So sorry for the lack of update. Since school started last week, I've been absolutely busy and I've been getting home at about 8.30pm everyday, and when I get home, I usually just clean up and go to bed already. Still getting used to the schedule. Also, my friend Audrey came back from Melbourne (she's moved there after primary school) I seldom use the computer now as well, been trying to cut down on the Internet usage unless necessary, but hopefully I can update about two or three times weekly. Just an update to let you guys know I'm not giving up on this blog! haha.

Impression Sunrise (1872), Claude Monet

We also started to discuss Impressionism in class this week, and my favourite piece would be Claude Monet's Impression Sunrise. There are so many different photos of this painting online, some more yellowish or redish than others, but this one looked more... balanced? I like that Monet could capture that moment between night and day, you know, have you seen that moment sometimes in the morning? It's really nice, it's both warm and cool at the same time and that's how I am reminded of during those mornings before I go to school when I look at it.

Last Saturday, I went to help my friend with a photoshoot, same friend whom I had taken the cat/dark-ish photos for. I helped with the makeup this time instead. She had her eye on the vast field that was in front of our school, and it was very wet and muddy when we went there and had to trek halfway across to somewhere dry, but it was worth it. The photos were awesome. This time she went for a very magazine-like kind of a photoshoot featuring somebody who could portray the typical characteristics of a fashion model, and our friend was the perfect candidate for the shoot. It was fun doing the photoshoot with them, it's like a mini production going on, and I felt like a real makeup artist. I can't post all the photos though, but I manage to snap this candid one.

Some doodles in class. Chinese people! In the first drawing you can see some scribbling, well that was me trying to draw the cute guy my friends and I always see working at Mcdonald's, but I fail at speed-drawing. Haha.

My close friend Audrey and I. She recently came back from Melbourne, and we had some Instax fun! Geez the Instax camera is addictive and honestly, it is almost not possible to look bad in an instant photo (but not if they are passport photos lol).

Just had to take a photo of that pretty stray cat!

That's all for this week! Have a good weekend ahead.

(self portrait)

(my mother)

Some of my Instagram photos.

Download Instagram on your iphone! It's a real addictive app (for me anyway). There are so many users with so many beautiful photos on the community. Instagram is like a hybrid of Flickr and Facebook: abilities to 'like' and comment on photos, follow other users and have people follow you too. Although analogue photography is now ironically 'digitalised', with all these apps that can make a blah digital photo look like a capture on film, I feel these apps are fun to use. Sometimes I use them to add splash of colour to the photos taken on my iphone. After all, the iphone doesn't really take spectacular photos.

Speaking of analogue photography, I'm going to try out this camera soon. I bought this a long time ago (aboutt $28) but I completely forgotten about it. It works like an action sampler, but takes a two-sequence shot. I can't wait. :)

A glance at some drawings that I am currently working on, as well as a digitally coloured version of Clover. I do use some references for these drawings. I usually trace out the outline and details before shading them in or dotting in.

Some drawings on wood. This is a much bigger plank with better quality. It should be pine wood, from Ikea's lumber yard, which seemed to be gone (not sure about the one at Tampines, I only go to the one at Queensway). Sad though because I'd love to buy some from there and do some drawings on it. I think they want to keep everything flat-packed and whatever now...

Some drawings I'm doing for school. These drawings are suppose to reflect life and death. Pencil drawings represent life, as it has a more fluid effect, like more alive. Pens have a darker quality which is suitable for the macabre elements of death.

It's a lot faster to do pencil drawings and I usually complete one of them (they are not very big) within 45 minutes. Firstly, I use a real dark pencil (about 4B to 6B) to fill in the dark areas, just a rough shading, it doesn't look perfect. Then I use another 2B pencil to fill in the mid tones. After that, I use a blender to smooth out the rough patches. It is a real useful tool to use in my opinion. It's quick, and adds all the other midtones, and also creates texture. Finally to touch up, I used a kneadable eraser (very fun to use, it's like blu-tack!) to lift off some areas to bring out the highlights. I use a 3B mechanical pencil to go over the details. For example, in the heart drawing, I use it to bring out the veins. The tip of the leads is useful for a more distinctive touch than the regular wooden pencil. It's one of the best tricks I learned from my secondary school teacher, who taught me how to draw.

Some more sketches to complete.

Pen drawings take ages to complete, but I think it is absolutely worth the time because I love the final effect. And it's fun too. Just really time-consuming. For example, with the time taken to do that face drawing (that boy in the 3rd photo), I could probably finish a couple of pencil drawings.

Now I shall get cracking on those unfinished sketches and my cat lady too!

Back and front of my journal Vagabond. It's a rather depressing book which I eventually stop working on. I actually wanted to fill this up with some poems, stories and drawings that my friends could read as well (hence the 'public' sign), but it never happened. Haha. But some other stuff happened and I wrote about them because I was angry/sad/emo/etc. Lots of notes and short stories are also squashed together with it. In short, it wasn't particularly a memorable journal. So it sat by my bed for a long time, and now it's returned to the bottom of a dark, dusty box, ready to be forgotten (haha emo much)! (That was after I took the photos)

Many loose leaf papers, paper-clipped clumsily together.

Didn't finish this drawing because after a while I didn't like it. I made some mistakes on her face, she looks rather horse-y and not-too-nice. But I was pleased with the perfumes and cupcakes! Although, it wasn't really enough for me to continue. I couldn't get a more upright shot of it, the squashed papers in front made it rather bulky and the wind was blowing, so I had to balance between having to steady the page and holding the camera.

Another drawing I didn't really like.... ok, she had too big of a mouth and nose, the lines on her hair isn't as neat as I'll like them to be. And I didn't like the ballpoint-pen blue, to me it looked kind of garish, and it reminds me of a careless/angsty doodle or scrawl that is commonly seen on school assignments. It's the ballpoint-pen effect, I guess.

Collage that I never quite completed. Lyrics from The Smiths!

I really liked the book though, it was too bad. It was honestly quite overpriced for a notebook but I liked that it had three sections (planner, writing pages, blank pages), and the lines are nice, and it had cream coloured pages, so I gave in to buying it! So this is my abandoned journal. I know it sounds really cheesy and emo, but I don't like to write in the same book anymore if I had written about a super bad memory.

Just started this last night. I had an idea for a real beautiful gothic lady surrounded by cats. Kind of like a hybrid between Morticia Addams and Emily the Strange. This is going to be quite a dark piece, loads of ink and black going on.

I didn't want her to look like Emily the Strange, because Emily looks a little too young, so instead I chose Morticia, who's more classically feminine, and would be quite characteristic of the lady in this drawing. Her face is based on the actress Carolyn Jones, who played Morticia Addams in the earlier television productions. I've never watched the Addams Family though, even though the animated series were really popular when I was younger. (I was more into Tom & Jerry, Dexter's Lab, Powerpuff Girls... you get the drift) But I love the look of Morticia Addams and she was a rather memorable character compared to the rest of her family members (yes, even that odd hand creature) because she was so beautiful.

After some Googling, I thought the face of Carolyn Jones is more suitable for my drawing. Even though Anjelica Huston, the other actress who played Morticia Addams, has a more gothic look with very striking, strong features, I didn't choose her. I prefer Carolyn Jones for her soft, pin-up look. Combined with Morticia's gothic package, it really gives off an intimidating and intriguing effect. Like, you want to keep looking at her pretty face, but it's kind of scary to look at it for long too. I like that.

I'll be doing one last drawing (after The Cat Lady), hopefully completed by the weekend. Haven't thought of any ideas just yet. Sometimes the ideas for these drawings really come quite suddenly. And usually at night right before I go to sleep, like this Cat Lady!

School starts for me next Monday, and I'm sure I would not have much time to be doing all these drawings. I also have to be more dedicated to my coursework which I have to be submit by March, and for those works, I am not allowed to post all of them online.  I would love to do some more of these drawings on wood, but I hope that I wouldn't feel too drained to carry on when school starts. But do keep a look out for more drawings on my journals, those are the things that keep me awake during classes (oops), and drawing other things that aren't related to my coursework also makes me feel better too, in a way. I'm not too fond of sticking to a theme, even though it may be one that I like a lot or am able to relate to. I will get bored or tired of it if I have to keep looking at it!

Keep checking back for more work-in-progress shots. :)

I'm starting the hair tomorrow. :)

School is starting next week and I may have more to blog about then. I just made a grassy landscape (diorama) which I have to take photos of for a project. Will post that in a couple of weeks.

What is going to be real tedious is drawing the hair. I am leaving that for the last. Till then, I will be drawing tree branches and birds.

So our table from Ikea arrived today, and I finally had a chance to move in some of my things. Went through a room revamp recently and I've got a lot of reorganizing to do.

This is a really long table which my sister and I "split" into half. My side is rather cramped already, after arranging my school notes and whatnot.

A drawing that I've been working on for my close friend. She's been a really great friend to me this year and I'll like to give her a drawing as a thank-you gift. I was in the middle of making her one, but I wasn't pleased with the design so after a really long time, I decided to make her a better drawing.

I will post more photos of the work in progress. :)

(via billybride)

A few months ago, I came across a photo of this beautiful blue rock ring (first photo). I don't know where it's from, but it's sooo beautiful and now I randomly came across it again on somebody else's blog, with a link to the online shop. The ring is by Billy Bride, and on the site, there are other types of rock rings which are all equally beautiful and unique. Well, I personally won't wear them though. I never thought rings look good on me because I think my fingers are short and rather cone-shaped (as described by a palmistry book I read in the library). Rings are just not flattering on me, especially big ones like these by Billy Bride. But, I admire beautiful rings. I think these are super gorgeous.