Journey to the Orient

[goldfish_drink]

Having been raised in Canada, I decided that I was bored with the country and left it for China. Starting at this september I will be enrolled in the most prestigous art university in china: the central academy of fine arts. This sketchbook will serve to document my progress and hopefully illuminate others on the kind of education one can receive in china.

But since school starts in september and i've got a big vacation starting now till then, I guess i'll start this thread off with some stuff from my portfolio and some drawings.

Here's one picture from my portfolio:
http://img95.imageshack.us/img95/1276/temple0ob.jpg

[goldfish_drink]

I've been looking for life drawing for a couple of weeks now and as of now i havent found a single open life drawing place in Beijing. I've asked around and apparently life drawing sessions are organized by teachers at school and i've got to be in school before i can find any of this kind of stuff. i was absolutely shocked that the highschool students who prepare for their portfolios never had life drawing experiences, and even more shocked when some private animation schools i went to had no life drawing. the reason for all this is the fact that China bans porn and people are worried that alot of frustrated people will infiltrate open life drawing and mentally jerk off or something. So that being the case I decided to draw naked animals. and here's what i got yesterday at the zoo:
http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/4937/zoo15ke.jpg

[stine]

hi! just stopped by to say that your animal sketches are great! the first one looks good, too, but something about the roof bugs me. but as i said, the animals are really cool, very loose and dynamic. would like to see some more! :)

[amer-nazri]

Hey there. Very nice drawings. I agree with stine, i like the looseness of your technique, really soft as well. What do you use to draw with?

Keep it up!

[goldfish_drink]

hmm, I've never really stuck to one medium. Since I'm pretty messy, i just use whatever i can find. So if I cant find my charchoal, I use a pencil etc. but these are mostly drawn with a simple charchoal pencil and sometimes conte. I like the soft things like charcoal and breasts :D

[Sybo]

ok, im gonna keep an eye on this thread. I lived in china for 3 years, its an awesome place to go for a different perspective on the world, methinks.
Im sure its gna be a great experience, cant wait to see how your art evolves...

si

[goldfish_drink]

finally after long searching I found a decent studio where there's live model, a teacher and most importantly some artists friends whose company I very much enjoy. I discovered nicolay fechin, whom I consider freaking amazing. I've set a new clear goal, which is to be able to clearly visualize anything I want detailed enough that it contains all the information I need to produce a picture. How will I go about doing this? I'm going to experiment with visulization every day and I think I'm going to start with imaginary friends and work my way towards imaginary worlds.

http://img122.imageshack.us/img122/3234/gagaga16oa.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

http://img122.imageshack.us/img122/9962/gagaga38oh.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

http://img122.imageshack.us/img122/5153/gagaga22iu.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[goldfish_drink]

http://img122.imageshack.us/img122/5159/gagaga48dh.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[Alisa]

Thesee are gorregouss .... mannn that first drawing , I want it !!! haha ! breathtaking ... I'm loving the animals ... go back there to draw !! You can feel the movement in the sketches .... I love it !

[explosive-fetus]

hey dude, it's great to see how your work is comming along in china keep up the good work!

Get famous fast so by the time I get to china I can have people look up to me in awe when I say I know you.

-Alex (the male version)

[darkchild]

Very cool studies. Can't wait to what kind of inspiration you get out of China. I was to young when I left there to remember anything. Loving the animal sketches. I'll be checking back.

[goldfish_drink]

To show you guys what I look like, I painted a self portrait. Oil, 1 hour 30 minutes. It is monochrome but the picture taking is hard since I have no decent equipment.
http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/438/selfportrait3ai.jpg

As for getting inspiration out of china, I find that the quiet places inspires me the most. The really famous stuff are full of way too many tourists and I think the city planners are shit in their skills as they do the stupidest things, for example, old ancient brick walls(the kind that gained a personality over the many years) are painted over with grey paint. Also, in Beijing, the chance of finding hot girls in a mall, street or just about any public place is less than 1 in a hundred. I hear that the universities have a good supply but now is summer break and I have to wait till september to go caveman. Until then, I walk the haunted malls sometimes and stop anyone whose beauty inspires me and I generally can get them to allow me to draw a portrait.

[Sybo]

Post some of these portraits man! Real nice stuff, post more. I love the way you capture the light in this self portrait, with a limited pallet.

[Denysiuk]

nice works.
especially animals