A Restless Wind Inside a Letterbox | Art and Words by Katrina Teh

Gouache Studies

Posted on March 10, 2013 by katrinateh

I went back to school to study a lot of the things I was never good at. This quarter was especially challenging since I’ve been doing more drawings from life and architecture. But most of all I strove to overcome my fear of painting and color. It was a struggle, but I have rediscovered my calling when I got into painting with gouache. I have older portrait studies in an entry I did last year.

It was very important for me to devote some of my free time to study painting. I did that through my Travel Portfolio assignments. I took photos and would afterwards use it as reference for color study. Right now I’m not as accurate as I would like, but it excites me that I am becoming less fearful of color.

Something I took from The Peak

Flamingos from Kowloon Park at TST

Some have asked me about my process as well as my feelings on how to use gouache, and I will likely write about it in detail next time. For now I must say this: I love this medium so much. It gives me the versatility of switching between techniques. I can use it as I would use watercolors or render thickly as I would with oils. I feel very free and confident whenever I use it.

If you guys have any particular questions regarding the medium or my work, feel free to send me comments and suggestions for my Gouache entry. I will most likely talk about the differences between gouache and poster paints as well as my exploration studies with paint application.

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Soul Searching

Posted on February 23, 2013 by katrinateh

Hong Kong is home to a lot of special places, but my favorite was always the Chi Lin Nunnery and the garden that is situated on its front step. I went there to pray and sketch as part of my spiritual alone time last Valentines.

I get shoo-ed away by the guards whenever I attempt to draw something that is part of a more popular scenic sight. They don’t want me lingering and spoiling the view for the others who come and go to take photos.

It is frustrating to say the least. So I was stuck doing the smaller more quiet scenes around the park. I washed these with a bit of watercolor.

Click image to enlarge

I opted to do a sketch or two from photo-reference after my trip. Regardless of all the trouble, I really do love the beautiful bits of detail that I found there.

Click image to enlarge

Despite having an aversion for environments, I’m starting to develop a fondness for traditional Chinese architecture- perhaps it is in the rhythm of architectural elements, or the use of rounded entrance ways, or even the gentle sweep of the rooftops. Drawing Chinese architecture keeps me engaged and interested enough to keep working on a more technical drawing. This is also a photo-referenced drawing but it is not from the Nunnery. I photographed the reference at the Kowloon Walled City Park.

I’ve been doing my best to get in touch with my love for creating things through these spiritual retreats. There has been too much noise in my brain and it has been hard to focus. Zoning out into a drawing state of mind has been helping me push back my worries for the time being. I hope I can keep up this productivity until I get out of my slump.

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Recounting Seconds

Posted on February 18, 2013 by katrinateh

I love how Chinese traditions give me a reason to celebrate New Years twice a year. So to commemorate the occasion, I want to share bits and pieces of my Winter Quarter so far here in Hong Kong and also my trip to the Thinkspace exhibition held at Above Second Gallery.

Winter Quarter is especially sentimental to me since a lot of my girlfriends from Manila started their first quarters at SCAD Hong Kong. As a first outing for the weekend we decided to go to SCAD’s First Friday event followed by the trip to the exhibition. Spreading the Manila sass at Sheung Wan.

Kiudo – Acrylic on board by Joao Ruas

Los Angeles based gallery Thinkspace has teamed up with Above Second Gallery in Hong Kong to present ‘LAX / HKG’. This special group exhibition has been curated by Thinkspace to help introduce our roster to Hong Kong. Featuring two new works each from the likes of Amy Sol, Audrey Kawasaki, Brian M. Viveros, Dabs Myla, Esao Andrews, Joao Ruas, Linnea Strid and Yosuke Ueno.

The line up for this exhibition was just excellent. I was especially excited because I’m a big fan of Joao Ruas‘s work.

Honestly never thought that I’d see an Amy Sol or an Audrey Kawasaki in my life time. Was so happy that I got the opportunity to see these and more!

Violent Waves (detail) by Esao Andrews

Given time, I may be able to upload all of the photos from the exhibition into my facebook page. :) I will be sure to mention if it comes up.

When Chinese New Year came along for realsies, I spent my day mostly on my own- relaxing by the beach. There was so much crazy energy after my trip to California and trying to keep up with the backlog of deadlines was very painful. Having the alone time was such a wonderful relief.

I capped the day by eating at a local rice-topping place. Got to draw this while waiting for my food. Tried my hand at giving my sketches washes this time around for some variation. Hopefully the next pieces will keep evolving with more interesting rendering styles and composition.

I do have some sketches lined up on queue that I am excited to share. Travel Portfolio has been such a rewarding class where I get to try things that I normally do not do (like architecture… gosh it’s very difficult to draw buildings and interiors etc). More drawings to come up soon :)

Posted in Event, Travel, Travel Portfolio | 2 Comments

Treehugger

Posted on February 4, 2013 by katrinateh

There is something very therapeutic about drawing trees and quiet landscapes. For one, they obviously don’t move- so it gives me more time to figure out what I wanna do with composition. It gives me time to feel around for the nuances of foliage. I feel less saddled with the pressure of drawing everything straight with pen.

So here are a the few special pages I really enjoyed. Please do click on the images for a larger view.

Posted in Travel Portfolio | 6 Comments

Pages

Posted on January 28, 2013 by katrinateh

I’ve mentioned that I’ve been doing Travel Portfolio lately where I get to travel across Hong Kong and do some sketching. A lot of the work I ended up drawing were small moments, organic places and niches that interest me, as well as things I rarely draw from life. Some are more successful than others- but I find that all these pages tell a lot about how I’m slowly growing to learn how to really draw with more confidence and ease.

Do click on the images for a larger view. :)