I’ve been putting in an 8-to-10 hour day in the studio lately, working on a series of portraits of the fellows here. They begin with photos Fiona takes on my iPhone — the expressions of the subjects, I have found, are entirely different when being photographed by a child — and then I rework them in Brushes. Once I’ve examined every millimeter and eliminated every pixel, I print them out and paint them for real: the early ones were in gouache on paper, but I’m gradually moving to oil on linen, which I much prefer.

An example of the method that is my madnesss after the jump.

Causeway Bay, with its flagship “Times Square” shopping mall, was a sea of people yesterday. Christmas isn’t a religious holiday here, but that doesn’t inhibit shopping, a popular activity at this time of year — and if the numbers of shopping bags from Gucci and Chanel are any indication, it’s a booming economy in Hong Kong. Claustrophobes beware: the escalators alone were swarming.

Pharmacies here have this amazing display of Chinese medicines, medicated oils intended for afflictions I can’t even begin to imagine. The entire shop in Causeway Bay was the size of a closet, with a queue snaking around rather efficiently inside. Bill was looking for Aspirin, however, and they charged us a small fortune for a tiny box of Bayer tablets. (Much more tempting to buy the oils, however.)

Later, we took the children for cocktails (“mocktails” for them) on top of the Princes Building, where the twilight view was spectacular. The day ended with a memorable feast at The China Club, a throwback to 1930’s Shanghai, with a magnificent art collection lining the stairwell. In the bar, a beautiful Chinese woman was singing jingle bells with castanets. Perfection.