Panda Bear

Need to find pieces of work suitable for a school bazaar.

This bazaar is a fund raising event for the school.  A percentage of the proceeds goes to support the arts education program of the school; so it is a worthwhile cause.  Almost by definition, these venues do not command a high dollar amount for individual items.  There are certainly no explicit upper limits placed on items for sale, but implicitly the suggested reign is at $150.

I have used practice sketches or salvaged studio pieces in the past, sort of breathing new life into flawed pieces; but I thought I would do something special this year.

 I cannot AFFORD to devote too much time on any individual pieces in light of the relatively low ceiling on price, so I thought I would paint from images that I could find on the web.  I am not eschewing the notion that art, or creativity for that matter, should not be tied to monetary rewards.  I have known too many people taking short cuts, just to make a fast  buck.  There is however the practicality of getting paid for the efforts that one puts in.  As such, I had already been admonished for low-balling.

For myself, I know my works on critters seem to be well received.  So I am going for the soft spot.  I am painting panda bears for this exercise.

First I need to familiarize with the basic features by doing line sketches and brush works.  After a few sheets of that, I move onto the actual painting.

 

 

 

 

I know in my heart that this is not any serious endeavor, so I approach this job with playfulness.  I had intended to use a wet brush so the ink would bleed in create that "furry" look in my practice piece but that did not materialize.  Out comes the Exacto knife and I started to scrape and feather the edges where I wanted that furry look, i.e. under the chin, arm and lower thigh area.  There was not enough of a separation between the rear horizontal branch and the front ones to give the proper perspective, so I scraped a gap where the branches intersect. 





I know, I know.  These techniques don't belong to Chinese brush painting.  Where is my Bi-fa, my Chi,  and my poetic suggestion.  I can hear Asians walking by my booth, whispering, " he's no good.  That's not Chinese"  To them I'll say, "damn right.  Such is the distinction between craft and art" 

I am just having fun rendering and experimenting.  I don't pretend to be something that I'm not.