Watercolor painting of Black-capped Lory

I am drawing and painting a bird this week. Its name is Black-capped Lory (Lorius lory) with the background of tropical rainforest in Arfak mountains near Warmarway village.
As a matter of fact, this painting is not finished. But I haven't updated my blog for more than a week. So, I decide to upload this painting and write some description.
Yunus Sayori, a local villager from this village always guide me when I go trekking with some tourists. We usually spend one or two nights in the jungle to see paradise birds, cuscus (a nocturnal animal) and tropical plants of the mountains.

Title: Black-capped Lory
Media: watercolor on paper
Size: A4
Painter: Charles Roring
Date: 17 August 2014

The tropical rainforest of Arfak mountains near Manokwari city has often been my art inspiration. When I guided tourists on various trekking trips, I saw beautiful birds such as lory, sulphur crested cockatoo, lesser birds of paradise, Papuan frogmouth, blyth's hornbill and many other birds. I also saw glowing mushrooms, wild flowers, bamboo trees on the slopes of these mountains.
If you are interested in trekking in the jungle of Arfak mountains, please contact me by email to: peace4wp@gmail.com. I can arrange a trekking trip for you where you will be guided by Yunus Sayori and other villagers from Warmarway.

Hibiscus flower in watercolor

The following picture is my latest watercolor sketch of hibiscus flower (Hibiscus rosa-sinensis). I saw it in the north coast of Manokwari when I was guiding Georgie a student from the United Kingdom. She came to West Papua to see its plants and flowers and stayed here for two weeks. She went hiking and camping in the jungle with me as well as snorkeling over coral reef of Mansinam island. She was very interested in tropical rainforest, flowers and art. I used Derwent watercolour pencils to make this little painting.

For me, painting in watercolour pencils is much easier than oil color due to its simplicity. I usually begin with a sketch that I make using a 2B staedtler. Then I apply light stroke of colors over the sketch to see how it will look like before fully painting it with watercolour. When I feel that I can confidently "wash it" with wet brush, I will begin coloring the background area of the artwork. Sometimes I have to wait for a few hours until the paper dries again before applying another color over the previous ones. Watercolor is a great painting media. You should try it if you are thinking of taking up painting as your pastime activity.
I uploaded this hibiscus flower painting into zazzle.com website so that anybody can have it in the T-shirt or any products.

Balinese House in Watercolor painting

This is a sketch drawing of a varandah of a Balinese house. This is a watercolor painting of an outdoor view that I made during my stay in Bali.. Watercolor is one of the most difficult painting medias yet it was frequently used by architects to visualize their design concept to clients. Today there are a number of BIM softwares that can render a 3D model of a house or a big building.

The use of watercolor as a manual rendering tool is decreasing with the development of more sophisticated BIM software that can visualize design ideas in 3D and render them in more realistic views.

Balinese Architecture
I created the above drawing only as an artistic expression not for architectural purposes. But if you are really interested in Balinese style houses, please, related books on the internet both in Amazon and in Google Books.
Manual Drawing
However, the use of drawing pencils and watercolor painting are still being used by some designers due to their flexibility and ease of use particularly on models that have unique forms and complicated 3D curves that cannot easily be drawn in CAD software. Such curved models include wooden statues, carvings or relief on the legs of chairs and pillars of houses, or hull form of a ship. Although most of the BIM softwares can be used to create models in 3D environments, only CAD software with NURBS features that can visualize such complicated curved forms easily.
Sketchup
For architectural design, the most recommended software is Google Sketchup. Google has provided the free version of the software that can be downloaded from the official website of sketchup. In addition to the free edition, the Google Sketchup Pro 8 which can be obtained for 495 US dollars has got more features that designers and architects can use to model their design concepts in 3D environment. In version 8, Google introduced solid tools that greatly enhance Sketchup as a powerful BIM software. Google Sketchup can be used by naval architects to model ships and boats in 3D if special plugins such as the bezier lines are installed into the software. by Charles Roring

Urban Forest in Manokwari

The size of urban forest in Manokwari has been significantly reduced since five years ago when the province of West Papua was reactivated. Almost all of the clove and tropical fruit gardens in what was known as Manggoapi have now gone. In the past the area of what is now known as Bumi Marina was full of clove plantation, rambutan, and durian gardens.

Signicant deforestation is now going on in Sowi and Arfai hills. This greatly effects the air and water quality in Manokwari - the capital of West Papua province of Indonesia. Urban forests in Manokwari have to be preserved. Socially they have recreational values. People go to the nearby forest during holidays. Even until today, hundreds of people still go to Sowi hill near the DPRD office to take aerial pictures Manokwari city that stretches along the Dorey bay. Tree planting program among the communities in Manokwari should be encouraged again.
In addition to their social functions, urban forests in Manokwari intercept dust and gaseous pollutants that are released by motorcycles and cars moving in the city. Therefore tree and vegetation planting must not be ignored particularly along the roadsides of the crowded streets. Because trees and other green vegetation filter the dirty air, they automatically reduce the pollution and spread of viral and bacterial diseases.
Urban forests also give environmental benefits to us. Manokwari is located close to the equator. It receives sunlight all year round. The temperature in this city is warm. The existence of trees in this city provides shades that may reduce the air conditioning cost of houses near the trees.
As a travel writer, I often guide tourists who visit Manokwari city to Table Mountain. It is located in the north of Manokwari. Tropical rainforest that covers the mountain constantly supplies water to people living along the coastal region of Manokwari city. In this region, people get water by digging wells. Because the number of population in the city is rising, the need of clean water is also rising. To maintain the water quality in lowland region, we need to plant trees in the city. Every household must have at least one or two trees around their front or backyard.

Title: Dorey bay of Manokwari

Painter: Charles Roring

Media: Watercolor on paper

Year: May 2011

Size: A3

If we don't give special attention to the preservation of trees inside the city, the beautiful urban forest that we have right now will disappear soon and can only be enjoyed from photograph or from my new watercolor painting above. Talking about painting, it is one of my favorite hobbies. I prefer watercolor to oil color. My working condition does not allow me to paint with oil color. Today I use Pentel 18 Watercolors and Derwent 72 Watercolour Pencils. As for the paper, I like to use cold press Canson 200 gsm, acid free paper. The translucent effect of this media makes my artworks look bright and colorful. I just finished painting this landscape of Manokwari bay two days ago. If you are interested in buying it, please, contact me via my e-mail charlesroring@gmail.com. by Charles Roring
Also read: Traveling under the canopy of tropical rainforest

Morning Sketch of A Woman in Watercolor

This morning, after taking a splash bath I tried to "play with my drawing pencil". It was a blunt 2B Staedtler which I used to draw an adult woman. The topic of my today's post is still about sketching. It is not the same as the teapot (or poci teh in Bahasa Indonesia language) that I drew yesterday. It took 30 minutes to sketch this beautiful adult woman. She is around 30 years old. This drawing or sketch is different from the watercolor painting of a beautiful girl sitting by falling water. I didn't give too much detailed lines on this sketch. I just drew her by making some rough lines. To enhance the shadow, I brushed it with Pentel watercolor. I did not color the sweater instead I only gave some pencil lines to create an impression that she was wearing a sweater.

Watercolor Sketch of Teapot

I've just finished sketching and coloring the Teapot. Asian like to drink tea. For the Chinese, their famous tea is Oolong tea. The tea leaves are the same as the Black Tea (which experiences full fermentation) which most of the Indonesian and Western People drink whereas for Oolong tea the fermentation is only half. In a package of Teh cap Botol sold in Indonesian markets, the tea leaves have been mixtured with jasmine flower. The aroma created when it is poured with hot water can relax our mind. The sedative properties of tea is very good to relieve the stress of its drinker after returning home from long day hard work in the garden or at office.

Title of the Sketch: Poci Teh (Teapot)
Size: 15 cm x 15 cm
Sketcher: Charles Roring
Year: 4 January 2010
Media: Pentel Watercolor on Paper

My Watercolor Painting of To Girls Fishing At A Wooden Jetty

I made this painting to create awareness among us all about the importance of keeping our beach clean. In the painting you can see how dissappointed the girls were when they found out that it was not a fish that they caught but a worn shoe. They were sitting on a wooden jetty accompanied by a small teddy bear doll in a bright day. The background of the scenery shows a container ship sailing out of the bay to the open sea. There were three other boats in the bay. At a far distance, we could see the green hills and a light house standing at the end of the cape.

When we go to a beach we may not find such beautiful and clean water. The sea areas around coastal big cities and towns are now covered with industrial and domestic wastes. Many of them contain chemicals that are harmful to the marine environment. While we may now work hard to fight global warming, it seems that we are not aware of the continuous destruction of coral reefs caused by the dumping of wastes to the sea. I hope that this watercolor painting can be seen as my way of presenting how beautiful the sea is and how important for us to not throwing plastics and other domestic garbages to the sea.
Title: Painting of Sisters Fishing at a Wooden Jetty; Artist: Charles Roring; Year: 2004; Media: Watercolor on cold press acid free Canson paper