Sunday, December 6, 2009

TREE, MOON AND PRIZE

Here's my last post for 2009 in Singapore! I'll be flying to the States tomorrow and had been busy scrambling with my vintage jewellery business since I am missing the Christmas sale takings. My next post will be from California!

I apologise for the lost of steam in blogging and I haven't done a single artwork. Below you will see some snapshots that occurred during this past Nov & Dec in Singapore.

This huge Christmas tree had lights but can't pick the faint glow with my camera. This is in Vivocity, it's just beside the harbour! I love Christmas light-ups! On the left you can see a cable car tower peeking in the horizon that links the main island to a resort/theme park island Sentosa. They are currently not in use as they are revamping the transport system to Sentosa. I think the management sold off the empty cars for mementos... nice idea though I don't know how one finds space to house a 4-seater cubicle.


2 Dec: 6am I took a shower and saw this bright orange thing from my bathroom window. It's bigger than usual and immediately thought of werewolves. My camera is really bad at taking celestial objects though. Talking about that, the Leonid meteor showers in November were a big disappointment. Not a streak in the sky. All the hype for nothing... the light pollution was frustrating. And the clouds. And the rain before that.



Last but not least I received a large package yesterday from Andria of Shagpile! Yaayy her blog giveaway prize includes a pile of fabrics, buttons and an awesome brooch. Thank you! <3>


Tuesday, November 10, 2009

ART- SO LONG, DUCKY


Another one for autumn. Entitled 'So long, ducky', I bought another bunch of Copic markers to complete this picture! The design came out slightly different from intended, perhaps my choice of colours makes the leaves appear like fallen petals instead. Also the white dotted ripples was done when I was almost dozing so the angles are a little off. Did you notice the gold dots on the top? It doesn't appear too well in the scan. Enjoy anyway! I think I shall continue with drawing some ACEOs next.

"I threw a pebble in a brook
And watched the ripple run away
And they never made a sound
And the leaves that are green turn to brown
And they wither in the wind
And they crumble in your hand"
~ 'Leaves that are Green' by Simon & Garfunkel

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

IS YOUR WORKSPACE NEAT OR MESSY?

A long time ago when I got my first Canon no-zoom camera I liked to snap photos of my bedroom. Maybe I oughta keep up this habit, see how my room & workspace morph over the years... in a mysterious manner too, because I don't have a habit of shifting furniture around.

A book placed on the shelf will be in the same spot 10 years later. The magical shifting of books and additions of shelves and containers are courtesy of my mother really. She hates clutter and migrates my items whenever I'm not home. MAGIC I tell you. Despite it being much spacier and less dusty, I usually can't find my materials/ unfinished artworks and she doesn't know what I'm talking about lol.



Anyhow here is my current workspace. A mess; clutter = my 'To-do' list, and reminds me that I have alot of things to finish. Because by getting frustrated seeing the mess and working without elbow space, I strive to clear up (in this case unlisted jewellery) as quickly possible. If neatness prevails long term, I forget what I'm supposed to do lol. How does your workspace/studio look like? If possible I'd love to take a peek!

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

ART- WINDY DAYS


One for autumn, made with markers and pen, the background is added in Photoshop! We don't have autumn or winter in Singapore so I guess this works for the monsoon season. Just change the jacket into a raincoat or something! The lightning storms here are scary - mainly I'm afraid of getting struck since we have one of the highest lightning activity on the planet. Just 2 days ago there was this storm and my apartment's living room got flooded because the rain pipes couldn't handle the sheer amount of water gushing through 15 storeys of pipes lol. And the lightning hit so close and so loud (a couple of times nearby) the table rattled and I was flash-blinded by the reflection on the window! Just scary. I hope no one got hit.

1. Don't stand in open fields or swim in open sea
2. Don't take shelter under tall trees, that's just a magnet for lightning
3. Don't carry metallic objects, wear metal-stubbed shoes or use electronics or umbrellas
4. Don't use the shower
5. Seek shelter immediately if you're out in the open
6. Stay in a car or building
7. If there are no shelters nearby, crouch in a lowland area (like a ditch or something) or under low shrubs
8. Pray

Monday, October 26, 2009

OK LET'S GET ON WITH SOME TAGS Q & A


Angie's Suds 'N' Such & recently, Blossoming Tree Bodycare have tagged me with the above lovely award. Many thanks! Oh boy so long ago too I do have a tendency to lose links stored among on my desktop clutter!

I'm going to skip the rules & tagging part since so many bloggers have already passed this on =P

+++

Instead here is another one from PilarCat who tagged me ever so long ago in July!

The rules:
-answer the questions
-replace a question that you don't like, with one by your choice
-add one more question
-tag 8 people to continue the game of tagging


What is the thing that makes you happy?

Contentment.

Coffee or tea?

Tea only

What’s for dinner?

Outside food.

What was the last thing you bought?

Herbal drink

What are you listening to right now?
8-bit music from Rockman 2

What is your favourite piece of clothing in your own wardrobe?

T-shirt & jeans

What is your favourite ice cream flavour?

Green tea or rainbow sherbet

What do you think of the person(s) who tagged you?

Oh very nice! I love to read of other artists' thought processes. Her art is super cute too!

If you could go anywhere in the world for the next hour, where would you go?

Those places with the rolling hills and flowers stretched till the horizons (travel magazine type places).

Which language do you want to learn?

Japanese. I'm still learning it for fun for some years already.

What is your favourite colour?

Evening sky colours.

If you had £100 now, what would you spend it on?

Food!

How much do you rate your creativeness?

5 out of 10

Describe your personal style?

Does this mean lifestyle or artworks style? Or how I dress? I guess it all works lol. Natural.

What are you going to do after this?

Upload a whole bunch of cuff links to LemonKitscharms

What are your favourite movies?
The Shining (the Stanley Kubrick one). Horror movies mostly. Lord of the Rings, Akira Kurosawa's samurai movies and Studio Ghibli's animations.

What inspires you?
Other artists, music, quotations, dreams.

What is your favourite fruit?

Mangosteen, guava, lemons, strawberries, blueberries and lychee.

Do you collect something?
Art books, manga, random gashapon toys and vintage brooches. I can go otaku-ish if I had to finanaces to do so lol.

If you could change your name to anything, what would you call yourself?

(I'll change this question to this:)
How many hours do you sleep a day?
Usually 8 hours but 10 hours easily. I can even go up to 14 hours if necessary. I think this is accumulated from my years of inadequate sleep when I was studying and working - those days I could only afford 3-4 hours of sleep for years. Making up for it now... or just laziness =P

How many times do you press the snooze button before you get up?

Twice or none. If none it means I'm late.

What is your favourite smell?

Cold fresh wind when it's gonna pour. And museums.

What is your biggest regret?

That I had high fever on the day of major GCE 'O' levels and bulldozed my English papers in 20 minutes (it was a 3.5 hour paper) so I could snooze on my desk.

What are you most proud of?

it's a secret

Cats or dogs?
Cats

What’s your biggest fashion mistake?

Everything I wore in the 90s and school. 3 inch platform shoes.

What is your guilty TV pleasure?

Anime & cartoons that I watch as a child. Doraemon, Candy Candy, Creamy Mami, Wind in the Willows, Thunder Cats, Looney Tunes, Galaxy Express 999... thank you Internet & Boomerang for bringing back good memories.

What did you want to be when you grew up?

Archaeologist, then astronomer, then veterinarian, then fashion designer. Now I just want to do illustrations.

If you could meet any person dead or alive who would it be?

Jesus?

What is your biggest dream?

Not living in reality will be nice. I dream of living in very beautiful scenic places and to quit worrying about finances doing what I like.

What is your favorite book when you were a child?
Archie comics and a fairy tale compilation book my dad bought for me.

The last one is my added question:
If today was your last day on earth what would you be doing?

These are the 8 folks I'd like to tag with the Q & A :


Saturday, October 24, 2009

IMAC SCREEN PROBLEMS

Not good stuff. I have that infamous pink line vertically across my imac screen. Needless to say I'm not in the best of moods now - reason being I saved up long enough to splurge on an Apple computer because I thought it was supposed to last 5 years without glitching - like the cute emacs. Guess not. No, NOT going to spend a cent on repairing a problem that wasn't my fault (I treat my computers with care and even clean my keyboards regularly). Apparently this is a widespread problem on the imac lcds (a manufacturing defect made in China was the speculation). Major disappointment. My specs are: Early-2006 Imac4,1,Intel Core Duo 1.83GHz, serial number starting with W863.

I'm gonna call them on Monday and my chances are probably bad for a free fix. Repairs may cost couple hundreds I might as well get a new computer but since it's just a line it's not worth it. Here in Singapore, we aren't particularly great on customer service (refunds are unheard of, exchanges reluctant) so keeping my fingers crossed. Also I'm running the smcFanControl to up the fan speed because it could be the problem of the graphics card overheating due to the low rpm imac fans were defaulted to run. It's currently lowered from 62 degrees to 42 degrees celcius now... we'll see I'll post an update if things go well!


Thursday, October 15, 2009

ART- GOODBYE AND GOODNIGHT


Something psychedelic in a muted way. First drew the border with the grass and leaves not knowing what the main subject was to be! I'm haphazard like that lol - just wanted to try out elements of shadowed folia. This piece is made with markers, and again there were some problems with colouring the sky. Hope your guys like it!

Took about 3 hours to colour the sky, excluding hours of hesitating time... border about 3 hours of inking, 1 hour of sketching and mountain about 5 hours on-off. Over a period of 2 weeks.

"Looking back on the good old days
I cried till my eyes dried
I am going to miss you."
- 'Good bye and Good luck' by The Brilliant Green

Monday, October 12, 2009

TWO NECKLACES I MADE

I've got nothing going on in my life for blog topics so here's are 2 little gifts I made for friends recently:
This one below is a birthday gift for my best friend of 17 years, a necklace & earrings set handmade with Swarovski crystals. Nothing out of the ordinary design but it'll stay in fashion for the next few decades... quite confident of that!


This second necklace was created some time back and was collecting dust on my desk because I was too lazy to mail it. It's for a pen-pal hopefully she doesn't read this post before she receives it. It's made of shells, pearls and quartz. I hope it survives Italian customs! Nothing better than handmade gifts =) I urge you to create your own birthday cards if you want people to keep your mementos!

I'm currently doing some illustrations for no reason, my next post will be my latest artworks! Also I am always open for commissions for ACEOs and small sized artwork... just ask!

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

STRAWBERRY FESTIVAL ACEO


Just finished a new ACEO (art cards, editions & originals) yesterday! Entitled 'Strawberry Festival', made with pen and markers. The scan's a little faded for some reason. The artwork was inspired by the Sarah Coventry vintage brooch of the same name. I bought one last week because I wanted it for so long and finally saw one with the right price!! Now to get the matching pair of earrings lol.


Mmm so pretty. I love Czech glass fruities. It's the first fruit-related in my brooch collection lol (I collect flower power brooches maybe one day I'll show them all lol)

The ACEO is available in my Etsy shop here: Strawberry Festival - Original art ACEO

Monday, September 28, 2009

ART - WISTFUL


Finally managed to complete a normal-sized artwork!! Entitled 'Wistful', 7 x 11" on paper. I took about a week to finish this, 5 hours just on the sky alone, the blue wasn't supposed to come out this dark but really had no idea how to work the clouds lol. Try try try again. This was created with markers, white and silver pen. I specially made a trip to the art store and busted 60 bucks for refills and blue markers for this artwork!

Also Maria of A Zeal of Zebras did a write-up on ACEOs available at Etsy, check out her blog post here: Buy Art!
Thank you for including my little pieces Maria! If you like pop and lowbrow art you should visit her blog now for some eye candy!