About Me
Okay, what's your real name
Well, I don't like to give out my real name, but if you can read the Chinese on
the front page, then you'd already know.
So does that mean you know
Chinese?
Yup, I was born in China, and can speak Mandarin fluently. I can read
somewhat and write a little (I haven't read/written Chinese for so long I'm
starting to forget...)
Who is "MapleRose",
and why do some of your stuff have that name on it?
"MapleRose" is my online alias. I've been using that name for 5
years I think, and I'm sticking with it. "Maple" for my fave leaf and
"Rose" for my fave flower. I'm just too lazy to change the watermarks.
Where do you live?
Ontario, Canada, in a student dorm room.
What do you look like?
Black hair, brown eyes, glasses. I'm always one of the
shortest in my class. I love my hair, and I've never dyed it. I also don't have
any piercings at all, not even my ears.
Are you in school?
I just graduated from high school, and I'm starting my first year in
university this year in Computer Science.
Why not art? Since you seem
to like it.
Art is more of a hobby than a career. I don't think I can compare with the
professionals...
So when did you start to
draw, and why do you draw?
Hmm, I'm not sure when I started actually. But I do remember that art class
had always been my favourite since elementary school. Why do I draw? I guess
it's fun to see something created from your imagination come to reality, though
most of the time things don't end up how I first imagined...
What about photography?
I haven't actually been taking pictures all that long. I think I started
taking picture of flowers, because I want to keep their beauty. Then we got a
digital camera, and I started to take photos more and more. Photography is
another form of art, and I like to capture a moment to keep forever.
Do you have any formal
training?
Well, I did take Chinese watercolour lessons for 3 years starting at 7, then
I did more Chinese watercolours for a few months last year. And I took art
throughout high school, went to a couple summer art camps.
What inspires you to
draw/paint?
Depends on what I'm doing really. I get inspired by a beautiful scenery to
paint, pretty flowers and scenery for photography, and just about anything that
pops into my head while I'm trying to sleep I guess. I also love tigers, so
that's why I have so many paintings of tigers...
What are your favourite
mediums?
I love to experiment with different mediums and techniques, and each has its
own advantages. But my favourites are: oil/acrylic, on canvas more than on board
(board is a pain to work on!); conte and chalk, especially when used together (I
love the colours of conte, and I usually use off-white coloured chalk with conte
for highlights); graphite and charcoal (I like softer pencils, I use B and 2B
the most, even for sketching); clay, because I like to do things in 3D as well;
Copic markers, I'm just starting out, but they go on really smoothly, esp with
the brush tip, so it's like using paint, but easier to control, I can also blend
and mix colours on the paper to an extent. I guess I like mediums that give me
more freedom and ability to smudge, because I like to blend and smudge a lot.
Digital or Traditional?
Both have their advantages. With digital, I can mix colours instantly, and
match colours quicker without having to remix them, I can use layers, so if I
make a mistake or want to experiment, I can try again without messing up the
rest of the picture. Also, there's always the Edit->Undo button that makes
life so much easier, and filters/blend modes can give me cool effects in
seconds. But with traditional mediums, I have more control than using a mouse.
Also, I find that blending with brushes are easier and than using the smudge
button. There are effects that only traditional mediums can give, and it gives
me the satisfaction of knowing that I created it myself. Another advantage to
using traditional mediums is that I always have a hard copy available to
display, while I have to print stuff I create digitally, and printing high
quality is expensive.
Oil or acrylic?
I know a lot of people who start out in acrylic, and once they tried oil,
they never want to go back. I'm not one of those people. I use water mixable
oils instead of traditional oils, so I don't need to use turpentine to mix
colours or wash, so the basic maintenance is pretty much the same. Although I do
appreciate the easy blending of oils, I still like the quick-drying acrylic,
because I'm impatient, and acrylic allows me to work in layers. Also, because
acrylic is durable, permanent, and dries quick, I can use it on pretty much any
surface, including walls and rocks. It's also much much cheaper than oils, and
smells much better too (yes, even the water mixable oils smell). And it washes
off easier too, which enables me to finger paint with acrylics (I love
finger-painting). So I guess I like both. In fact, I usually combine the two in
my paintings.
What about watercolour?
I guess I do like watercolour to an extent. It is harder to control than
oils and acrylics, and the colours fade when it dries, so I may not always end
up with what I want. Also, because it's semi-transparent, any mistakes I make I
can't easily paint over like with acrylic or oil. But I do like the effects you
can get with watercolours, it's just a different style, and I like the fact that
even though the paint is dry, I can sometimes add water and work the paint some
more, and blend the paint right on the paper. Of course, one thing I despite
about watercolours is that if the paper I used isn't thick enough and I used too
much water, the paper curls like crazy and the paints runs to unwanted places,
which is why I always keep a roll of tissue paper around when I do watercolours.
Chinese watercolours?
Hmm, it's not really my favourite medium to work with, nor my least
favourite. It's just really different that's all. There's actually two types of
Chinese watercolour: one style is more abstract, painted on raw rice paper using
big brushstrokes and usually thinner paint to create the painting; the other
style is more meticulous, painted on cooked rice paper (which is thicker and
doesn't bleed too much) using smaller brushes to stroke each line and detail
using more opaque paint. The style I learned when I was a child was the first
style, and the stuff I learned recently is the second style. The tigers and
birds in my gallery are created with the second style, where each fur and
feather is painted on. It's very time-consuming, but the result is nice. Chinese
watercolour has very strict rules about how to paint. There are certain
techniques and brushstrokes to paint a rock, a tree, a plant etc. And the paint,
while like watercolour is soluble and semi-transparent, it's also different in
that it can be worked in layers without touching the layers underneath. The rice
paper absorbs most of the paint, and it becomes permanent, no matter how much
water you use, you can't work the paint anymore. So any overlaying paint won't
smudge the paint. Because the paint is semi-transparent (unless you apply
without any water), once dry, the layers underneath will show through the layer
about a bit, creating different effects. Raw rice paper bleeds the paint very
easily, so it takes experience to control the amount of water used and the
brushstrokes. Anyway, Chinese watercolour doesn't have as much freedom as oils
or acrylics, but it does have an unique style.
How do you paint?
My grade 11 and 12 teacher has this art development process. I usually start
with a design ideas in thumbnails, just getting down the ideas roughly. Then I
go on to design development, where I take my favourite idea and work on the
composition, experiment, fix it up and neaten it, until I come up with a final
design. Then I photocopy the design and work on colour schemes, I can still
change things at this point. Once I got the colours sorted out, I trace/draw the
design onto a canvas/board/wood/any painting surface. I like using bigger flat
brushes (unless I'm working on something really small), and I get out some
primary colours. I prefer to mix colours on the canvas and mix as I go, so I
don't usually mix a lot of colours at once. Of course, this means that sometimes
my colours don't match, but if it's close enough, it's good. My teacher
recommends us doing a wash first so we don't paint on a while canvas, but
sometimes I get lazy and skip that step (I'm just impatience to start painting).
When I'm painting from a reference picture, I skip all the process and sketch
out the pic right on the canvas and start painting, mixing colours and fixing
things as I go.
What about digital stuff? How
do you do that?
I currently use PaintShopPro 8 for most of my digital art, because Photoshop
hates me, and I like PSP because it has both vector and raster functions. I
sketch and usually ink by hand and scan it in. For vectors, I basically use the
pen tool to create shapes and lines, shade using cell-shading or just have no
shading at all (usually the latter, 'cause if I shade, I prefer to do it all
smudged and smooth). For CGing, I like airbrushing, using the magic wand,
airbrush, and smudge tools. I rarely use dodge and burn, or using multiply blend
mode, I prefer to mix my own shading colours. For backgrounds, I experiment a
lot with layer blend modes.
So anyway, about this site,
how did you make it?
I created and sliced the images using PSP8 (by editing my paintings and
photos), then coded with HTML (which I learned years ago from a book). I use MS
FrontPage to edit and preview stuff (which is easier than using notepad).
Because my HTML knowledge is still limited, I don't have much fancy stuff.
Okay, more about yourself.
What other subjects do you like except art?
I like chemistry and math actually, design and technology are fun, physics
is tolerable, I despite biology and English. My teacher says I have a bilateral
brain. But I usually do better in left brained classes.
Sports?
I love badminton. I've played since I was a kid (my mom taught me to play).
I have been on the school team for the last 3 years. I played mixed doubles the
first year, girl's singles the next year, and girls' doubles last year. I've
come in 2nd or 3rd in my area in all 3 years. But I've never received any formal
training, and I'm far from being a pro. Besides badminton, I also like
ping-pong. My least favrourite is volleyball. I have very thin wrists, and the
ball always leave huge red marks, and it really hurts.
Food?
Well, like any teenager, I like junk food, chocolate included. But I also
like certain fruits like cherries and watermelon, chicken, pasta, bean sprouts,
spinach, corn, eggs, tofu, etc. I'll eat most edible things, except for
asparagus, which I refuse to touch, and I dislike broccoli, but I'll eat it if I
must. I don't like food with strong tastes like vinegar or mustard (honey
mustard is okay).
Favourite animal?
Well, if you couldn't tell by all the tigers in the gallery and layout, my
favourite animals are tigers, and cats in general. I also like eagles and
cranes.
What are you scared of?
Spiders and caterpillars. *shudders*... I also don't like gore or scary
movies, or blood.
Do you like anime?
Oh yes. I like the different art styles and storylines, and anime is one of
my sources of inspiration.
Okay, what's your favourite
series then?
Right now, Gundam SEED/Destiny, Fruitsbasket, Inuyasha, and FMA.