succulent paintings

Succulents are very therapeutic to paint. Even though it took me awhile to understand when sketching. I love using the green and blue hues together and play it a little with oranges/ violets.

Using Hot press paper is better when painting floral related paintings. you want the smooth texture from the paper to be able to add in more details. 

Agave potatorum

Sedum palmeri

This is probably going to be my final post of the year. Say hello 2017 with more challenges and exciting adventures!

Stay gold fellas!

x

Ashley  

watercolour illustrations - Autumn 2016

Hello Everyone! I hope you're having a great holiday season.

I painted these items that are related to Autumn ( at least from what i have searched on google) Never have I ever experience autumn season before but I do think Autumn is the season of the cozy! 

I had the most fun painting the scarf and the pinecone -in which I thought I might mess them up because of the details and all. I doubt myself in the beginning but look who finished it lol. self doubt is very toxic.

pumpkin spice latte with cookies

a pinecone and a carved pumpkin

cozy scarf

Watercolour food illustration 2016

**Looks like I'm on a roll in painting food illustrations lol 

loaf of bread.

Teriyaki Sushi burger

Blueberry waffle

Blackberry yogurt + oats

Watercolour Food Illustrations - Malaysian delights!

 I painted some of my favourite food while I was in Malaysia. Fun fact: I always have my nasi lemak with teh ais. It just feels complete that way.

Nasi Lemak

Penang Lasksa

Ayam Rendang

Curry Mee

Teh Ais ( Malaysian Iced Milk Tea)

December Calendar 2016

Firstly, I have to send my apologies to whomever waiting for the calendar. But on the other hand, I finally resigned my job - which I disliked. Probably this might be on another blog post if y'all curious about it.

Anyway!

It is finally December - my favourite month of the year! First it is my birthday month and second- Christmas! Although Christmas is illegal in Brunei ( bummer!) I still can drink wine at home :D tucking under my blanky watching kdramas.

I hope you enjoy this last calendar of the year! 

click below to download full res.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! 

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November Calendar 2016

Yikes! It is November guys! That means we are nearing the end of 2016 and shopping for christmas! lol. It is also the month I'm looking forward to because it will be my very last month of being a school teacher.

I hope you enjoy this month's calendar! 

click below to download full res.

See you on my next blog post! 

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October Calendar 2016

Hello friends! 

It is October and I have prepared another calendar for you! It is kinda delayed because I ran out of ideas to try a simple approach to a minimal composition (i.e, I suck in composition) 

The month of October is the starting month of cozy sweaters, cute mugs and cookies and also , Halloween! (If you're wondering what are those leaves hanging around, they are cookies) 

Click below to download the full size 

****Also, please give me a shoutout or comment below if you're using my wallpaper! I'd love to know more feedback that can help with my calendar designs in future :)

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Birds in South East Asia

Disclaimer: I'm sorry this is a very backdated post. I totally forgot to post this up.

Some of my bird paintings based on the common bird species in South East Asia. I might add in to this series in near future.

Chestnut Munia

***fun fact: This black headed Munia used to be the national bird of The Philippines before the Philippine Eagle takes over.

Rhinoceros Hornbill

**They always appear at my backyard calling for their mate. It can be very noisy sometimes.

Oriental Magpie Robin

Fun fact: This bird species sing a lot. The males sang louder to attract females.

Zebra Dove

fun fact: They camouflage well on ground. (lol)

Progress shots

Over here you'll see some bad quality progress shots(for that I apologise). I didn't have the patience to keep in track of the progress shots as it sometimes kill my mood to continue. It's just my habit to keep painting while I'm in the zone. I wonder if anyone has this experience before. 

The magpie and the chestnut munia are my personal favourite to paint. I think because I understand how their feathers flow. However, the hornbill got me confused while adding the details on the feathers. I kinda hide my mistakes by adding more purple and blue :D

The zebra dove is the most tedious among all and it always made me procrastinate from continuing. The spots and the patterns got me overwhelmed. But  I managed!
Patience and listening to music got me through this process u_u

The process of painting is not all difficult. Actually not everything is difficult if you have the patience and the understanding of colour and form. But it takes a long time to understand. It took me a few years to understand that adding blue shades makes a great colour for details instead of adding black itself.
I still have my habit of procrastinating -which is unbeatable for now.

I am still a work in progress and I am enjoying the journey to improve myself.

I'm glad that you read my thought process in this blog and I hope you get to enjoy (or to be inspired?) reading it :D 

x

Ashley 

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July Calendar 2016

July calendar is here!  

These are some sketches i did during the month of June so I thought it'll be a great idea to use it for July calendar. (and also to make use of my washi tapes lol)

 Feel free to use it for your own purposes :D

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Bird paintings

Observing the small details of nature's gift. 

Greater Blue-eared Starling

Eastern Meadowlark

bluebird

The Great Tit

June Calendar 2016

Inspired by batik designs, I like to make it a summer-ish feels to this month's calendar. 

I hope you like the colourful theme for your wallpaper :) 

click the thumbnail above to download the wallpaper size! 

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Healing stones : Paitning study

Hello! 

Painting stones can be challenging but eventually it turned out enjoyable than I expected. I have a bad habit to rush things out. So to paint stones it can force me to take my pace slow and steady.

The red Rhodochrosite took me longer as i was struggling to get the red's vibrancy. 

Aquamarine

Rhodochrosite

Titanium quarts

Celestite

Celestite is my favourite stone to paint among all. just very therapeutic :D

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Roses : painting study

Gooood day everyone! 

The last two weeks has been a rocky ride. Feeling down and got bummed out and now I'm currently down with a common flu. which sucks actually.

These paintings are pretty way before I got bummed out. Now upon updating this post I realise that I never get to be satisfied with my paintings. I felt I can do better than this. Am I being too hard on myself ? 

It has been awhile since I paint flowers .You can actually see some changes since I've applied some new painting techniques. Well, just being easy on adding colours that is. hur hur ...

Yellow peony

Orange peony

Red rose

Violet rose

Pink rose

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Spring! May desktop calendar is here!

For the month of May it is all about fresh scented flowers and beautiful (yet scorching) sunlight. I went for a simple and clean floral direction for this month's theme.

Don't forget to show your appreciation to your mother for all the sacrifices they have done to raise children. The amount of tolerance necessary is beyond human capacity.

click the thumbnail above to download the wallpaper size! 

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