Frans Kusuma

Balboa Park, San Diego

2012-01-23T09:50:00.000-08:00

I went with my wife to San Diego for a much needed short vacation. I spent about 2 hours in Balboa Park before heading back and found a nice little spot looking over an old church that is currently under repair. This painting is done using Gouache and watercolor on Arches paper. For the next painting, based on people suggestions here, I will post step by step pictures of my painting process from start to finish. As always, comments and suggestions are all welcome.

Some Stuff I Did Over the Summer

2011-08-09T15:43:00.000-07:00

Summer has not been treating me well nowadays. With the temperatures easily go to triple digits, I struggle keeping my composure while painting these. But, in the end, I still love doing this. I hope you guys enjoy this update. As usual, any questions or comments are welcomed. These are all done in gouache.

Journey to Home

2011-04-20T15:00:00.000-07:00

The Opening night was a success!! Thank you all so much for coming all the way to see the show.
This Thursday April 21st (noon - 4 pm) will be the last chance for all of you to see the exhibition. So, come on by! :)

"Journey to Home" Sneak Peek

2011-04-06T12:57:00.000-07:00

The Lion Encounter (Color Key)

Good News

2011-04-01T23:36:00.000-07:00

I have just found out tonight from Spectrum fantastic art website that my friend, Wei Ku Sung, and I are selected to be in the Spectrum 18 Artist List. This will be my second time to be included in the annual (I got in last year for Spectrum 17). I felt very honored. Congratulations to everyone who made it to the list this year.

See the full list here: http://www.spectrumfantasticart.com/

Project APRIL (TRAILER UPDATE)

2010-07-14T18:05:00.000-07:00

Here is my final cover children's book illustration for a mockumentary Project "APRIL" by Picflickfilms.
Art Direction by Mike Piccirillo.

FYI: John Poplewski is the fictional character in the movie. He is a children's book illustrator.

Here is the screen shot where my illustration appears in the movie:

Here is a sneak preview of the movie:

Three Encounters of Oz

2009-09-03T16:49:00.000-07:00

The Wicked Witch of the East is Dead

Scarecrow Encounter

The Tin Man

Thanks everyone!

DOROTHY MAQUETTE COMPLETED

2009-09-02T15:27:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the delay. Here are the pictures of my Dorothy Sculpture.
In my rendition of OZ, Toto is a bacterium that usually morph into an angry dog; hence, the reason why he is transparent. The red thing in the middle of his body is a nucleus.

Comments are very much welcomed. I hope you like them.

SCULPTING PROCESS

2009-09-01T19:58:00.000-07:00

First Step: turn around layout for the design.

Second Step: first initial sculpture (Below). This will be used as a prototype to make a mold.

Third Step: after PVC casting was done, we moved on to the painting part.

I am using the Winsor Newton Brush series #5.

Dorothy says "Hello! Nice to meet you all!"

Special thanks to my acquaintance WEI, KU-SUNG (魏谷松) from Element Studio for collaborating with me in this process. You are awesome!

Studies

2009-08-11T13:34:00.000-07:00

I will upload more pictures in this post as I have more time scanning them all. So, please check this post every once in a while. You might suddenly find there are couple of new paintings pop up. Enjoy! And, as always, crits, questions, and comments are always welcomed. These are all done using Gouache. Reason I didn't use oil is because I am allergic to the solvent. And, I have not YET convinced that water based oil paint is as superior as the actual oil paint.

3 hours sketch

1.5 hours sketch

Head Drawing Sketch

2009-08-10T23:53:00.000-07:00

I spend roughly about 2 - 3.5 hours to do these. The medium is Stonehenge hot press Paper and charcoal. The size of the paper is about 22 X 30 inches.

Death of Cleopatra

2009-08-09T10:52:00.000-07:00

This is a painting I did in Fall 2008. The model (Aja) is absolutely great and professional!

Here is the close up shot. To be quite honest, this is done in a spur of the moment. I tend to belabor my composition making process before I commit to the real painting. So, please forgive the compositional errors. I will fix them and move some elements here and there when I have the time.

Zorn

2009-08-08T13:39:00.000-07:00

Zorn's watercolor seems to have that happy medium between fast strokes of Sargent's and sensitivities of Sorolla's. Here is my watercolor attempt in copying Zorn.

The close up: (Since the actual painting is too large to be scanned on my scanner, I used my old camera Nikon Coolpix 5200- hence, the glorious image quality -put a sarcastic smiley here-)

Plein Air IV

2009-07-28T23:33:00.000-07:00

I have been swamped lately with preparation for my next show in April 16, 2011 (Please stay tune for the news). So, I apologize for the lack of updates. I hope this will make it up for all of you guys. They are done in Gouache. Hope you enjoy them.. Crits and comments are all welcome.

Plein Air III

2009-07-27T16:53:00.000-07:00

1.5 hour sketching at Lyon Palace of Fine Art. As usual, comments and crits are welcomed. Hope you enjoy the work as much as I enjoy painting it. This is done in a small watercolor block with gouache.

Plein Air 2

2009-07-26T23:46:00.000-07:00

My old stuffs from Plein Air class

Quick Sketch Practice!

2009-07-25T17:03:00.000-07:00

I went to Joshua National Park with a couple of my friends.

These gouache sketches were done roughly in 10 - 15 minutes. As usual, comments or crit are always welcomed :)

These two were done in a bit longer time (20 to 30 minutes). The tree sketch was done at a local park in Azusa, and the building sketch was Pasadena City Hall. It became a sketch because I got kicked out by a lady saying that the site was reserved for a wedding which start approximately in 3 hours.

Plein Air 1

2009-07-24T21:10:00.000-07:00

These were all done on watercolor paper and gouache. Unless indicated, all were painted on location.

Tributes to one of my favorite landscape painter William Wendt. This master copies were done with gouache.