This is my first oil painting ever. I did it in grade 11. Couldn't think of anything much, so I decided to paint this picture I had of a junk in a sea of bright baubles. I drew a grid and outlines in pencil, and painted a perfect (I swear!) pink sphere, and after it dried, the pencil showed through!!! I had to redo it in thicker paint. Needless to say, I never forget to rub off pencil marks after that, and I've gotten so paranoid that I almost never put pencil marks down on a canvas. You can outline equally well in diluted paint.

Several people wanted this painting, however, my mom expressed a liking for it, so I decided to give it to her, being a sentimental idiot. However, my dad didn't, so it took about 5 years for them to hang it up, and only after I threatened to take it back and give it to someone else. Dad, is it really so bad?

This one was based on a painting I was copying from my chinese water colour class at the time. I have no clue why I did the lotus in red and purple. I really like the way the nebulas turn out, probably nothing like the real thing, but still kind of pretty. I built the frame for the painting, and didn't know anything about using beveled wood. As a result, the canvas has sunk in and the indent shows the outline of the frame. Oh well, live and learn.

This is one of my favorite paintings. I did it over the March break, and decided to try something different. I didn't latex the canvas, instead, I used thinned paint directly onto the canvas. Now that I'm older (and in this respect, wiser), I know that this technique is called staining and you are only supposed to stain with acrylic. Apparently oil paint rots the canvas. Fortunately, I don't plan to live to a 100, so I will never see it in shreds. Thanh might!

The subject was copied from a book of chinese lotus paintings given to me by my great-grand uncle. The original wasn't blue, of course.

I wanted to paint a sleeping seal inside a bubble. I guess most people get the idea it is suppose to be a bubble, but it is a really crummy job for bubbles. I've collected a few photo references of bubbles, which I will paint someday. The seal looks okay, a bit cartoonish. Kind of regret giving it away, now I don't get to fix it.

Another favourite of mine. I always love the silvery trail that a snail leaves behind. So I painted a snail walking on nothing. I might have called it void or something, I can't remember. I put a few silver sparkles in the light gray trail to make it more silvery. Fortunately, the effect wasn't tacky.

This painting is unfortunate in that it always got hung wrong. I guess it was a bit long, but it was hung vertical at the grade 13 art show (I was absent for medical reasons so couldn't correct its orientation), and it is hanging vertically at my mom's friend's house. It's supposed to be horizontal!!! Is 4 feet of space so hard to find?

I think one of my best paintings. The picture here isn't the final product, I added hooves to it later, and it looks a bit better. I had been reading a lot of Dick King-Smith, and decided I really like pigs. I guess I always like the saying when pigs fly, and so decided to do a flying pig. I was trying to make the bird looked a little shocked, like, what? a flying pig?

This painting is also special to me, 'cause it is the first painting I sold. And I sold it so I could buy my first ferret. Birch is the best thing that happened to my life!