
604 Sembawang Road
#01-18 Sembawang Shopping Centre S758459

Kallang Wave
1 Stadium Place, #02-11 Kallang Wave, Singapore 397628

City Square Mall
180 Kitchener Road
#04-05/10 City Square Mall S208539

Tampines 1
10 Tampines Central 1
#03-17/18 Tampines 1 S529536

Chinatown Point
133 New Bridge Road
#B2-02 Chinatown Point S059413

Bukit Panjang Plaza
1 Jelebu Road
#04-03/04 Bukit Panjang Plaza S677743

Daiso Industries Co.
27 Penjuru Lane
#01-02 S609195


  I would love to hear from you. Leave me a comment telling me about what you've bought at DAISO that you thought was super worth it. :)

  The information on this page is correct, to the best of my knowledge, as of 11th Sept. 2014.

Naming Your Painting

  Is it just me, or is there something going on in the Art scene whereby the artist can't be bothered to name his/her Art piece? It doesn't make sense to me... You've spent hours on the project, from visualising it, planning the composition, the colours, the medium in which you're going to be executing it, starting the project, and actually finishing it, at times even going through the trouble of framing it. Then you don't give it a name. How does that even.....

   *le sigh*

  We're humans. We like to put labels on things, to give names to things. We give names to streets, to buildings, to children, to objects, to animals, to books, to music, to out pets. It makes it easier to identify things that way. Then why can't an artist take some time out to name his/her Art?

  Imagine two people, Julian and Tim, talking to each other at Starbucks.

 "I went to last Saturday," says Julian.

 "How was it?"

 "It was pretty good. The artist works in oils. I really like the way he mixed the colours."

  Tim takes a sip of his mocha. "Which piece did you like best?"

 "Oh, it was the one with mostly red hues. It was a portrait. Of a lady... She was sitting next to a table..."

  There's a moment of silence. Julian shifts in his seat, scratches his head then adds, "There was a vase of roses on the table, if that helps."


  Wouldn't it have been much easier if the artist had given the piece a title? Then Julian could have just said, "Kate, Roses in Red".

  I don't even mind if you give the Art piece a generic name like, "Still Life #5", or "Floral Study #2", or name your portraits after the person's name, or your landscapes after the place you're drawing. Just give it a name to help viewers identify it.

  What will be better though, is if you title your piece to add a deeper meaning to the art work. For example, a coloured pencil artist drew a still life of marbles and titled it, "I Thought I'd Lost Them". It made it really memorable because there was humour in the title. Another example was a digital artist who made a drawing for a book cover. The client wanted the main character to be looking at a horizon of a ruined city. The artist titled the piece "Envisioning the Future". That made me think of a story of the piece. It made me spend more time with the painting.

  A title helps others identify your Art. It can also help add meaning to it. A title can be something that makes the painting stand out from all others. A title is important– almost as important as the art piece itself. So after finishing your next piece, sit down for a few minutes and think of a good title for it. An original title, a creative one, one that adds meaning to the art itself. One that is worthy of the wonderful creation you've just made.

Recommended Artist: Leonid Afremov

Leonid Afremov was born in Viteberk, Belarus on 12th July 1955. He is a modern impressionistic artist who works mainly with a palette knife and oils. Before the advancements in the internet, and the introduction of internet sales, Leonid struggled to make ends meet as galleries didn't want to represent him.

  In 2004, Leonid Afremov's son introduced him to eBay. There, he tried to sell a couple of paintings by auction and immediately received positive approval. The paintings sold for hundreds, sometimes thousands of dollars and for the first time Afremov was given the opportunity to paint what he really wanted. He began painting what he really wanted from his personal inspirations and was finally able to fully explore his artistic vision and abilities. The exposure on eBay gave him opportunities for commission orders and access to different galleries. However, because of negative experiences with galleries, Leonid preferred to sell directly to the collector which he continues to do today.

  I think his Art is easy to accept by a wide range of people as they are politically neutral and are made using bright colours in high chroma. He does floral still life and figure paintings too, but I don't like those. His strength lies in landscape because his understanding of anatomy and perspective aren't very strong. But each to his own, I say.


You can view his Art and purchase them via this link:
http://afremov.com/index.php

Recommended Artist: Francoise Nielly

  Francoise Nielly. A slightly odd spelling variant of both names, but still. Her art is really expressive with her employing bold colors and using what she calls a "palette knife" technique. She paints portraits, and paints them in high chroma.

  She was born in Marseille, brought up near Cannes and Saint-Tropez and is now living in Paris. She was taught by what she says to be a strict father who didn't allow any mistakes. This taught her the discipline and technical skill that she has today.

  Her website is beautifully designed. I am in love. See it via this link:
http://www.francoise-nielly.com/

Prismacolors in Singapore: Art Mark

  Update: I currently DO NOT stand by the quality of customer service that Art Mark provides as I've received e-mails from people whom have visited the shop and have had a bad experience with them. Read my post alternative places to purchase Prismacolors here.

  So, you're looking for places in Singapore that sell Prismacolor colored pencils. The short answer is, Art Mark...

  They stock all sorts of Prismacolor sets; Verithin, Premier sets of 12, 24, 48, 72, 132, and even the latest set of 150. I even saw a set of 23 colors  Isn't that an odd number? They also stock NuPastels, colorless blenders, and open stocked Premiers, Verithin, Col-erase pencils, mixed media sets, and even Prismacolor markers. What I'm saying is that Art Mart is pretty much the go-to store for Prismacolor products.

  What really excites me, though, is that they do have a small number of US made Premier pencils in open stock. I bought a "Ginger Root" for SGD $2.80. Slightly pricey- I thought they went at a dollar plus. But worth it for the quality assurance. Not all colors are made in the US of A though. I tried to get an "Orange" from the US batch but alas, they were out. You have to look out for the USA or MEXICO stamp on each pencils. An easy way to tell which is which is by the color of the printed words on the pencils. Gold lettering are US made pencils, the silver letterings are from the Mexico batch. I also think that they have a different pricing system for the different batches.

  One of the things I do not like about their store is that prices are not stated. They have a pricing book from which they scan the prices from. So if you want to know the price of something, you'll just have to ask.

NuPastels

Open stock Premiers

Verithin, Col-Erase

Look out for the "USA" embossed on the end of each pencil.

Side by side comparison of "Ginger Root".

Top, Mexico made- silver lettering. Bottom, USA made- gold lettering.

  They're located at #04-35, Bras Basah Complex, Blk 231, Bain Street, Singapore 180231. Give them a ring at (65) - 6338 0820. Or visit their website; http://www.artmark.com.sg/

  Please note; I am not affiliated with Art Mark in any ways, and I do not receive any commission from any sales, nor are they paying me to write about them on this blog. I just want to get this information out to the public.

  If you'd like to see a list of stores to get your art materials in Singapore, click here.

  If you have any questions, write to me at < stephanie_jennifer@ymail.com > and I'll try my best to help you.

  I hope you found this post helpful and would love to hear from you in the comment section below. :)