Tag: nature

Painting nature: Evolution in 3 years

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Nature is a recurring object for all painters, it can either serve as background or the main character of the whole artwork. At first, I was naturally drawn by colorful, vivid floral paintings done in quick tutorials on Youtube, yet after a while I slowly lost interests in flowers. I turned to more textured objects such as mushroom, rocks and wood.

I even didn’t have much sky or cloud paintings as a landscape painter usual has. I painted mostly houses and urban subjects, since those are the things I’m most familiar with.

In 2022, inspired by James Gurney youtube and book “Color and Light”, I begin to explore nature subjects again. The book “Color and Light” explained in a detailed and logically way how nature absorbs and reflects light, as well as examples from a wide range of artists who painted the same subject. It not only gave me foundational knowledge to lean on while mixing paint, but also motivated me to interpret nature in my own way. Besides painting close-ups or copying the illustrations in the book, I started a collection of references on my own, using images I shot myself and from other artists’ resources. I highly recommend Art Prof’s Flickr page, in which they shoot the same objects from various angles and organize the album in a clear, logical way.

Of course, with my works mostly revolving around comics and storybook illustrations, I gradually painted less nature subjects after I finish with the book. At the of 2024, I slowly went back to painting nature again due to stress. It started with my warm-up sketch using travel and garden magazine. It feels like seeing an old friend you haven’t talked in years.

I particularly felt a new joy of painting flowers and plants, possibly due to my realization that I could interpret them whatever want. They could be the main subjects, painted carefully or rough dabs of paints – whatever works for the painting. They are excellent choices to practice colors, since flowers’ petals can be soft, reflective or thick, absorbent. In summer days when sunlight reach them from many angles, they can be challenging with many colors reacting to each other, yet still harmonizing with themself!

Personal Painting Collection 2024: Portraits, Practices, Pleinairs

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2024 saw me going up and down with painting, beginning with an intensive period of doing portraits and then a loose period of painting random things to find out: what do I want to paint? Some context: for the past 2-3 years, I have been allocating my efforts on the technical side rather than idea sites; since I often stuck by techniques. Sometimes, it was confusion while mixing colors, other times, it was problems about anatomy, perspective, etc.

My belief is that I would perfect my techniques or style to some point before thinking about what I want to express with my works. Well, it turns out that arts doesn’t work like that, and I get annoyed by endless practice and studying sessions.

But let the story begin with the first few months. I was into learning about colors (again) and portraits. Portrait paintings were to recall my anatomical knowledge and to boost my color skills. Mixing skin tones is still something I need to work on.

This is my favorite portrait of the whole year.

One big shift in my color usage is towards a brighter palette with bolder color choice. It possibly coincided with my switch to Holbein acrylic gouache, but also my slight change from just painting from dark to light or reverse to painting from the boldest color to neutral tones. It’s not an intentional thing, it’s more about keeping my palette organized so that I can avoid over mixing.

One thing I have been thinking about is how to add “life” into my paintings, or to be more specific, movement. My paintings use to have a nostalgia vibe, because I mostly painted the places I visited, the places that I met someone and talked with someone. The later paintings of 2024 has something else with bolder and brighter colors.

My summer trip to Quang Binh (Phong Nha), Hue, Da Nang (Hoi An) deepened my interest in painting traditional architecture. My only regret is that I should have taken many more reference images.

In the last months of 2024, I turned to painting nature, flowers and gardens in particular, as a method to relax. It’s also under the influence of writing about female artists, Rachel Ruysch, Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, etc who use flowers as a subject and a recurring symbol of femininity. They allows me to work quickly with not-so-bad results, work freely wihout a reference image and can be used as gifts in rushed events.

Looking back, 2024 was a year of shifting perspectives—from focusing solely on technique to questioning how I want to express my ideas. While I haven’t found all the answers, I’ve discovered new directions, from bold color choices to the love for life and nature in my paintings.

I guess that’s it for a year.

The very first big project – the one that launches my freelance career

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I received the request for this project when I was so confused about what direction to go with my life. I was already working on some small commissions, but things was going nowhere.

For this project, I actually offer to do the first sketch for free since I wasn’t sure about myself on how to draw the whole series. The author was asking for a series of detailed ink drawings for leaves and animals. I’m still amazed now by how much trust the author had in me and how smooth things went.

I based many details on botanical illustrations from old books, which I dug up from Internet Archives. I do use photos from Google and other stocks sites, yet they tend to be not as useful. What I look for is an image showing the full branch or plant in clear lighting, and online images tend to be either close-up shots of just the flowers or have a strong contrast.

This project consists of about 30 ink illustrations for 30 poems about nature. It came like a magic touch, and kept me afloat for a whole three months to be able to receive more commission request.

I don’t do much these ink commissions anymore, since I’m working more with colors and full scene illustrations. I still look back this project dearly, since the payment helped supported me in those early days and I had a collection of animal and botanical illustrations in my portfolio.

Yet, birds, animals and plants are still my favorite topics to sketch with ink particularly, I have loosened my grip more, creating an impression rather than detailed inking. I have been taken up with studying animal anatomy carefully to be correct – a small anatomical mistake can make the whole drawing look off!

Painting Collection Vol.3 (2022-2023)

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1. Sketchbook of Hanoi

Growing up in Hanoi, I have an affection to every cornet of this city. Especially those are less known with tourists, because these places feel more authentic to me. When sitting in a cafe painting these scenes, I feel like capturing a moment of this city, a moment that will be gone with unavoidable modern development. 

That’s why I tend to chose old houses or historic structures, so that theirs stories can live on through my paintings. 

Below is my favorite painting of 2023 – this captures idyllically the area I grew up in, a very ordinary area with no tourist attractions. I’ve walked pass these houses hundreds and hundreds time. 

I know that one day I will miss this scene dearly. 

2. Studies of nature

One big drawback of growing and living in a big city is that I rarely get to see a scene just full of nature. All these studies were based on photos. 

I personally love scenes of tree and water, both allows me to play with color and reflection. Painting nature is also more liberating since it seems like I’m having a secondary experience with these scenes, an escape from my bustling city. 

3. Studies of color

I find it still life studies useful but a bit boring, so I often paint scene with lots of similar objects to practice instead. These objects sitting together show contrast in colors and interesting negative space.