Yue Wei's Fearless Blog

Robin Poteet      Watercolorist Robin Poteet was a freelance advertising designer for the home furnishing industry before turning her focus to full-time painting and art instruction. She teaches watercolor classes in Roanoke, as well as workshops and annual trips abroad. Poteet was one of the ten artists chosen as "Ones to Watch" by WATERCOLOR ARTIST in their December 2010 issue.  "I can open any page from my travel books and instantly recall the mood, temperature and flavor of the scene --- something I'm just not able to do with photos."      In my opinion , Poteet's sketchbooks are very nice and interesting to look at as they are all colorful and they show the mood in the places. It definitely took a lot of time and efforts to train herself to have such amazing watercolor techniques. But as she said, she thinks of sketching as an "anything goes" process. It's sometimes her way if expressing a thought in a visual way. There is...

Sterling Edwards    "I guess you could say my sketches are inspired by my ability to create a scenario as I want it rather than accepting it the way that it exists."        The watercolors of Sterling Edwards strike a balance between photorealism and abstraction, with stylized shapes, bold design elements, and strong contrasts of light and dark accentuated with rich colors. Edwards continually draws inspiration from the Smoky Mountains that surround where he lives, in western North Carolina. He is also the author of CREATING LUMINOUS WATERCOLOR LANDSCAPE and a sought-after workshop instructor.      Edwards confessed that he doesn't sketch daily, but he does sketch often. He also does about ten to twenty small thumbnail sketches a week. They only take a few minutes and are full of useful information. What fascinates me about Edwards is that he always plans a painting. He likes to look through his photographs and then ...

Michelle Dunaway       Michelle Dunaway is one of the artists that caught my attention in the book named " Sketchbook Confidential 2". Her portraits have landed her in many collections and publications, including North Light's STROKES OF GENIUS best-of-drawing series. To Michelle, drawing is the foundation of painting, and she makes it to a point to draw and sketch from life as much as possible. Like she said, drawing is so essential as it trains the eye to the nuances of light, rhythms, form and color temperature. Michelle's drawings are very interesting as she has great control of the tones of lights in her drawings.  "Sketches, paintings and drawings are visual records of what you are paying attention to in life."

Luca Idili       Luca Idili is an Italian self-taught artist , he came to Taylor's Lakeside to tell us about his experiences and how he started his journey as an artist . To me , the most interesting fact about him is his working experiences , he took a lot of jobs when he was still very young such as construction , bartender , police , waiter , kitchen helper , cashier , account manager in Microsoft . His journey as an artist started from painting his own wife , he then took lessons online like Youtube in order to improve his skills on drawing and painting . He inspired me to keep on painting without the fear to make mistakes . " Choosing a creative career means you never stop learning and that's what makes it exciting " Painting his wife , Before and After

Ivan Alifan Jdanov      Ivan Alifan Jdanov is a figurative artist who does unusual paintings . His paintings are mostly done by thick paints , all of his paintings are erotic and they might be disturbing to some people due to the mature content . I really like how he does the painting with the thick paints , apparently some of the thicker oil paints need more than 1 month to dry . Some of Ivan Alifan's works are getting famous and being mentioned on social media such as Facebook . " NOT MILK This series is an exploration of the modern gaze; of ambiguous figurative paintings that are revealed and transformed within the act of the individuals' views. These portraits are not an attempt to render physical characteristics  but rather create a language of underlying sexual subtexts. Using ambiguity as a tool demands the viewer's exploration of their psyches and provokes self awareness.  To have a painting that can exist as an alluring object and shift i...

Silver Spoon ( Gin no Saji ) - Part 2          What other things to talk about Silver spoon ? Apart from the lessons I wrote in the previous post , there are tons of other things that I have learned from this animation or manga called Silver Spoon and these are capable to keep most of the people motivated in whatever they are doing in their life . In the part 1 , I have mentioned that it's okay to run away , be positive , do not overwork , and learn to say " no ". In this post , there are few things for me write about such as do not be afraid to speak out your thoughts and feelings , pursue your dream , dream big , and we do not learn everything in school .      There are times where we are to be "silent" by people when we are about to express our feelings and that has caused us to be afraid to talk to people about what we are thinking . In Silver Spoon , similar things happened to the protagonist , Hachiken Yuugo . He was given huge loads ...

Dory Kanter      " The greatest gift of sketching is how relaxing it is ---- relaxing and exhilarating at the same time . My internal art critic goes on vacation , and I am playful and don't worry about results .  "      Dory Kanter is an artist who does quick sketches and visual story-telling in her everyday life . It appears that she leads painting and journaling workshops and is a passionate advocate of art in the schools . With great funding , Kanter has developed innovative art and literacy curricula for high school students , and she has lectured at Yale University about the importance of creativity .      According to what Dory Kanter has mentioned , her habit at home , is to sketch as a way to reflect about each day . When traveling , she sketches all the time as well , basically whenever she sits still long enough to get out a pencil or pen . When sketching , she would always ask herself, " Why am I drawn to this particula...

Silver Spoon ( Gin No Saji )  - Part 1      Silver Spoon , named as Gin no Saji in Japanese , is a manga written and illustrated by Arakawa Hiromu . This manga was made into an anime . I am really fond of this anime as it is very interesting , funny and I have learned a lot of life lessons from it . Each characters are very unique , they have their own personalities and background stories which brings out their individuality as well .       The story was set in fictional Ooezo Agricultural High School in Hokkaido . It simply shows the daily life of the first year student named Hachiken Yuugo . Hachiken Yuugo is different from other students as he is the only one who's not from farming family . The reason behind his enrollment into Ooezo Agricultural High School was to run away from his problem , studies and his family . Hachiken was stressed out during his junior high , a smart kid who can scored high marks in exam ended up seeing everyone in h...