Boys painting

 I woke up early in the morning while everybody else was still asleep. As I didn't want to be just lying on bed boringly waiting the baby to get up. I started painting again. This time I tried to paint the two sons doing arts and crafts at home, as I don't want to just paint one of them, guessing the other won't be happy in that case.

I haven't really finished the details but I had to give up and left it as it was when both kids were awake.

It is still a very nice picture as I can tell. The postures and the skeletons of the children are very vivid. But the colours do not look real. Despite my target is not to make a picture identical to the reality, I still hope I can control the saturates and colours better so that the picture would look more natural. From this perspective, it exposed my limitations of applying colours, which I should enhance in future.

I don't have time to play music these days.

Painting in an A3 paper

 I woke up early in the morning as I didn't want to boringly stay in bed. I got up and painted the picture "A sleeping boy on the seashore" with watercolour. This is the first time I painted a picture on an A3 paper, which is bigger than those I used before. Painting on a larger paper is a great fun, and the result is unexpectedly good. This is by no doubt my best painting in this year.

After finishing reading Elton John's autobiography, I began to read  Sushi's article collection.

I haven't played guitar that much these days as painting has got more and more of my attention.

About realistic paintings

 I drew a picture about the mailbox that could be seen from the window in the early morning. Different pen and paper characteristics require different levels of saturation. To be safe, we can always safe to start with less water.

Since the invention of cameras, many people lost the confidence of the future for realistic paintings, as they thought those paintings would be easily defeated by photographs. But I think the feeling that a painting can give to the people is still very different from a photo. Through examining the scratches and traces left during the creation of the painted picture, you can feel the time and efforts the painter spent to finish it, as well as the learning process and the talent. In addition, you can feel the culture heritage about the techniques that are passed by generations from an ancient time. No two paintings can be exactly the same despite they may reflect the same scene. We can always understand the styles and interpretations of the painters.

Of course, some people love abstract painting more as different people have different tastes. 

Beach Play

 I finally received my fountain pen ordered online. It is really hard to buy one. To be safe, I chose the brand of Heros, which I had been used for a long time in the past. 

Yesterday I repainted the "Beach Play" picture in the early morning. I want to say that it is a much more pleasant experience. Yeah, for something you can't do it well, it is fine to just try it again. I painted the background before applying the pen for drawing objects. For fine objects such as human beings, I used a ball pen rather than a fountain pen so that the lines would not be mixed with watercolours.

I played a bamboo six holes xiao flute, which is a birthday present I got from high school, in the evening. The temperament is different to that used in today's western music. The feeling is great to play an instrument you've owned for more than 20 years.

Music composition

 I got up early in the morning today and composed a lullaby. It's a long time since my last composition.

Brisbane's summer has eventually arrived. It has been rather bright after 5 am. Yeah, I don't need to copy or imitate those stage performers. As an amateur musician, I can develop my own style, the style that is suitable to play at home for self entertainment. Maybe this is what literati music should be like.