@CHINA~ Taking a break from study

It would be my failure if you couldn't tell who she was...

I was about to take a break from study, but by the time I finished this portrait, the entire afternoon had elapsed...

It's been three days home. Nothing is too exciting but this life is perfect, simple and relaxing, like in paradise... so lucky of me to lead a life like this so slow and low-pressured in this country while everyone else is on the run.

What I've been doing these days:

1. Studying for a mandatory English test called TOEFL(Test of English as a Foreign Language) for my university next year. That is what I meant by "study" in the tittle and it's my only pressure this summer. I have a lot to work on my vocabulary and reading, and maybe listening and writing too... okay, that's actually everything... Well, my test is on July 23rd. I really have to work as hard as in the past few months even though it's in summer:(.

2. Family time. I get to spend lots of time with my parents and everyday after dinner we go out for walk, swimming or drive to the mountain for some climbing; I will be visiting my grandparents and other relatives in another city this weekend.

3. Eating watermelons. To my surprise, the temperature here is not unbearable, but I'm sure it's gonna be boiling hot in a few days... WATERMELONS, MY SAVIOR!

4. China is a "party" country, with numerous places and huge variety way for entertainment, just like one of my friends says "there's nothing you can't find, but things out of your imagination." China is a delicious country, but I've lost my appetite since I got here:(. 

I always prefer to stay home for meals because my mom is a very very amazing cook!

5. I did some shopping online and the price and transportation are cheap and things are delivered very fast.

6. Reading Bible. I have a goal to finish the entire new testament over the summer.

7. Sleep very bad these days because I don't get used to live with constructions. They start so early every day and wakes me up at 7:00 every morning. By working so hard with so many workers, buildings rise abruptly out of the ground in China. :( it's crazy.

7. Foreign websites are supposed to be blocked in China, but lots of people use a special browser, a proxy server called Freegate to get through it. That's why I'm still facebooking and blogging everyday. So crafty.

8. Drawing and "showing off" my works to visitors to my houseXD.

Too bad my friends

I am thinking about making some money by drawing portraits for my old friends or schoolmates (free to my close friends:)), but it will be after my English test.

I hope I will meet my painting teacher soon:DDD. Excited now!

Well, about this drawing, Audrey Hepburn, I'm not a big fan but what a great actress.

Forever a Child @ Heart

No matter what you are,

a child, a teenager, an adult, a parent or a grandparent...

Happy Children's Day!

For we all have once been children, and we all have children around in our lives.

Let's celebrate with a youthful heart,

Recollecting  our childhood memories, 

Playing with our junior friends,

Or...

Just dip ourselves in a childlike day on JUNE 1ST!

June 1st is international Children's Day, although I don't think every countries actually  celebrate it as a confirmed holiday or on the same date. Children's Day and my birthday used to be the two days I looked forward to the most in a year when i was a child. I grew up in China. I remember before I turned 12, my parents celebrated Children's Day for me every year. They always bought me gifts, dressed me nicely and took me out, sometimes along with my friends too, somewhere special to have fun. Particularly, elementary school kids get the entire day off on that day, and schools usually held Children's Day performance and activities in late May.(it is no exaggeration to say that they do everything to celebrate this holiday.) I've only danced once in my life and I got kicked out a few days before the performance... well it's okay, my drawings are on the school shows every year, and sometimes writings too... the last time I drew with a bunch of kids on a super long white fabric for the art show was such a long time a go. 8 years?wow, can't believe it.
Yeah, not only some parents take a day off from work on that day to spend time with their kids, schools and communities are doing nice things too such as dinners/parties, TV programs etc. (yeah, I was on a TV show one year:D)

Since 1925, International Children's Day was proclaimed, I believe children's rights and wellbeing have been widely spread and accepted in the world.

I started to miss Children's Day after the June 1st in grade seven, a very short in class celebration in junior high, which was supposed to be our last year of Children's Day. And then we became youth.
I will become an adult soon next year.
Growing up is not bad at all.

Well, on this day, I would like to thank my parents for all they did on Children's Day when I was a child.
Wish everyone stay young at heart.

LOUD LAUGHTERS and FREE HAPPINESS.

Every Day is Your Mother's Day, Mama

A drawing of a beloved person is precious.

This is a gift for my mother on the Mother's Day. I started working on it Friday night while I was on a fever, so it's a quick drawing but I worked really hard. It is drawn with pencils crayon, pastels, charcoal, HB pencil and Qin's magic fingerXD... Due to the size of the drawing(11*15), I'm still looking for an art envelope as a protection and going to frame the drawing before I get back to my mom this summer(She's in China).

I didn't realize what a gorgeous woman you until I started to draw you

But you are always beautiful, Mama

On this special day, I am not able to deliver a carnation to you

as you are so far away from me

but I do have something special for you as every year

this drawing is my carnation!

Don't be surprised how much my drawing skills improved this year

This is how awesome your daughter is:)

I can't describe how much I miss you when the strokes I created made up into your face

Touching your beautiful smile with my fingers, I really want to say to your

I love you.

I'll do anything to make you happy.

你是世界上最幸福的妈妈。

I'll make every day your Mother's Day:).

Happy Mother's Day to all mothers around the world!

I Love Portraits

These are some sketches of my friends:).

I love doing portraits so much. Doing portraits for friends is like the best gift ever for them.

I did the following two sketches during March Break.

WLX is my best friend in China. On a weekend in March, I sent messages to him and DZW on QQ to ask them send some recent pictures to me and I would do portraits of them. To tell the truth, the reason why I did this was I really missed them and wanted to see some of their latest pictures (the last time I saw them was four months ago and only for like an hour), and it was the best excuse to get their pictures:D.

This is DZW. She had a nick name from me called Banala, because she loves eating bananas. Yeah, she is a COOL person, a great pin-pang player, and a smart "nerd".

Self Portrait, June and July 2010, China

I did this last summer during the 2 months I stayed for in China. I sketched from a photograph taken in a photo studio when I was 9. I was supposed to dress like a floral fairy:). It was cute. And it was the first portrait I started. HAHAHA.

A birthday gift for Irina, Oct 2010.

That was a photograph we took when we were at a pool party at Clare's house. How lovely we are!

This one have been posted in February. A goodbye gift to Hanna. 

I haven't heard from her for a month. Hope she is doing well:).

Doing some accurate and realistic drawing can make up for my talentlessness in anime drawing I hope:).

I hope I can have chance to listen to some professional portrait classes. 

A sketch of someone you might know....

I feel so good to be here again! 

I've been busy on stuff like PHYSICS TEST MATH STUDY NOTES%*&^)(@$% in the past 2 weeks... 

Anyhow, I still do art every Thursday:D. Art is never abandoned.

I did a sketch of this guy last month. 

You know who he is, if you are an Asian or Chinese....

Yes, he is Leehom Wang.

I would totally go crazy by simply listening to his speaking 4 years ago. I was a big fan back then and since I was 11, however, as we both grow older and older, I still listen to his songs that recall me memories and look forward to his new music, and he never really disappoint me.

Just saying, I do not become a fan of any celebrity now. I like him not just because he's good-looking or talented. I attach importance of him because he has been an implacable role in my life whose music I grows up with. 

I feel like I can smell the memory when I listen to any of his song, as if each song is telling me a story of my junior life and recalling me someone from there...  

"Lotus" in Qi-pao - watercolor (2)

 I believe this is a "sister painting" of the painting of "Chinese Woman in Qipao" in which there is a gloomy lady holding  an umbrella and walking alone in an little allay.
Unfortunately, the painting doesn't turn out very well on the computer. She is supposed to be pinkish, just like pink waterlily color. okay, whatever, I hope orange is good as well.

So I used a Chinese photo-edit program to play with colors and lights. My paintings actually look cooloer :D.

If it's too small for you, click on it and you will be led into a site of the original-sized picture.

HAHA, more interesting!

Chinese woman in "Qi-pao(cheongsam)" -watercolor

 旗袍[qí páo] (Cheong-sam in Catonese) is a type of Chinese traditional dress, modified in 1930s, and it has become the most popular Chinese gown since then.

Qipao is usually made of silk or other materials, and it's tight-fitting.

My mom has one and it is Chinese red (the very bright kind) with peonies on it. She wore it a few times in Canada and people said it was gorgeous.

I think any traditional Chinese cloth or dress looks really funny on me. I guess it's because my baby-fat doesn't suit it very well... it's true that I'm not the elegant type. 

Although I've never had my own "qipao", I always love the way it is, and I love looking at them and paint it.

I started painting this picture during the long weekend and just finished the piece this weekend.

I haven't tried watercolor for so long. I got the paints last year for a civics project and I can't even remember when was the last time doing watercolor drawing... the closest is only once in grade 7 in art class. Fine, I don't think I remember anything about it. 

Pick it up again, there is actually infinite fun: not only playing with color, but playing with water. 

I use tubed watercolor paints and watercolor pencils for this painting.

Watercolor paints are quite different from acrylic paints. First, acrylic paints can be painted over by another color, and can be covered over and over again, but watercolor paints can't; second, not like acrylic paints, watercolor paints dissolve in water easily, once it's dry, you can always wet it with water and it can be reused again, that's how watercolor paints work; to correct mistakes made by acrylic paints, (if the mistake is in dark color) you need to cover it with light color, such as white, wait it to dry and start your new layer by painting over the white, but in watercolor, you can just rub it with a watery brush (not too hard) and wipe off the water with tissue paper. Then, the color will be off with the water.

I should have said this earlier: this lady is not me or any of my friends. She's just from a random photograph I found from online photo collection. But it makes me assured of my portrait drawing skills that I can draw identical portraits from photograph. (well, not 100% identical... you know what I mean). That's why sometimes I draw portraits for my friends birthdays instead of buying gifts.

Goodbye, Hanna

Please have a safe trip... take care, my friend.

A friend is leaving tomorrow night for Korea, and it will be hard to tell when I will see her again in the future. 

She will be studying there for a few years in an art university. 

She's an awesome artist, and an great friend. 

I hope she will see my blog one day. 

I'll miss her very much when I recall the days when we did painting with Shirley on Thursdays, and the day when we went to interior design show and Chinatown.

She is precious.

I wish her all the best.