Feng Sui (the progression)

A Filipino-Chinese guy I met on the internet asked me to paint a feng sui-inspired still life for his dinning room.
It wasn't as easy as I thought.
Painting with a boss is such a chore.
Always mindful of what he might think.
But it's ok.
Having worked in advertising for many years now,
I knew how to handle the client's comments.
Anyway, here's the step by step process of what I've done.
It's a 20x30 inch canvas (huge!)


Nov 15, 2009

The background was easy.
I was able to apply some of the Bob Ross techniques I've done from years ago.
Plus some of the new landscape stuff I learned recently.

The apples were also quite easy as I've already painted about half a dozen apples in oil before.
The tricky part is trying to paint some of the things I've no experience of doing whatsoever.
Like the pak choi. Good thing it turned out quite simple as well.


Dec 1, 2009

Oh no! Pineapple! I needed to research how to paint a pineapple before I started mine.
Looked and studied other artist's rendition and basically just copied their techniques.
It was a little tedious because of the fruit's unusual texture.
The oranges was a breather. Like the apple, its also one of the most often practiced on fruit in oil painting.


Dec 7, 2009


The 2nd pineapple was a little easier because I've already practiced on the technique from the 1st one. But it still took me a while before I was happy with it. The peaches' challenge was in the colour mixing department. I wanted it to separate from the pinks of the apple and the oranges of the... well... oranges. The different texture also helped a little.
Then on to those pesky peonies.
Flowers. Not my favourite things to paint. Frustration builds up at this point.

Dec 16, 2009

Basket - check.
Tiny red-purple spheres - check.
Peanuts - check.

Plum blossom tree - Gotta muster some patience for this. It took me one whole day to do this tree. There must have been around a hundred individual flowers in there.

The magpies also marks the 1st time I tried to paint birds. Not as hard as I thought.
But white peonies on the left was taking my frustration level to a maximum.
I must have erased and re-done these flowers more than a couple of times.
I just couldn't get them right.

At this point, I just wanted to finish the whole thing so I can meet the deadline and finally move on to my next canvas. Probably something less colorful. Honestly, I'm getting sick of all these happy primary colours.



Fast forward to Dec 22, 2009


There. It's done.




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And here's my son, Kydlat with the finished canvas...