Welcome back my dear readers, it has been a long while!

Three months have passed since my previous blog post at the end of November 2022. I hope you're doing well with your work and life. If you are still checking my blog monthly, I hope this month's updates will satisfy your curiosity.

Firstly, as some of you may notice, online protests about AI generative art have made me hesitated to post artworks regularly on the internet because this suddenly felt so meaningless. Secondly, my blog is being hosted by ArtStation that offers a quite small fee for a nobody like me right now, 10 USD/month, instead of a large one year of payment like other web hosting services I've used. However, I was afraid that their business would collapse, and all my blogs would be gone for good when the AI protest was happening for more than 8 consecutive days (I stopped checking after that, it could be longer). Meanwhile, I was learning something new. Learning takes times, so I literally disappeared from the internet for a while.

Therefore, for the past months, I have decided to learn Anime Art from now on. It has been tough because I've really familiarized myself with digital Fine Art painting over the past two years. Thus, moving on to Anime Art feels strangely tricky now. Ironically, anime was the main reason why I decided to start this whole artistic career, yet it just feels awkward to come back to the root of my inspiration after all these years of learning Fine Art fundamentals. Don't be mistaken by how simple Anime Art looks. It may look easy at first but that doesn't make it any easier to learn than Fine Art at all.

I spent a lot of time on December 2022 to figure out where to learn Anime Art. It seems that Wingfox and Coloso are pretty ok with this niche subject. Personally, I like the learning curriculum of Coloso and have enrolled in a course in January 2023. Everything is so far so good but only time can tell. I think it may take me about 4 months to learn a 20-hour course at Coloso. As I'm new at this subject, it will take quite some time for everything to sink in though.

Other fun facts:

1) I'm reading more Japanese light novels.

If you're wondering "what language is this?", it's Vietnamese! I bought these from local bookstores in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

2) I watched 3 anime below in 3 cinemas in 3 days on a same week. What a nice coincidence! I got to watch them fast because they would vanish pretty quickly after one week in my city.

Link to where I found the anime posters above
Left - https://bokuaikimiai.jp/#modal
Right - Sword Art Online: Progressive Movie - Kuraki Yuuyami no Scherzo

3) I have got my hands on "Citrus", a gorgeous artbook from popman3580 who is one of my most favorite anime artist on Twitter  over for the past few years. I even painted a quick fan art on a Sunday morning to celebrate this special moment too.

The "Citrus" artbook and my fanart of the girl on the book cover.

That's it for now, my dear readers! I hope I can still keep this habit of writing blog at the end of each month as it's still a great way to look back what I did each month though. Take care and have fun with your journey!

Welcome back my dear readers, thanks for coming back for more updates on my artistic journey.

After learning how to draw for 4 years, I still keep exploring unusual ways to paint artwork and not quite settle with a particular art style yet. I'm finding the exploration process extremely entertaining somehow! Here is how I'm playing with art on a daily basis:

It all comes from randomness! For instance, I decided to pick just one "strange" brush from the recently released "Fall 2022" brushes of Kyle Webster in Photoshop to do a daily figure painting practice. It turned out weird for sure yet fascinating to me.

I like how graphical this looks with the white border around the artwork and the look of the "Jungle Gym" brush stamp (like a logo).

Whenever I spot a cool reference image, I immediately go to HeavyPaint to play with it. I personally like how painting in HeavyPaint can give me interesting abstract results. In this app, I don't draw with lines, but with shapes and colors instead. It has easiest and fastest way to do a whole painting using lasso tools, which can take quite an effort in Photoshop. Somehow, this frees up my mind and opens more possibilities. There are no layer blend modes like most software, so I have to thank my Fine Art training days as they provide me the ability to pick colors straight from color wheels to paint lights and shadows in one layer only!

Only one drawback now with HeavyPaint is the lack of a selection tool to move a particular area of my artwork. That's why this app (at this point in time) is good for plein-air painting or panting based on an art model or a reference photo because it's not that forgiving (just like real paints) when it comes to shorten and lengthen an arm, for example, during the painting process.

Did I tell you I'm really into magical stuff? That's why stuff like "Avatar: The Last Airbender" was among my favorite animations. Coincidently, Kan Liu is making "water-blending" characters. This clicks to me so much that I'm learning from his tutorials on Patreon now. This helps transition my Fine Art painting skills into a more approachable art style. His art, in my opinion, is a perfect combination of anime and realism.

I'm following his 8-hour timelapse video to learn how to paint the "Kan Liu" way. This is just the result of the first 2 hours of the video, yet it has made me feel so pleasant!

Meanwhile, I was watching Lycoris Recoil is on Netflix and I really impressed with the way Takina made her entrance. Thus, here comes my fan art of "Gun Blazing Takina" in HeavyPaint.

I came up with this pose in Photoshop before going to have fun painting in HeavyPaint and coming back again to Photoshop to throw more random adjustment for fun. This is why I love painting process (digitally or traditionally). It's that freedom and randomness I love so much!

While I do enjoy lots of colors and textures variations in my painting, I'm also trying to do a flat coloring anime art style with mostly the classic hard/soft round brush in Photoshop for a change.

It was such a nice change to do this kind of artwork. It was tricky at first because I have to rely a lot more on drawing clean line art to make this style truly work.

By the way, I've just got Painter 2023 at an insanely discount price this Cyber Monday (only 99 USD for the one-time payment to upgrade from Painter 2022). I'm glad I did not pay 429 USD to buy it at full price as it's basically like a whole month salary of a typical office job here in Vietnam. Thank to Wesley Gardner's tips on his YouTube channel, I got a whole bundle of the Painter 2022, After Shot Pro 3, Paint Shop Pro 2022 and other mini stuff from the Humble Bundle's charity sale for only 30 USD in October. What a magical deal indeed! So, please keep an eye out for next year's October at Humble Bundle's sale because it may happen again.

Anyways, thanks for reading my blog each month, my dear readers! Have fun with your journeys!

Hello and welcome back my dear readers! Here are highlights of my October activities:

• 2 weeks of struggle with lower back pain and new ergonomics setups
• Colored a monochromatic portrait I left unattended 3 months ago
• Learning character design
• Fan art of Lucy and David from Cyberpunk - Edgerunners
• Entered Halloween 2022 contest by Escape Motions

Ergonomics is surely a big concern for many artists including myself. Since I draw daily, a proper setup of keyboard, mouse, monitors and drawing tools are crucial. However, most of the time, I don't know which setups will work out until I hurt myself with wrong setups after a few weeks or months later.

I've kept finding a way to place my keyboard underneath my Cintiq, but it's quite tricky. Luckily, I've found a cool monitor arm right in my city (Ho Chi Minh city). It's from a brand called Humanmotion (around 70 USD). So, thankfully, I did not have to find a way to buy a 329 USD Ergotron from the US (the shipping fee would be insane then).

My Cintiq Pro 13 inch on HyperWork VESA HPW-LT01 and Humanmotion T9-1B Pro Thunder Monitor Arm

Besides, I've found a compact mechanical keyboard called Keychron K2A2 (about 60 USD). Thanks to its small form factor (without numpads section), the keyboard can sit beneath my floating Cintiq, and I can comfortably put my stylus pen and mouse next to the right side of it.

Current arrangement of my Monitors - Keyboards - Pen - Mouse

I also got to thank my new ergonomic chair too. It's called Epione Easy Chair (about 220 USD) from a local vendor in my city. The cool thing is that it has an adjustable lower back support. That's just what I need, indeed.

I really like this new chair with adjustable lower back support

I'm not having a standing desk, so I've found a work-around with an old laptop stand for my keyboard and mouse. I'm hanging a monitor on the Humanmotion monitor arm, so it seems like it's floating in the air. I can browse the web, watch art lessons, or write blogs with this interesting set up while standing up. This helps change my posture throughout the day, so I don't sit all day long on my new chair.

I'm using an old laptop stand for my keyboard and mouse

I'm using this stand-up setup to write this month's blog

The new ergonomic setups have set me free from my shoulder and lower back pains (at least I'm still fine while writing this blog at the end of the month). I was so happy that I continued to work on the rough monochromatic painting below to a finished colorful artwork to celebrate this joyful moment. If I could not solve this ergonomic problem, I was afraid that I could not draw or paint at all. The pain was scary indeed.

Portrait of Aryiel
(Left side: Monochromatic rough; Right side: Finished Artwork)
inspired by the painting process of Iliya Mirochnik, a wonderful art instructor at New Masters Academy

Without shoulder and back pains, I can return to my daily art training and learn some more about character design from Trent Kaniuga and Daxiong Guo. I usually start with a gesture drawing practice session to loosen up my hand before going to the hard stuff like character design.

Some gesture drawings to warm up

Three different versions of a Female Knight,
inspired by the "Gothic Knight Character Design Workshop" by Trent Kaniuga on Gumroad

I'm learning Character Design with Daxiong Guo at New Masters Academy

Meanwhile, Cyberpunk - Edgerunners was getting a lot of attention. Thus, after watching that anime show produced by the wonderful collaboration between Polish and Japanese teams, I just wanted to paint a fan art of Lucy and David. Here it is:

Fanart of Lucy and David
(Painted in HeavyPaint and Photoshop)

By the way, I started to notice that the more time I spend horning my craft, the less I care about events and festivals. That's why this Halloween season, I've decided to do something about it by entering a Halloween art contest hosted by Escape Motions. Here comes a little witch with her raven friend!

Halloween 2022
(Roughly sketched in Photoshop then painted with oils in Rebelle 5 Pro)

It's getting long and I should wrap it up here. Even though we have video platforms like Tiktok and YouTube, which seems far more entertaining, you, my dear readers, still choose to come back to read my blog each month. Thank you so much for your time and attention! Until next time, take care and have fun with your journey!

Hello, my dear readers, thank you for coming back for more updates on my artistic journey throughout this September.

Learning Fine Art painting from Renae Wang at New Masters Academy is surely helping me become more aware of how different lighting conditions affect the colors of skin, clothing & surrounding environment. I painted two artworks below to demonstrate my points using digital oils in Rebelle 5 Pro.

Figure in Golden Hour

Portrait in Blue Hour

I've been curious about animation and want to try to draw some frames for fun sometimes. Below is a fun animation practice session with Dong Chang on his YouTube channel. He is so good at teaching this stuff that I've decided to buy Clip Studio Paint EX (Luckily it was on 40%-off sale at that time) only because of his cool animation demonstration! 

My 4-frame Animation of Tanya the Evil

I also keep making more Anime fan arts too. It's really like 'a dream comes true' as I can apply my Fine Art knowledge to painting cute anime girls my way. I'm so glad to be able to make up colorful lights and shadows without messing up my painting.

My fan art of Sasha from 'Let You Down' MV on YouTube

Meanwhile, Rossdraws is hosting a "Draw this in your style" or DTIYS challenge on Instagram. I've watched Ross's YouTube videos for three years and I'm so glad that, now, I have managed to participate in his challenge this time. It marks the very first time I entered a DTIYS challenge ever, so that makes it super special to me!

This is my submission for Truecolors DTIYS challenge of Rossdraws on Instagram

That's all for this month. A bit of Fine Art and much Entertainment Art are surely bringing me great joy! I'm so glad that I've found my way back to the Entertainment world now. I need Fine Art knowledge for sure, but not to the extent that I will lose myself entirely and completely forget everything about video games and anime.

Thank you for reading my blog each month, my dear readers! Until next time, have fun with your journey!

Welcome back my dear readers and hello new visitors! It's the end of August 2022 and here are some thoughts on my 4-year self-directed learning journey. I hope some of you will find it relevant and helpful.

As a longtime fan of video games (since 2000) and anime (since 2009), I decided to learn how to draw four years ago. However, I've felt like I'm betraying my own self lately. Starting from the third year of my drawing journey, I have barely played games nor watched anime. I've spent all the free time I have learning Fine Art, digitally, day after day, for the sake of making 'better' art. "What is happening?", I wondered.

Figure in Neon Light, a painting assignment from Renae Wang at New Masters Academy

What led to this confusion is that most Entertainment artists aren't great at teaching art fundamentals as slowly and clearly as the Fine Art ones. That was the number one reason I decided to learn from Fine Art teachers instead and ignored Entertainment artists after my first two years of self-study. Then, things got tricky after the next two years. As I can paint better by studying Fine Art masters, I get further and further away from the Entertainment side. As a result, I watched more movies with realistic human characters to better my fine art painting, and eventually, forgot entirely my childhood dreams, including video games and anime.

Luckily, there was a deciding moment when I saw a post from a VFX animator on ArtStation, Ivan Boyko, just a few days before the end of July this year. That was when I realized that even if I want to paint cool effects like teleportation and energy shots, I will not likely find them in any Fine Art environment anytime soon.

Teleportation VFX by Ivan Boyko at Artstation

Therefore, starting from this August, I've looked at the Entertainment side of art once again. It's about time to apply my Fine Art knowledge to the Entertainment field, I guess! It's tough to figure out how much Fine Art fundamental I need to know before I can at least play with designs and storytelling. Or this may be the never-ending cycle of learning Fine Art and Entertainment Art throughout the whole life of a professional artist. At least, a friend of mine who is working in the game industry told me that shapes and textures are super important. So, I will take that hint and go from there.

Thankfully, the knowledge I've gained from Fine Art training helps me follow entertainment artists much more easily. This means all the time I've spent on learning Fine Art knowledge is not meaningless at all. I just need to go back and forth between two worlds when needed:

• Storytelling, Design and Software skills from Entertainment Art,
• Anatomy, Figure Drawing, Color theories and Value/Edge controls from Fine Art.

Below are some gesture drawing exercises I did while learning from Alex Woo at Schoolism. I have learned gesture drawing from Fine Art, but this time, it's different and exciting. There is an idea or a story that a pose wants to tell the viewers. Thus, I need to use lines of actions, shapes, and silhouettes to convey the message clearly. I'm designing shapes to tell a story, that's what it feels like!

Gesture Drawing with Alex Woo

I've allowed myself to watch one anime episode at night on Netflix and have fun painting cute anime girls too, finally! I'm also playing some games on Steam again. Suddenly, all these recreation activities help me feel so alive. They deeply connect to my past and give my drawing journey purpose once again!

Fan art of Maomao from Kusuriya No Hitorigoto manga

I'm still learning Fine Art digitally but with a different approach though. I'm trying to use bold and vibrant colors and digital-looking brush strokes. I do not necessarily force every artwork of mine to look like an oil painting. I want to open doors for creativity by using interesting shapes, colors, and textures to paint.

I used HeavyPaint and Photoshop to create interesting shapes and textures for this painting!

Besides, I'm recovering from an ingrown toenail surgery now. Not a pleasant experience though, but thankfully, I'm being honest with my inner child and having fun combining or at least going back and forth between Fine Art and Entertainment world to help me get closer and closer to my dream.

That's all for this month, my dear readers! Thanks for reading and I hope this post will be helpful to you or your art-lover friends too! See you next time!

Welcome back, my dear readers, here comes the latest updates of my artistic activities this July!

Every quarter, there is an exciting release of new brushes from Kyle T. Webster. That's also the time I will be having fun with them. I usually apply them right on a current art project or assignment that I will be doing at that time.

Using Summer 2022 brushes of Kyle T. Webster in Photoshop to do an old assignment from Iliya Mirochnik at New Masters Academy.

I've just watched this podcast called Kyle Webster: The Accidental Expert on YouTube. It's cool to know more about the man behind the quarterly released Photoshop brushes through his high and low of his artistic journey since 2003. If you've used his brushes or just want to hear an interesting story from another fellow artist, you can listen to the podcast while drawing like I did.

Throughout this month, I continued to have fun doing 'Figure in Environment' assignments from Renae Wang at New Masters Academy. Each week, I painted Eve, the model, under different lighting conditions. So far, I've painted portraits in indoor cool light, candlelight, window light and two light sources. Super excited for what's coming next!

Portrait of Eve in indoor cool light using Rebelle 5 Pro and Photoshop

Portrait of Eve in Candlelight using Rebelle 5 Pro and Photoshop 

Portrait of Eve in Window Light using Rebelle 5 Pro and Photoshop 

I don't know why I've enjoyed playing with different software on my Windows PC lately. Two years ago, I was like 'everything' Photoshop, then Fresco came in to play for the following six months. After that, I painted a lot using Rebelle 4 watercolors & oils before moving on to the abstract painting in HeavyPaint. A couple of months later, I did ink drawing in Clip Studio Paint, and later, painted with oils and express oils in Rebelle 5 Pro. Now, I'm painting with Thick Paints, Oil Bravura and Fluid Paint in Corel Painter 2023 within its 15-day trial period.

Portrait of Eve in Warnm and Cool Lights, painted in Corel Painter 2023

I guess after feeling a bit 'ok' with my art fundamentals, I just wanted to explore more unusual or creative ways to paint. At first, I thought I was simply weird because I assumed that sticking to a particular software or app like Photoshop or Procreate would be the norm these days. Later, I discovered another artist called Georg Ireland, who also love playing with different painting software to get exciting results too. He may start an artwork in Rebelle, then bring it to ArtRage to do palette knife painting and finish off in Corel Painter. Fantastic inspiration, indeed!

Image captured from Georg Ireland website https://www.georg-ireland.de/

I can clearly see the benefit of using various software as it has drastically affected the quality of my painting. For instance, If I paint in Photoshop, I will think how to make it colorful like I did in Corel Painter or abstract like HeavyPaint. Using 'Hardcore' mode in HeavyPaint also helps boost my confidence as I undo/redo way less now in other software. 'Just put it down and leave it' is gradually becoming the way to go now. This helps me paint way faster and create 'happy accidents' more easily in any software I'm using right now.

That's it for this month, my dear readers. Until the end of next month, take care and have fun with your journey!

Hello, my dear readers, another month has passed and here comes another update on my artistic journey!

It's summer and there are a lot of online art related sales going on like software, brushes, and lessons. It really took me a long while just to look at them each day. They were all so tempting though. Besides, there were art challenges too. I just couldn't find enough time, and of course money, to play with them all!

Firstly, I was honored to be among the winners of Escape Motion Speed Painting Challenge Vol.2 at the beginning of June 2022. It was so much fun to combine my love for Age of Empires II over the past 20 years (yes, I started to play this game in 2000) and my painting abilities to create artwork related to the game setting. I really wish to help make the game someday!

Thank you, Escape Motions, for featuring my artwork on their Instagram story on June 27, 2022!

Meanwhile, I keep horning my portrait painting skills with 'old but gold' digital painting lessons of Iliya Mirochnik at New Masters Academy. I still find it enjoyable to listen to him talking about art and life while I'm painting somehow.

It was fun to paint this portrait using the Zorn palette and the default hard/soft round brushes in Adobe Photoshop.

Taking advantage of this year's summer sale, I'm exploring the inking world with True Grit Texture Supply (TGTS) brushes in Clip Studio Paint. Exploring different software and tools has been like switching to strange new painting materials. This has truly been a big motivation for me to keep venturing deeper into the art world.

My inking practice using Rusty Nibs from TGTS in Clip Studio Paint

Besides playing with new brushes and functionalities of Clip Studio Paint version 1.12 (10th Year Anniversary update), I'm also expanding my knowledge by learning how to do Landscape Painting with Ben Fenske. I had wanted to learn from him for months ago but got to focus on my portrait and figure painting skills first. So, finally, here I go!

My landscape painting practice using oils in Rebelle 5 Pro.
At this point, I prefer to change the default layout of my frequently used painting software to suit my workflow better.

The Landscape Painting training with Ben is also to better prepare me for the massive 15-week long Live class called "Figure in Environment" with Renae Wang. It started two weeks ago, so I still have 13 weeks of excitement ahead. I can't wait to see how this party of 'colors and lights' turns out!

Week 2 Assignment of "Figure in Environment" done with oils in Rebelle 5 Pro.
My portrait underpainting is on the left side. Cool light and Warm light study are on the right side.

For those of you who are taking Live classes at New Masters Academy, I painted a "creative" portrait of Stem, a nickname of a very cheerful classmate who is currently studying in the same 15-week long Figure in Environment class too.

Portrait of Stem, painted in HeavyPaint with joy as this app is so unique, unlike anything I've tried before!

As you can see, I love playing with various painting techniques and different software while improving my fine art fundamentals. It's just more fun for me to do art that way!

Thanks for reading my quick June update. I'll keep you posted at the end of next month. Until then, have fun with your journeys, my dear readers!

Hi, my dear readers, it's the end of May and I'm back with a new monthly blog post.

These are what I've done for this month:

• Painting Cloths (hell yes, finally, it feels so great to paint a costumed figure)
• Participated in Community Challenges (one for Escape Motions and another one for Grafit Studio)
• Studying past Live lessons from Iliya Mirochnik

After spending a couple of months on human anatomy, it's about time to spice things up by learning about various kinds of folds and how to analyze and apply those folds on a real model. 

The top image was painted with oils in Rebelle 5 Pro. The bottom one was my study in Photoshop

This time, I'm learning from Aaron Blaise, a teacher I used to learn from during my early artistic journey. It's great to come back to learn new things from him again with all the powerful fine art knowledge I've picked up from the past two years.

2-min, 5-min and 10-min drawing sessions

It's so interesting that I'm no longer a slave to any software Blend modes. I, now, can even paint on only one layer without relying on them thanks to the solid color mixing skills I've got from traditional oil painters from New Masters Academy.

I painted my own digital oils version of this painting based on a lesson of Aaron Blaise

Back in the day, I had to pause countless times within each video lesson just to type a color code to get an exact color that Aaron Blaise only took a few seconds to pick up. I felt super pathetic back then. That's why I'm so thankful for my fine art training even though the academic subjects can be super boring most of the time. "It's bitter but it's good for you", I guess!

I, now, can unleash my creativity and add my own colors and design instead of mindlessly copying my instructors

I finally decided to participate in two community challenges which coincidently happened about the same time this May. As I kept thinking "Nah, I'm not good enough yet, maybe next time", I have missed quite a lot of learning opportunities before.

I painted this portrait with digital oils in Rebelle 5 Pro

This is my Speed Painting Video submission for Escape Motions, the creator of Rebelle 5 app.

Here is my submission for Grafit Studio - Mermay Mashup 2022 
(I selected a White Flower, a Female model, and a Chess Piece for this challenge)

Now, I do believe that each competition is a learning opportunity too. It forces me to challenge myself with different themes, subjects, and techniques. After a contest, I will know what I like to do or not to do. Then I can focus on levelling up relevant skills to have a better chance next time.

Finally, it never hurts to revisit some good old lessons. I'm watching and relearning from the previous Live class of my dear instructor, Iliya Mirochnik. I really like how he constrains the tools used for each painting. This helps me deeply understand how a particular tool like Soft Round brushes work, for instance.

This portrait was painted with only the default Soft Round brushes in Photoshop.

Portrait with only the Hard Round brush in HeavyPaint app.

That's it for this month, my dear readers. As I've painted lots of things with various apps this month, I'm so exhausted now. That is why writing a blog at the end of each month is a wonderful way to stay away from usual activities and self-reflect upon my artistic development regularly.

Have fun with your journeys and I'll see you around at the end of next month!

I'm keeping a regular schedule to learn and review the human anatomy I've learned from Mr. Rey (Rey Bustos) since this January. I've been listening to his video lectures on New Masters Academy, and then double checked with the handy hardcover book "Rey's Anatomy: Figurative Art Lessons from the Classroom" that I ordered from Amazon recently.

Here is an example of my daily muscle analysis:

Muscle analysis of a masterful drawing of Raphael (1483 -1520)

Besides learning muscles and bones, I'm also exploring new art styles too. By trying different digital brushes in Photoshop and painting apps like HeavyPaint, I've found a new liking for abstract shapes somehow.

Two abstract figures were painted with Spring 2022 brushes from Kyle T. Webster in Photoshop.

30-minute painting practices without undoing, redoing, or color-picking in HeavyPaint (Hardcore Mode)!

The left portrait was painted with Bill Robison brushes in Photoshop, and the pose was based on Carla Cordelia on Instagram. 
The right one was done in HeavyPaint inspired by a cheerful classmate of mine.

I've recently got excited with Chromagraph digital pencils and pastels from True Grit Texture Supply in Photoshop!

It's strangely interesting that I started with pen & ink on paper, then went after digital oil painting. Now I'm playing with abstract or shape paintings! I don't know what I will prefer months later, but for now, I'll keep having fun painting interesting human figures for sure.

Thank you for reading my blog at the end of each month. I'm in Vietnam (at GMT+7 time zone) so my end of month may be a day earlier than those of you from the United States for example. Until next time, have fun with your own journey and keep exploring new possibilities!

After the 8-week Human Anatomy Live Class with Rey Bustos (aka Mr. Rey as he prefers to be called) at New Masters Academy (NMA) finished about 3 weeks ago, I took a few days off to relax before coming back with some figure drawing and painting practice to finish off this month.

My creative master copy of a drawing by Pierre-Paul Prud'hon (1758 – 1823)

The above image is a female figure painting I submitted in Week 8 (final week) to receive critics from Mr. Rey. I carefully tried not to forcefully apply every muscle that I've learned onto this lovely lady.

Friday Figure Drawing with Glenn Vilppu

Since knowing more about human anatomy makes figure drawing less frightening, I decided to follow lessons from Glenn Vilppu from previous Live classes at NMA to see the improvements I can make on each figure drawing.

Female Figure Painting with Charles Hu using Zorn Limited Palette in Rebelle 5 Pro Oils pigments

In this female figure painting, I tried to paint a female figure with the color mixing knowledge that I gathered from Oil painting class from Joseph Todorovitch, Digital painting knowledge from Iliya Mirochnik and Human Anatomy from Mr. Rey. All of these have made the painting process so enjoyable and relaxing for me!

A rough muscle drawing over an anonymous master of the past to quickly review my anatomical knowledge

The time I spent learning from Mr. Rey was so helpful that even after the class is over, I'm still revisiting his lessons whenever I can. I've also ordered a hardcover book called Rey's Anatomy: Figurative Art Lessons from the Classroom on Amazon to explore this topic even further.

10-minute figure painting sessions have turned out abstractly pleasing with all this anatomical stuff in my head

I think that's all for this month, my dear readers. It has been fun to write monthly blog posts since August 2020. Thank you for coming back and reading about my humble artistic development from back then till now.

Until the end of next month, take care and have fun with your journeys!