About two months earlier, my dad decided to teach me how to sketch. I agreed, because the sketch class at my Chinese school was really just a teacher saying “Draw this” or “Draw that”. We thought it was a brilliant idea.

We started sketch class a day later, and the first sketch is hanging on my wall as I speak, but no photograph.

The next item we drew was really the same model as the last one: a four-inch cube and a tall cone.

(left) This is my second sketch.

After that, one day when I was sitting with my dad, he said, “Why not start drawing with oil pastels?”

Why not?

So I said, sure. That next day, we started the preparations.

We started off by going to Home Depot (strange place to buy art supplies, I know) and buying a beautiful hard-lumber wood and had a worker cut it for us. That was the drawing board.

I already had a drawing board, but my dad explained it was much too small and not hard enough for oil painting. My dad was so brilliant at this, I thought, as we headed down the aisle. He could think of everything. If I were in his place, I’d probably never think of going to Home Depot.

Next, we picked up some duct tape. Duct tape, he told me, can be removed without harming what it tapes. It also is easy to cut and cheap. We bought a roll.

After that, I trudged on and pushed our cart into the Painting aisle where my dad picked up some Paint Thinner.

I wondered why he would pick up some heavy-duty paint thinner when it oil painting was such a delicate thing. He explained that we already had some specialized paint thinner, which made me more confused.

He told me I would find out later in the end.

When we got home, we sanded off the sides and took the board inside.

Because my dad is already a oil painter, he already had some oil paints, so I got started right away.

First, I drew out the lines with a marker. Then, after much consideration, I started my first oil painting.

In the middle, there was a lot of oh-nos and boo-boos as well as what-did-I-dos but eventually I finished it and made my art piece.

(above) My first oil painting, finished (almost almost finished)

As you can see, the sides bordering it is duct tape. I’ve painted my picture in the middle.

Now, there are a few points missing from it. For starters, the middle-right house next to the blue one is not finished. To the right of the trees on the middle-left, there is a unfinished house.

But other than that, don’t you like it?

Then came the paint thinner.

The old dinner dish was a total mess. My dad had used it for as long as I could remember, and I had gotten it the dirtiest I could remember. There was dry paint all over the plate.

We took some paint thinner, poured it into a cup, and dipped all the hard paintbrush tips in. Soon, they all became softer. We took some paper, dipped it in, and wiped off the dish.

So now the dish will never return to it’s glory anymore because it’s all dirty, but we’ll still use it. My dad kept on reminding me every two minutes that “this is part of your learning”.

So this is part of my learning, eh…

I can’t stop looking at it!