Sichuan Café

Sichuan Café

Buy This Tutorial Here - This painting is one of my favorites, why? Because I always wanted to paint a panda, but have never had the opportunity to visit China, the only place in the world that they are indigenous. I only like to paint things that I experience in person, from my real life experiences. I final got to see and interact with a real panda when two visited the Toronto Zoo, what an experience. Knowing I would probably never visit China due to their human and animal rights issues, the visit to the Toronto Zoo was a huge thrill. This painting is what came out of the visit with with the two pandas who gave birth to two cubs while in Toronto!

Sichuan Café is a wonderful tutorial on how to use warm and cool play in a painting to create depth and space in a minimal element painting. Also learn how to create depth and lustre in white and black furs and how to paint detailed foliage.

Run Time: 12Hr 9 Min
Difficulty: Intermediate
Board Size: 11 x 14 Inches
Lesson Aids: Line Drawing, Colour Template, Materials List, Reference Photo.

Sichuan Café
  • Sichuan Café Pt.1

    In the first part of this tutorial we mix our base colours and block in the panda.

  • Sichuan Café Pt.2

    In part two we apply our second coat to the head, refining the shape and form.

  • Sichuan Café Pt.3

    In this section we work up the shape and form in the mouth, eyes, ears a little more and then apply our second coat to the body.

  • Sichuan Café Pt.4

    In this part we block in the leaves, refine the body shape and then apply the proper vales to the background area.

  • Sichuan Café Pt.5

    In this part we start to apply detail to the nose, mouth and the muzzle area.

  • Sichuan Café Pt.6

    In this part we start to detail the head concentrating on the left side that is in shadow.

  • Sichuan Café Pt.7

    We continue to detail the head. Adding more detail to the muzzle area and then moving on to the right side of the head.

  • Sichuan Café Pt.8

    In this part we continue to detail the head, working on the right side and starting fine detail on the top.

  • Sichuan Café Pt.9

    In part nine we finish detailing the top of the head and then concentrate on the neck and ear tufts.

  • Sichuan Café Pt.10

    In this section we refine the shape and form of the paws and forearm before adding detail.

  • Sichuan Café Pt.11

    In part eleven we move to working up the shoulder area. In this section we also learn how to rework areas.

  • Sichuan Café Pt.12

    in the twelfth part we continue to build up depth in the fur of the arm and paws.

  • Sichuan Café Pt.13

    In this part of the tutorial we start to paint the bamboo on the right of the painting, learning how to play warms and cools off each other.

  • Sichuan Café Pt.14

    With the right bamboo well established we move over to the left of the paintings background, breaking up our foliage area.

  • Sichuan Café Pt.15

    In this part we continue to detail the bamboo forest, adding detail to bamboo shoots and foliage.

  • Sichuan Café Pt.16

    In this part we build up the bamboo shoot in the panda's paws, detailing the shaft and leaves.

  • Sichuan Café Pt.17

    In this part we add detail to the forest and foliage and then turn back to the panda, detailing the eyes.

  • Sichuan Café Pt.18

    In the final part we detail the ears on the panda and then work in final detail and softening over the whole painting.

  • sichuan-cafe-line-drawing.jpg

    804 KB

    The line drawing to assist in transfer to board for this art instruction tutorial.

  • sichuan-cafe-template.jpg

    1.82 MB

    The colour template for reference and for transfer to art board.

  • materials-list-sichun-cafe.jpg

    1.51 MB

    All colours, brushes, extra materials and colour swatch used in this tutorial.

  • panda-reference.jpg

    1.93 MB

    The photo reference that inspired the original painting.