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.)