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Pay Per Video - January 2020 Project review.

29/1/2021

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So this week, I want to reflect on the past 5 weeks of producing lesson video after each weekly class of the topic we covered in class.

I've done 4 videos so far that are now hosted in Youtube but are private access, and only students who wants it, can purchase access to it. 

The whole process is quite laborious and manual, but I have learned some new tricks and also what not to do. 

​The first video about how to use basic watercolour, while drawing the coffee plant, took me 2.5 hours to make, from start to finish. The second video which is about drawing a profile portrait, took 10 times longer because I was doing a voice over that I had to redo over and over. The third one which is also in the series of beginner portrait lessons, took a whole week, because half way through it, I needed a few days to sit with some low energy that week brought with it. I am glad I did not beat myself up about taking so long, and I just let the flow of my creative energy lead the way. 

Week 3 I got back in gear and produced a basic portrait lesson using a Masai woman's face as a reference, This was also done with lots of voice overs and took a long time to do. I was quite happy with the edit, but the sound was yet again not the best because I didn't have a specific microphone. I am beginning to look at buying a specific microphone this week. 

Week 4, I was teaching negative painting and I had one of the class in person in my dining room and that was super fun. The video took a few days to start but it was pretty smooth. Negative painting is super fun. I really like it. 

Week 5, I planned to do a landscape class, and I needed to refresh the approach I taught before, and make it more interesting for me too. So I decided to back to the basics of drawing, using pencil and pen, and teach the basic use of pencil, and liners. This became beautiful landscapes that looks a bit like wood cut prints. I am so inspired by this technique that I started to plan for week 6 landscape theme, focusing on nature elements such as water, skies, trees and mountains. 

Serendipitiously, Tom received a birthday card from his parents, and it was an art print by a British printmaker John Brundson who I've never heard of. It had very beautiful landscape and effect that is very similar but yet more specifically visible layers of the different tones. This spins more experiments to teach the look of wood block prints but does by line drawing and wash. 

Week 5 video lesson was done without a voice over as I felt my voice over is always so stiff and wooden, while when I draw and speak at once, I come across more natural and candid, even with mistakes or pauses, they're natural. I ordered a headset microphone which I hope will arrive by the time week 6 rolls by. 

The videos are hosted in Youtube as private videos and I roll them out to students via their email address. This process is manual and kinda painful, but it was manageable since I only had to send to around 20 students at the most. I thought I start to charge a little for them as an exchange for the effort I made to produce them, and overtime as I get better, I will figure out a more automated way to do it. 

​This was the plan in 2020, and now I am finally doing it, a year later. 

​Thanks to all my enrolled students for their support for this new project. 

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A Proud moment- Ren Min Beer Labels in Watercolour

7/1/2021

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A proud moment indeed. 

A nice culmination of my lockdown watercolour practice, learning from different artists, my urban sketching practice, and learning perspective, as well as learning procreate, all of 2020 came to this point. 

This commission for beer labels came to me via my graphic designer friend David, who had to design their logo.

I progressed quite fast from initial introduction to final work, the turn around was tight. We had one group phone call, one zoom call to finalise, and a bunch of texts exchange and within 48 hours, I produced all three of these water-colour artwork in 200% the size.

Thank you me for being so systematic, and organised. I don't think I've ever been this organised before. I knew immediately which iconic buildings to sketch, did the sketches, colour and technical tests to colour swatching, then I sketched the finished buildings pretty fast. What's funny is that the Jinrikisha building image reference that I used for Progression, was from a vintage postcard hanging in our bedroom wall. I did all the people in procreate, so they can all be resized and repositioned easily.

I also returned to my love of abstract painting with the sprays in the background, or I call them splotches using a metal straw. I did a lot of this in 2010 when I was in an art residency in Vietnam using Chinese ink on rice paper. I really remember that vividly because I recall some participants of the workshop really having fun playing with the straw blowing method. There are two really nice rice paper abstract artworks from that residency that are still hanging proudly at Ali and Xaver's place. 

On 29th of December, 3rd Culture Brewery re-launched their new brand called Ren Min Beer Company. These three new beers were introduced at their two locations inside hawker centers. I went to the Maxwell Food Centre launch and did a quick sketch of the crowd before I had to leave for dinner.

The atmosphere was a buzz, and that was also when I meet Brian and Manbeer in person, Brian took care of the branding, and Manbeer owns the company. I thought with a first name like that, he was destined for this! 

Such a great way to usher in a new year, and say goodbye to a year everybody will remember for generations as the year it all went ugly. But I won't be talking about that. 

Here's to keeping it light, and trucking on with the good vibes. 

​You can find Ren Min Brewery on Facebook, and Instagram 

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