Tai tai life is not just about shopping. It is also about oil painting.

I've received some complaints, (fine, feedback) from some disgruntled husbands about my shopping posts.  

So let's give the Hong Kong posts a rest for now and talk about my other recent tai tai endeavors. 

Oil painting! This hobby quite tai tai right? 

A few of you know that I've started my oil painting class at NAFA last week and are curious about my progress. 

Those of you who were in primary and secondary school with me, were extremely confident of my skills, pre-lessons. So was I. 

After all, I was somewhat of a child prodigy. Check out my beautifully detailed drawing of a decaying tooth at age 9. 

Teacher gave me star. It was the proudest moment of my entire primary school life. 

So, ya, my first lesson. The class was a mix of intermediate students and beginners. I belonged to the group of 4 "beginners" (you will soon find out the reason for the ""). 

Our teacher, L, dived right into the lesson, setting up a cube which we were to paint. 

My classmates confidently took out their art materials, neatly displaying their well used brushes and paint tubes, complete sets of spatulas on the tables. 

While my art materials looked like this.

Paints still shrinked wrapped and in Art Friend plastic bag. Jialat. 

I sneaked a peak at my neighbour's table and copied her layout for art materials. 

Then, I started sketching my cube, which was looking really out of proportion. L, was doing her rounds, checking on paintings. When she saw mine, that was a slight pause, "you guys know the basics of perspective drawing right?". The rest of the beginners nodded. I blinked a couple of times.

L held up her pencil, used it as a gauge tor the cube's proportions and deftly sketched the cube in under 10 seconds.

She was doing this. Just like in the cartoons. Ooo.. Cool beans. 

 

(Left) forgot to mention that we were made to paint gradation 

(Right) L's  demo of how to make a cube 3D looking

I wanted to re-attempt my cube sketch, but soon realised that posing like her does not necessarily give me the same result. I decided to work on her sketch instead and get to painting phase straightaway, because 1) I can't wait to open up my new paints, 2) By now, all other "beginners" were painting confidently. Yes, I'm very kiasu. 

By the end of the 3hr lesson, we learnt about colour gradation, how to apply it in a still life painting, and how to pose like an artist. I was best at the last one. 

Stupid cube. 

Next post- I will give you an introduction on the materials for oil painting (shopping for the items was really fun. I think I might have a problem). 

How to use the materials, so you will never have a noob moment like me,  if you ever go for a class. 

And also, all the thrills and excitement of lesson #2!!! Surprisingly, no bananas, apples or oranges were involved.