After making Family Dinner #1 (image below), I proceeded to make #2 with the learning.

METHOD

I was overall satisfied with how the new Cheongsam pattern worked out. But I felt the measurements needed to be more generous if I were to wear the canvas because of the stiffness of the material. If it were too tight then it would be difficult to put on. Hence I modified the pattern to make it wider.

I also learnt from the last dress painting that it was difficult to paint the back of the dress if the dress was fully sewn up and placed on the canvas – it was impossible to access the back while the oil on the front was drying for weeks.

Therefore I experimented in this case with not sewing up the sides and draping the dress with the back part of the canvas hanging off the back of the easel. The plan is to paint the front then turn the board to paint the back.

This family dinner has a main dish of ‘flower crab cooked in a clay pot’. So learning from my Chinese painting class – I studied the anatomy first and did a few ink drawings of crabs:

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Then I chose the colour of the background based on another Chinese dinner service. It’s the same pattern of the yellow one I used on Family Dinner #1, but of a turquoise colour:

I experimented with different level of tinting to get the right colour and not too dark:

The composition was developed on my sketchbook then marked out using black willow charcoal on the canvas:

Then I decided that I would sew up the sides of the dress because I felt it would be too difficult to turn the canvas inside-out to sew once it has been painted with oil. So I reverted back to the process I used previously after much consideration. I also used Velcro much more extensively along the complete opening of the right chest and side instead of using a zip or buttons because it would be hard to sew a zip or hand-sew fasteners due to the thick canvas. Hot glue was used to fix the Velcro in addition to the Velcro tape adhesive to ensure it was firmly in place.

I started with the ‘pan fried sliced luncheon meat’. I once did a tinting paint chart of the different red oil paints I had. It was very useful to choose the colour of luncheon meat from the chart. I chose the shade according to my childhood memory – the colour of artificially-pink meat is difficult to forget!

Then I proceeded to loosely paint and mark out the rest of the composition.

Then more detail painting of the luncheon meat with some yellow edges for the oil used for pan frying:

Adding details to the whole salt baked chicken:

Around this time I received my Unit 2 feedback from my tutor with comments that made me reflect on how I apply the oil paint. So I experimented with some looser strokes on the crab shell.

The painting was finished by completing the Campbell’s alphabet soup and adding pattern details from the dinner service around the dishes. Pink satin fastening frogs were added as finishing touch.

Finished work – Family Dinner #2:

REFLECTIONS

I really enjoyed making this painting. Food is such a key part of Chinese and Hong Kong culture that appreciating food is deep in my DNA. The more I paint these dinners, the more I realise that it’s not just the eating that I enjoy, but the painting of food as well. Working from memory has been great, thinking back to all the meals where these dishes were eating – at home as well as at restaurants.

Some of the unhappy experiences from our family dinners that I talked about in the reflections for Family Dinner #1 did not enter my consciousness for some reason. I realised that some of those experiences were dish dependent. Perhaps the dishes depicted here were ‘safe’ dishes without chances to go wrong. Dinner #1 featured a steamed fish – that was always challenging…

Part way through making this painting I received my Unit 2 feedback and it has been very thought-provoking. It made me immediately reevaluate how I applied oil painting – perhaps I have been too ‘one-dimensional’. Always applying the same (fairly thick) way. I tried a looser approach on the crab shell and was happy with the outcome. I have been thinking about that constantly and I need to experiment much more. How to use paint in a way to depict my distant and fading memory?

The Unit 2 feedback also made me think more deeply about why I am painting on Cheongsam dresses. Why dresses? Why Cheongsam and is the time well-spent in making dress-canvases? There is a lot to think about and reflect on from the Unit 2 feedback and I will write a dedicated blog for that.

I was going to make another cheongsam dress painting after this one, but I think I will make this decision after fully reflecting on my Unit 2 feedback.

LEARNING

– Be more flexible and creative in using oil. Try different thick- and thinness to create impact, to tell the story.

– Doing something just because I enjoy it is not enough a reason to do it. Need to consider more deeply about why – I believe I do this and reflect already but perhaps need to go deeper to examine my reasons.

– In terms of the Cheongsam making process, the increased use of Velcro as fasteners was a success and should be used in future dresses. Using hot glue to fix the Velcro was also a good idea.

– Overall, the pattern development has gone well and I believe I have a well tested and suitable method of producing a Cheongsam painting canvas.

NEXT STEPS

– Experiment with thinning oil and layering.

– Explore ways to depict fading memory without being overly detailed.

– Complete and capture my reflections from Unit 2 feedback. Write a dedicated blog for that and determine next steps to develop my practice. What to do if not Cheongsam paintings?

– Finish the back of the Cheongsam when the front is dried.