Retrieve our raw material self

Inspired by 'A Weekend to change your life' by Joan Anderson.

The author has highlighted a very interesting point from her daily practice, i.e trace back our very old self which has been long forgotten after we grow up and conform ourselves to the societal norms. On top of our present self, the qualities we used to own when young are the fuels that is essential to help us rekindle our passions and dreams for life. Be it mischievous, carefree, imaginative, wild, playful, naughty, curious, silly..etc etc.

Go retrieve and weave them into our heart and soul. Our 'inner child' will be alive and we are going to have wonder-filled life again very soon. Promise!!

the superstars

with black ball pen, i had sketched the portrait of Robin S.Sharma (author of 'The monk who sold his Ferrari) and Nelson Mandalay. Both are the big personalities i have been looking up as a model for their values and intergrity.
Directly using ball pen without pencil to draft first is not my usual drawing habit. It is challenging to me since no eraser is allowed to be used to do correction or modification. Though the drawings do not take even 60% resemblance from the pictures i had referred to, but i did have great sense of satisfaction after the drawings were done.

exploring different mediums

Acrylic exercise with a photo in a magazine featuring one of Scandinavian countryside... my dream vacation spot... The climate is harsh but it promises the breathtaking sceneries.


Colour pencil sketch of ideas for interior decorating.

Quick water-colour drawing of cheery sunflowers from memory.

Owl's passion

my house is so small that i do not dare dream of having one room to myself as a mini drawing studio, where i can lay out all my drawing tools there. saving the time and hustle of unloading/loading the tools from/into the cabinet. and utimately help me get rid of procastination.

Pirates of Muar

Drawn from my memory. My cousins' bunk bed was our pirate ship. Teddy bears were the only hostages we had.

exercise and sketch

practice and practice...

Sleepless night with self-amusement.

one of my favourite hang out is library.. how boring i am.
most of the patrons were studying hard for their coming exams. i was one of the few who were able to enjoy the leisure reading and people watching.
(i know the proportion of this lady's shoulder is a bit out and hideous)


though watching people, my internal chatter still went on.. as to what the others are thinking or chatting at their meal.

receiving the gospel of grace

Kenneth Copeland:

"Grace teaches us! The "Spirit of grace" instructs us from the inside.

Let the Holy Spirit of god counsel us and teach us how to live in this present world."

p.s: started using drawing pen with tablet on photoshop screen. the feeling of working on pc and paper is very different. still prefer working directly on the paper with traditional brushes, watercolour and my dirty palette.

i start a new sketchbook!

To break through the bottle neck instead of sitting there await the inspiration spark knock on my head, i had bought my new sketchbook bought from Art Friend -hardbound 212 pages, slightly bigger than A5.
Have begun to filled in the first 3 pages with the following drawings:

Imaginative drawing on a little girl who is eager to leave her ivory tower for the real world. yet her mother couldn't just let her go. Wanting to know her girl's whereabout and ensure her safety, she had cut a hole into her daughter's toy bear's paw so that the saw dust would fall on the track wherever they go. Hence, the mother would not lose her eyes on her beloved girl.


there're new members at the swan lake, Singapore Botanic Garden - huge sculpture of 5 swans ready to soar into the vast sky.
Also, there's new building near the entrance gate, which accomodates info centre, food court, library and function halls. two young ladies were engaged in changing clothes and photo taking (probably for their projects).


quick sketches of stray cat near my place in the evening. this cat must have been very hungry as he kept meowing and pestering me. After finding out i was without food, he just gave up and he spent at least 20 mins to make himself neat and presentable awaiting for the feeding lady's arrival. He is very particular about his grooming which made me feel embarassed that his hair is much neater than mine =p

i miss the good old days at ikea

doodles from memory - nearly everyday three of us (the decorators) patronised the ikea bistro for the hotdog sandwich and had a carefree teabreak filled with laughters and jokes! miss those days....

Saturday afternoon

After a long week of work, what do I look forward to?
Getting away from city and weekly housechores, immersing myself in absolute silence. with a good book, sunshine and occasional bird chirps...

What a carefree Saturday afternoon...

or getting together with little kids, let their laughters take away my weariness.

p.s: After having lunch with colleagues at mushroom pot, the mushrooms had inspired me draw those mushroom-like trees..heehee

magazine as drawing block

It's not a whole new idea.. a lot of artists have done this before, to use old magazine page as a canvas.
this page was torn off from National Geography before it was sold to 'karang guni'.
just apply one thin layer of white gesso will do. after the gesso dries out, just draw on whatever we want and apply the colours.
i like the typos being vaguely seen through and they've added an visually interesting background pattern to the drawing.

Cow girl with guitar

one of my water colour exercises done few years back. i was most satisfied with the boots. they were done much better than the facial expressioin.

Sleeping beauty

heehee...quickly have it sketched down before my hubby woke up and painted it later in acrylics.

Probably he was waiting for a kiss from a princess...

Enlightenment

I have been trying to find out what drawing technique suits me the best. so i have started out by trial and error with different mediums and techniques. and of course, i have used up a lot of drawing books of different materials. (this really made me not very environmental friendly).
From these two drawings that i copied from one pic book on kids' room, i began to know that detailed colouring (the first one) definitely does not work for me. It was a painful process for me to paint with fine strokes. At first i would colour very carefully and patiently. But at the later stage, i have lost my patience and the stroke became wild and rough. Whereas the second drawing which is freer and bold in colour does work better for me. ;) I enjoyed more while doing the second one. You can tell that it is more me inside the drawing!! From there, it also comes to me that i can express better with water colour and ink!!

Jack Johnson

look out for this talented singer-songwriter.
He is an avid surfer, film maker and musician.
this pic was done very quickly in ink and water colour on last sunday night ;) Just want to capture the happiness of a man who is fully engaged in what he is passionate about.

Bye-bye Monday Blue

Lately, i have been reading on one yoga article reporting that scientists have confirmed what yogis have known for centuries: The mind can be systematically trained to generate joyful states!!

This reading has inspired me to train my mind in the hope of getting rid of monday blues (or even work day blues) which have pestered me for years!! heehee...

breakfast in garden

one of the colour exercises.

Experiment

Watercolour+acrylic+newspaper cutting

Pinky collage