Happy place

For the most part of Winter, I spent most of my free time doing art at this spot of my tiny living room where it has slowly transformed as my happy space. The perfect definition of hermit was achieved by me (again) over winter while I happily pursued my longtime wish of painting. 

As much as I wanted to jumpstart with oil painting, I had to rethink and best decided to just finish my gouache acrylic tubes and be good with details until those tubes go empty and I have mastered my strokes. 

I started with a vision for the first painting on canvas. We all know canvas is expensive and to start random painting with no subject in mind can be frustrating and end up to waste. 

In January, I made up my usual list of goals for the year and it did include a specific subject of the painting I wanted to do. It was a lion or a female face. The former prevailed. 

There (inset photo), at the left, is my first painting on canvas. From then on, I succeeded it with animal profiles. Lion was made in January, wolf in February and the Cat in March. For April, I have not painted any for the lack of time and canvas. In between, I managed to do some sketching, hoping to master drawing faces. 

As an aspiring artist, the search for my signature look - something that will identify my work from the others - is still ongoing. For now, what i really want is to paint hyperealism style. The same goes with my sketching. I know it's a long process in my case considering that I am self-taught. 

For tools, Tokyo has lots of it. The famous Sekaido in Shinjuku holds the most number of discounted art supplies. I could spend the whole afternoon gaping at the many selection of brushes and paint medium of sorts. If I feel too lazy, Amazon Japan proved reliable for small purchases. 

I am happy knowing that I have finally put this into practice. For how long this pursuit been put on hold, glad that boredom and winter depression crept in and allowed me to find a way of dealing with it in productive way. Hope I get to paint more and get better. I have this wishful thinking that even at old age, I am hoping to see myself standing next to my works in an exhibhit. How's that for a dream?