"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.