ART CHALLENGE! China

你好！ 欢迎回来

It means "Hello! Welcome back" in Chinese. Of course I can't speak or read Chinese, but I love trying out new things. Learning greetings in other languages is one of those. Being a culture lover, it's bound to happen anyway.

So, Miks and I had another art challenge, and we STILL haven't posted any of our art challenges on Facebook, but I'm keen on sharing it here.

#2: CHINA

(or anything Chinese-related)

Again, I have my memory book to draw on. I'd usually draw on my sketchpad, but r e c a p says my mom refused to let me bring my art backpack to Roxas. *sigh*

I'm thinking of doing a separate post about my memory book, but alas, now's not the right time. Alright, let's get to the challenge!

These are the art materials I used, plus a peek of my reference photo.

I wasn't able to take pictures of the early stages, so we're picking up from 25%

Just a little bit of details.

I added another part of the stone fences!

Here's where I realized something was off. The brick fences extended a bit too upward, and the building wasn't exactly the most symmetrical. Should I forgive myself for being a noob at freehand architecture drawing? HAHAHAHAHA. I noted my mistakes, though.

So, instead of the second building, I added another fence. I then added a mountain sort of landscape, and an aNCIENT pool like the ones you see in Kung Fu Panda.

Detail of the pool

Detail of the stairs; incomplete

Here's the finished product! Or wait----supposed-to-be finished product! I originally wanted to leave it as a black and white piece, but my creative drive wasn't satisfied. I needed more!

Luckily, I packed a water brush. I thought it would be useless since I had no paint, but my cousin luckily had paints, although it was just kids' watercolours, I was thankful to have some colours to add to my work.

I honestly thought the paints would be horrible! Thankfully, unlike most "just for kids, not for serious use" watercolours, this one turned out better. I was pleasantly surprised at the quality!

I did notice that the paint was a bit streaky and came off way more opaque in some strokes, so I had to come back with my drawing pen a few times to retouch the line details.

Finally, I only had to add colours to the pool, and touch up the fences and a few other details.

Here's the 100% finished product! Overall, I was satisfied with the outcome of the challenge, save for the symmetry; that needed serious improvement. Also, I won't sugarcoat. I am quite disappointed that I wasn't exactly able to mimic the reference photo, but at least I was able to think of a way to get around that. Imagination still runs wild, but the symmetry is still unfavorable. Tsk tsk.

Really, though, What's good about these art challenges is that it gives me a chance to improve in other aspects and really challenge myself to try more new things with my art.

Well, that's all for now! Till the next art challenge!