Title: Pen, Pencil-case, Frog and Comic Book
Media: Pen sketch
Size: A4
Approximate date: June or September 2010 (can't remember the exact month)

A pen sketch is interesting and exciting for the avid sketcher. Why? Because the thing is, if you've made any mistakes you can't erase it. You can only cover them up by adding more strokes, and if you don't do that properly, the strokes become a thick dark mass of ...pen ink. So that's the challenge that I like. That was why I started sketching these down. I think this work shows an improvement from the past in my ability to capture real-life objects with accuracy.

I made some variations of my own (heheh) such as the shiny metallic texture of the cap of the pen beside the comic, when it was actually in reality a scratched piece of plastic. So what you see here is not exactly the same as what the subject matter was - but they're still almost the same, if you know what I mean.

I think I got the proportions wrong though... For some reason, the pen inside the pencil case looks so much smaller than the pen outside the pencil case. However, you can tell it's supposed to look bigger because it's nearer actually, being on the raised platform which is my comic book. I also remember being a tad frustrated during the sketch because I was trying to figure out how the pen in the pencil case was supposed to work out. In the end I just decided to forget about rendering with absolute fidelity to reality for that portion of my sketch and shifted the pen a couple of angles to the left.

I like the way I captured the zip of the pencil case. May I say that I'd rather not express it in words, simply because I feel words are inadequate to express the jubilant feeling that was experienced in the process of producing art. Art doesn't always have to be expressed in words. Click and zoom for details.

I appreciate the real piece of work much better than this digitalised version. When you see it in real life, you can actually view the artwork from multiple angles as you move around it. However, right here, it's a bit of a constraining experience because you only get to view it from one angle. (Actually it depends on the quality of the artwork and what type of artwork it is. This is probably not so bad on screen because it was naturally flat, without any texture to speak of. But I still prefer seeing it in real life and holding it closer to my eyes and admiring the detail of the pen strokes.)

Title: Untitled
Media: Photography (Canon D80)
Date: 25 Oct 2011

I didn't give this a Name because it's too complicated to be named. It entails too many emotions, could mean too many things for it to be marked with a couple alphabets. Actually, that being said, maybe I could call it a Symphony # or something like Kandinsky did his works. It reminds me of some classical music; it dances brilliantly and weaves about. But well let's just leave it to the viewer to decide what it is.

This photograph depicts lights surging into the hazy distance. I was experimenting with zoom on long shutter speed. I was aiming for the capturing of the notion of speed, of power. I like the juxtaposition of the vibrant lights seemingly shooting forward against the backdrop of a hazy hue of dull blue, the double image of the horizon with the one in front sharper than the one behind. The horizon reminds me of mountains.

I think I could have set the camera on a stand instead of just holding it while it was on long shutter speed. This because I notice some of the strands of light seem to be making a U-turn. Well of course U-turns could mean something deflecting something else with speed and power, which also caters to my original aim when I was taking this photograph. But the unity of the lights seem to be gone with some U-turning and some moving onward. Especially with the fact that the U-turning lights are the ones in the middle.

I could have employed a stronger and clearer focal point. Too many lights can be distracting. The good thing is that the lights are all on one portion of the image while the background is on the other. Another good point is that the lights are balanced against an almost pitch-black half of the background. A darker sky could have been chosen for when the image was taken to ensure a darker background for greater sense of depth and for chiaroscuro.

Title: Untitled
Media: Pencil Sketch
Size: A4
Date: 10 June 2008 (I used to have a fetish for mirror images. It's written in mirror image above his head)

This piece of work was meaningful to me because it was probably the first time that I'd done something with a subject matter that I liked and that I'd pulled it off in a manner that to me was rather aesthetically pleasing. Previously I used to scorn copying images, but I began to realise that without copying I wouldn't learn how to draw properly. Only after copying either from real life or from a photograph does an artist have the technical know-how somewhere in his/her subconscious of how to render an image. So when I saw this photo illustration of a guy in street clothes on the back jacket of a book I was enjoying very much, I decided to render it in my sketchbook with the objective to learn how to render the human form realistically.

I faced challenges in the form of a torn and crumpled plastic cover (it was a Library book) which reflected off light in all angles. Also, the book-cover illustrator had darkened the regions of the image around the guy to make way for the book summary on the back. As a result I could only see the guy clearly to as far as his hands were.

After I was done with it I remember being exceedingly happy with it. I think that this was a milestone in my aesthetic development; it was after the time when I discovered that if I wanted to get somewhere in art I should transfer an image I see with my eye onto a separate piece of paper without using tracing paper or anything(or copying, as I call it). Even now I sometimes still do some copying to learn and to grow. I hope that I can continue to grow and achieve more in art.

Kimono Prepatory Sketches and Things

My AEP sketchbook last year.

On the Kimono

 Title: Drawings on Kimono
Media: Colour Pencil
Approximate Date: August 2011

These were some of the drawings that I did to cut out and paste on my kimono. I did them to show my interests (photography and eating.) as the kimono was supposed to represent our personalities. When I first started I noted that the almost completely jet-black camera would not be very interesting to colour. I faced some kind of internal struggle at first concerning how I should colour such an uninteresting (in terms of colour) subject matter. Should I do it in paint? Should it be done in pencil? I hadn't thought about it previously. I experimented with paint, but different brushstrokes of the same shade of black after drying up ended looking like they weren't of the same black colour that I took the paint from. With poster paint, the colour was too inconsistent. In the end, I just settled with varying the shades of black.The highlight of this drawing was the lens, which I think I kind of failed in in terms of capturing the light. Now I look back on it, I think I ought to have improvised with other colours. A more multi-coloured camera would have made things interesting.
I was rather disappointed with how the middle portion of the camera turned out because when i finally finished it I realised that it was proportionally disfigured, but deadlines were tight so I just stuck to the final product and didn't redo the drawing. I should have stepped back more to see how things were going and not forging forward from the start to the end.

The camera was the first one I did, so by the time I reached the cupcake I'd kind of warmed up
in terms of technical skills. I prefer the cupcake drawing to the one of the camera. Maybe also because to me, the cupcake is a softer subject matter than the cold hard mechanical camera with much more exciting and palatable colour as compared to plain jet black. I truly enjoyed colouring the cherry on the top of the cupcake. I think I spent a lot of time just on the cherry. I also spent some time attempting to capture the cream dripping of the sides of the cupcake, to make sure the light fell on it in a way that would suggest it was slowly dripping downward.