Painting on canvas again

Every now and then I think to myself, "Oh, I haven't done a canvas painting in a while..."

I usually brush it off because the thought of investing so much time and effort into such a big project usually turns me off, but this year I really wanted to do another one.

Now that quarantine has hit, this was the perfect time to finally get around to it.

Here is the final version of my latest painting, "Sunset: A Painting in Quarantine". It was done over 7 sessions in 23 days (about 12.5 hours in total), with oil paint on canvas.

Here is the small reference picture they provide with the canvas:

This canvas is part of a set that my mum bought when I was still a child (see, I wasn't joking when I said I literally do one painting every few years). It's for beginners so it comes with the outlines already printed on. This has its pros and cons. For example, I don't have to sketch things so it makes it way easier, but on the other hand if I don't want the painting to look exactly like the image, it's harder to paint over the black lines.

(Click on the image to view these photos in a slideshow)

My first session: 4th April, about 1.5 hours.

I didn't like the pale, washed out sunny version of the reference picture, so I decided to make it during a sunset instead.

Second session: 5th April, about 2 hours.

Went over the sky a bit more because I realised some of the preprinted lines from the clouds and birds  could still be seen. Also started on the building, and I got really confused because I realised the image sort of cuts out on the right and on the bottom (it is like this on the reference image too, I think it's meant to be ~artistic~).




Third session: 7th April, about 1.5 - 2 hours.

I didn't like how the building was looking so I experimented with putting a brickwork onto it. After painting the bricks, I realised it was completely not to scale, but oh well, what's done is done. I also added the red and white shade thing.

This session ended up being a lesson in letting go of my perfectionism. Also, a lesson that it's really difficult to be a perfectionist when you literally do not have the proper skills to do something correctly.

Note: the inconsistency in colours is just because of lighting, I didn't go over the sky and change the colours after the second session. I think the first two sessions were taken at night under a light which is why the colours are really different to the other photos.

Fourth session: 11th April, about 1.5 - 2 hours.

I did the windows, the interior of the restaurant, and the ground. I also shaded a bit of the building and this was where my confidence started improving, it felt like it was starting to really come together quite well.

Fifth session: 13th April, about 1 hour.

I took Pam from the Office's advice on painting a shrub over anything you didn't like, so I added a shrub next to the wall. Also, I can't do people very well so I just painted silhouettes, but I liked how it was looking.

Sixth session: 25th April, about 2 hours.

I filled in the boats and the dock, and added shading to it. Now that the whole canvas has been painted, it was starting to look really good.

Seventh session: 26th April, about 2 hours.

I added the island and lighthouse, which I don't like the shape of but it had to be that shape because that was how the outline was (the outline honestly made it look more like the top of a mosque rather than a lighthouse).

I also added other finishing touches like the reflection in the windows, the other part of the dock and the boy fishing, the box in the boat, general shading all round, and my signature. I also painted over what was meant to be the anchor on the ground because I was feeling too lazy to paint the anchor.

My first oil painting!

I just did my first oil painting!

I was inspired by Leonid Afremov’s vibrant night landscapes, and I thought I would try my hand at doing something similarly dark and vivid.

I have canvases that my mum bought me some time ago (we are talking over 10 years ago) with outlines on them, and I wanted to do a bright painting on another one of them, but figured I would just use this café one as target practice so I don’t mess up the other one.

Here’s what the reference picture looked like. Since it’s a day scene I had to change it to a night one in my mind:

(Sorry it's blurry but the photo is pretty tiny)
I figured this painting would be better to do in oil, as they are more vibrant, slower to dry, easier to blend, and would just be a good change (I have only ever used acrylic and poster paint and whatnot).

My last painting was done just over five years ago, and seriously I now remember why I stopped painting after that, despite every intention to do so.

Painting is actually really tiring!

This painting took me approximately 8 – 8.5 hours, split into four sessions.

Blank canvas with outlines.

Session #1 – 2 hours
Colour blocking with yellow and adding brown for a bit of base shading.
I didn’t realise the café had so many windows, and then I thought of the streetlamps as well as reflections off the building, and the result is a lot of yellow.
This was also the day that I realised that no, you cannot wash oil paints with soap and water. You need turpentine. Which smells like death.

Session #2 – 2 hours
Realised it needed more red, not brown, to make it brighter. Added dark green for bushes and dark brown for upper storey.
I should have just put dark green everywhere but for some reason I was thinking of putting bright fluro green in parts where the dark green wasn’t.

Session #3 – 2.5 hours
Blue time. Added dark blue to the bushes, as well as light blue spots (for ‘flowers’, lol). Added blue to the door, signs and tarp cover thing on the right. Put yellow over the lights again because I did not like the red I added the last session.

Session #4 – 2 hours
Did not like the first storey so I decided to use a fine brush to do some outlining. With the black, I also added in the lamp and sign detailing. Added colour to the bushes and ground reflections. Added yellow light reflections to the bushes and painted in some door handles. Darkened the upper storey again.
So there it is, my first oil painting!

How did I fare?

Well here are my goals for this painting, and my thoughts on them:

Successfully do an oil painting: I guess it was successful. I made it in the end.

Make it as bright and vibrant as possible: Lol, this could definitely be a lot more vibrant

Let go of reality (I tend to be a perfectionist and try and make things as accurate as possible; now I'm trying to rid myself of that and be a bit more surreal like Afremov): This was really hard to do. I wanted to do like big blocks of colour for the greenery like in Afremov's paintings, but it was so hard because I kept thinking, "No one is going to realise that is meant to be a plant." I will just have to keep aiming for this on my next painting (if I do one, lol).

Minimal mixing; use original colours and if it needs mixing, do it on the canvas: The thing I found to love with oil painting is that it is great with mixing; it is so easy to blend colours together while looking natural. In my last painting, I struggled to do the treek trunks because I would have to constantly mix, then add super fine lines, to try and blend it and shade it correctly. Here, you can just put one dark colour on one side, one light colour on the other side, then paint alternatively and they will sort of end up blending into each other naturally.

Looking forward to my next oil painting, I just need time to recover.

Turning up to a party uninvited

Well, actually I was invited to the party, but since it was a Disney/Pixar themed party, I decided to go as Maleficent! I actually did want to go as Rey, but I thought I should stick true to classic Disney, and I needed a character that I could do a good DIY costume for cheaps.

But the main reason was because I think Maleficent's the coolest villain ever. She's terrifying, she owns the colour purple, her staff is cool, her pet raven is named after the Devil, and... she turns into a dragon!

But more importantly, she pretty much curses the King and Queen's firstborn and the entire kingdom simply because she was not invited to a party. That's pretty awesome.

(My mum spent 40 minutes taking photos of me so I have plenty more photos I will sporadically place in here)
The main thing about Maleficent is her horns, so I started working on that first.

I cut up strips of cardboard using my ruler as a guide for the width. For the length, the longest piece was 20cm and then each piece was 2cm shorter that the previous piece. The very last piece though was 3cm, instead of 2cm.

I taped them up to form circles so they would all fit into each other nicely.

Then I arranged them and experimented with curvature, traced an outline of it so it wouldn't lose it's shape, then taped bits of it together.

Then I gradually glued it together, removing most of the masking tape. I used PVA glue instead of super glue, because since super glue dries really quickly, it wouldn't have given me much time to smooth it out, as I still wanted the different tiers to be quite pronounced. Also, I realised later that while I glued it, it lost some of it's original curvature so it ended up being straighter than I wanted, but it was still okay.

Paper mached it and let it dry.

Bought a cheap black hairband from the dollar store, and cut off the bow on it.

I wore the headband and used a piece of chalk to mark where I wanted the horns to connect to the headband. I wanted the horns to angle a bit forward as well so I made the marks on an angle.

Started wiring it up. This process took ages because I had to bend the wire, tape it on, paper mache it, bend it more, slide the headband in, slide it out, adjust, etc. etc.

Bending the wire so that I can fit the headband in...

...Inserting the headband in then needing to bend the wires around it again:

When it was done I taped it up, realised the horns were tilting whenever I moved my head so added more wiring, taped that up, paper mached it, then tried it on to see how it was.

I then bought some black spray paint from the dollar store. I didn't want it to be glossy so I bought matte paint. I wrapped the bits I didn't want sprayed with cling wrap, then used masking tape to hang my horns off a tree (credit goes to my mum for figuring out how to hang it), then sprayed it.

I saw a picture online where the hair was tied over the headband so that the horns would look more natural, so I did the same.

Next, I got a stick from my backyard that had a forked branch (credit goes to my mum for finding such a perfect stick). I broke off the top bits so that it'd be a suitable height, washed and dried it, then I spray painted the top part purple, and the bottom part black, so that there would be a sort of gradient.

It's hard to see the gradient, especially since the party was outdoors and it was at night...

(This is with the use of flash in almost pitch black conditions, it's actually still hard to see the gradient in sunlight because the purple paint was gloss and just reflects everything)
I had to also figure out how to do a cape, since Maleficent's big thing is her huge cape. I used a black scarf that I had, got a piece of black ribbon, and folded about a quarter of the black scarf over it, so that I could tie the ribbon in front of my neck and have it hang over my shoulders.

I was going to wear a different skirt but because the night was so cold I opted for a longer one (and I wore my knee-length leggings underneath since the skirt was so thin and definitely not warm at all).

Lastly, for the finishing touches to my outfit, I bought a pair of elbow-length black gloves. Since I didn't have a long shirt or cape I thought I needed to cover my arms a bit more to be a bit more "menacing" (and it helped with the cold).

The last thing was the make up and the nails (for when I would have to take off my gloves to eat). I'm not a big make up person so I had to work with what I had. All I had was my mum's dark red lipstick (which, I later realised, was not as dark as I hoped), my black eyeliner, random foundation/BB cream, and... that's pretty much it.

I wanted to do purple and green eyes, and I bought some cheap purple eyeliner that I doubt I will ever wear again, but I couldn't find a good green shade so I decided to just do purple and black. The purple ended up not being as bright as it looked, so I had to keep drawing and drawing it on since it was so pale. In the end I'm not too sure it made a difference since the party was outdoors at night with not too much lighting.

I painted my nails as well. I didn't realise I was running out of nail polish but I worked with what little purple I had. I painted the tips of my nails purple, then tried to do a gradient with the black, to match my stick. It wasn't so much a gradient... it was more of a... I dunno, see for yourself:

I left it though, because I thought the effect still looked alright (it almost looks like purple fire, or reptilian/dragon-like skin/scales texture).

I tried to contour my face a bit since some of my foundations were different shades but since this was no bronzer I didn't stand a chance.

My only regret is that I couldn't add in more purple. I tried to think of ways to make a purple high collar but I just couldn't seem to think of a way to connect it to my scarf. Now that the party is over I realised I could have used wiring sandwiched between two sheets of purple foam, which could then be connecting to the scarf via a double ring of wire... but oh well.

Another improvement would be to maybe sand down the stick, at least in the section that I would hold, since the pieces of wood were quite rough and would get caught in my gloves. But it didn't matter too much.

In the end, I'm pretty pleased with my cheap DIY costume. I think overall I spent around $15 (spray paint, gloves, eyeliner, headband), so it was definitely worth it.

Nooks and Grannies

Finally... something productive done these holidays...I made another cover for my nook!

I was going to use material from my backpack that broke some time ago, but then I realised that the big pocket actually fit the nook perfectly, so I cut it out as well as some other material for the backing. The pocket cover didn't actually fully reach the button so I had to unstitch the lid and sew it on first before sewing on the backing.

I don't have a sewing machine so I had to do it all by hand which was a bit tedious. I also had to use fabric glue to glue down the ends of the backing since it didn't really iron flat. I had a few hiccups with sewing on the backing and a few mistakes showed but I went to Lincraft and bought some embellishments to cover it up. I bought two embellishments and put them both on.

Then I figured one cut off from the white embellishment looked nice on the front, so I glued it on with the fabric glue.

Now for some more movies!

Robin Hood

6.7/10 on IMDb
43% on Rotten Tomatoes
So I was pretty excited to watch this movie, since I love the idea of Robin Hood, bows and arrows and all that good stuff. However, this movie was quite a disappointment. I guess I didn't watch many trailers of it or anything, but seeing as the title of the film is Robin Hood, I expected the movie to be about ROBIN HOOD. Instead, we get Robin Longstride, who is actually Robin Hood, but before he was Robin Hood. Back when he was a loyal knight. You see, the film actually leads up to when he becomes Robin Hood. Unfortunately though, it takes the whole movie to do it. He's only Robin Hood for like the last minute of the film.

I mean don't get me wrong, I love watching how famous characters come to be, but this just wasn't what I was expecting. Maybe if they just condensed that bit to half the movie, and have him as Robin Hood for the other half of the movie, that would be lovely. But instead, we get two and a half hours of Robin Longstride. It could have been a movie about any medieval person stepping up to be a knight and hero for their kingdom. And yes, while we get the sense that life is unfair for Robin Hood since he does so many good things and is still cast away as an outlaw, it just isn't what you expect because there is actually no Robin Hood.

Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett were great though, and I reckon if I went in to this movie knowing it wouldn't actually be about Robin Hood, I would have enjoyed it a lot more.


Unstoppable

6.8/10 on IMDb
86% on Rotten Tomatoes
Do you guys remember Speed? The classic 1994 film with Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock where a bus is hijacked and can't go below 50 miles per hour? Well that's what I thought of when I watched this film.

It's essentially like Speed except that there is a train... and it has no one driving it... and there are hazardous chemicals on board. So you can see it's actually not as bad and not as complete of a rip-off as I thought it would be. The plot is quite good I guess (maybe better if Speed hadn't come out all those years ago) and it can get quite intense at times, but I guess maybe it felt a little too long. Some scenes were a bit dragged out, some characters' complete imbecile and moronic actions were too emphasised (but frankly they were so exaggerated that you couldn't help groaning aloud at them - which does mean the movie was engaging enough for me to do it), and the side plots to do with the main character's problems are not really necessary. But other than that, it actually was quite a thrilling movie with some very intense moments throughout.


The Box

5.6/10 on IMDb
45% on Rotten Tomatoes
So this movie is about this couple who are struggling financially and going through a lot of personal issues. Until, of course, a creepy man shows up to their doorstep with a box. He tells them that they have 24 hours to decide whether they should press the button on the box. If they do, someone, somewhere, will die. But, they will also get a million dollars.

It's quite creepy and weird since it's a psychological horror, but it's quite a good concept for a plot, and you realise it's got quite a lot of strong Christian themes that sort of salvage the movie. Not just that, but it delves really deeply into the human condition, and the debate between determinism and free will. However, they still don't really tie the loose ends together and there are a lot of unanswered questions. It was quite memorable, but I'm still trying to decide whether it was in a good way or a bad way. I'm not sure if I would recommend it or not.

X-Men: Days of Future Past and some drawings!

It's been over a month!

Sorry, but things were getting a little hectic what with assignments and stuff. Don't worry, I've still been watching movies and reading and all that, I just haven't had the time to blog as often! (Okay, I lie, I had free time but most of it went towards YouTube...)

So, as usual, let's kick off with some movies...

X-Men: Days of Future Past

8.5/10 on IMDB
92% on Rotten Tomatoes
My two favourite topics meshed together: superpowers and time travel!

This was probably one of the most talked about movies of the year (I say probably because Godzilla happened as well), fusing X-Men First Class with the original X-Men Trilogy with Tyrion Lannister with Time Travel. Need I continue?

It doesn't matter, I'll continue anyway.

So, we're in the year 2023 and the world sort of resembles the world of Terminator, with Sentinels running around tracking mutants and killing them. But we've seen people try to kill mutants before and that didn't really work out so well for the humans, so what's different this time? Well, over 50 years ago there was a scientist called Boliver Trask (Peter Dinklage - yes, Tyrion himself reincarnated in I guess a more prestigious position after all the shenanigans in Westeros).

Other than having a name that's downright ridiculous, Boliver was able to create these robots made out of concrete or some non-metal material (so that Magneto wouldn't be able to control them) that could detect the DNA of a mutant specifically so that there would be no threat to normal homo sapiens.

Because of the publicity of these sentinels back in 1973, Mystique tracked Boliver down and assassinated him, but ended up getting captured. Because of Mystique's shapeshifting abilities, her DNA was able to be used to allow the sentinels themselves to adapt against any mutant's powers. Therefore if the Ice Man starts freezing these sentinels, the Sentinel simply adapts to it and becomes molten hot, and then blasts the Ice Man away with his flames. However, these Sentinels take about 50 years to make, so they only come out in this movie, wreaking havoc among mutants and humans that help mutants.

So how is this prevented? WE SEND WOLVERINE BACK IN TIME OF COURSE. Back to 1973, where everyone wears platforms, flared pants and floral shirts. Back to when Mystique is about to kill Trask. But hopefully, Wolverine can stop her this time.

BUT HOW DOES WOLVERINE GET SENT BACK IN TIME? Well because Kitty Pryde (the chick that could walk through walls in The Last Stand played by Ellen Page) develops her ability to send people's consciousness back in time. Because the time-travelling is too mentally exhausting for people, the most she's ever sent someone back is a month. Even for someone like Xavier, sending him back 50 years would rip him apart. But, lucky lucky, Wolverine always is able to heal at the same rate that he gets ripped apart! And because he doesn't age, he wakes up in the same body he is in now, which is convenient in terms of a casting point of view.

When he gets sent back in time, it's up to him to try and mentor Charles, Magneto and Mystique to prevent the world he knows in 2023.

So that's pretty much all I can reveal to you without spoiling anything.

What did I think of the movie?

I absolutely loved it!

I unfortunately had to watch it in 3D because I was watching with friends who couldn't do any other session, and I hate 3D and we had to sit in the fifth row so I think my experience obviously could have been better. But even though I entered the theatre extremely disappointed in needing to wear 3D glasses for something that wasn't even 3D, the movie was definitely captivating enough for me to momentarily forget about it all.

I loved how the movie just went into a lot of deep and scary places, with Mystique's internal conflict, Magneto's absolute ruthlessness and even Xavier's vulnerability. I mean, it's Charles Xavier! They put him in a dark place that you would never expect someone of his status to be in and you realise that even the most powerful people, the most successful people, the wisest people you know were once frail, hopeless and pathetic. And I just love that about the film. I love also how Wolverine takes on this mentoring role; he ends up teaching Xavier and helping him foster his power, which is fantastic.

But it's a time travel movie, and changing one event in the past creates a snowballing effect that carries on even 50 years into the future. And at the end of the film the audience is left to wonder whether or not all the other X-Men movies (except Origins: First Class) even happened at all. Maybe it's arguable that some stuff did happen but we probably will never know!

And that's kind of what I didn't like about the ending; it kind of tied everything together way too nicely without really explaining what happened.

Even before the ending, there didn't address many plot holes:

Don't click if you haven't seen The Wolverine!

How did Wolverine get back his Adamantium claws after The Wolverine? Why is Xavier still in a wheelchair if he transferred his consciousness to his comatose TWIN BROTHER (who I'm assuming was NOT paralysed)?

But other than those plot holes, it was still very enjoyable, I loved every second of it. The slow motion sequences, the action sequences in the future, with the new mutants (especially Blink! How cool is her portal power!), the young and uncertain mutants of First Class, everything was amazing.

And also the end credits scene! That was insane! I don't know much from the original comic books, so I had to do a Google of what it meant, but it was awesome when I found out! It was definitely worth the wait unlike the end credits scene of Iron Man 3.

Another thing, the actress for Blink (Fan Bingbing - a name that trumphs Boliver Trask), stated that this film "was the first of a five X-Men movie contract that she signed with 20th Century Fox." SOOOO... does that mean that after X-Men: Apocalypse there will be THREE MORE X-MEN MOVIES?! I sure hope so and I'm so happy she would be in them because she was simply amazing.

Lastly, I found some cool timelines that combine all the X-Men movies into one chronology. Here's an infographic and here's a written/dot-pointed one.


Geez, that took a while.

I was going to write a bit more but seeing as I wrote so much just for X-Men, I'll finish with some drawings:

An Ink Pot
(no, I don't know why I made the ink black when it was clearly meant to be blue)

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A Balloon (or rather, several)

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A Fire Escape

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A Paper Clip
(nearly forgot about this guy)

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A Phonograph

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A Rubber Duck

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Mushrooms
(or rather, a mushroom on shrooms)

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Root Beer

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