Xiya Zhang

Over the past few days, I’ve been painting scenes and impressions from my life in London. Last weekend, my friends and I visited the Seven Sisters cliffs. Although the weather wasn’t ideal, the view was still magnificent. I took photos and later expressed the landscape through watercolor and colored pencil, exploring different textures. On the beach, I picked up pebbles and seashells and drew them using markers and pencils. The next day, I bought acrylic markers and painted the graffiti I saw during our street art field trip. I also tried a technique I learned online—choosing colors based on brightness rather than hue—to paint a portrait of my friend. A few days later, during the Mid-Autumn Festival, my friends and I went to Chinatown for traditional food and mooncakes. Back home, I made a bowl of noodles that turned out to be one of the best I’ve ever cooked, and I captured both dishes in watercolor and colored pencil with a semi-realistic approach. Recently, I went sketching in the park and painted small flowers using a blended watercolor technique. Finally, I drew a character from a story I love, combining watercolor and soluble pencils, and finished it with highlights in white acrylic marker