Silent Homage : IF

watercolor + soft pastel + digital

Aku Bukan Batman (tapi)

Inspiration always comes at night...especially when I'm about to sleep.

I challenge anybody who can come up with the most beautifully translated version of this poem in english.

Marilah try...untuk suka-suka.

Helooo...freebies, anyone?

Well, we are still waiting for the lucky 9th commentor, so all comments can be published. Not easy for an unfamous blog, huh. Hehe, but it's okay. No rush. Nothing to lose for waiting. I don't want to promote this offer, just waiting for any lucky visitor to fill the place.

I am preparing myself to produce Monday Artday ATC sized (2.5 x 3.5) artwork at the moment. ATC stands for Artist Trading Card, there are generally handmade and used for trading with fellow artist through the mail. This is fun, no need to spend much time for a drawing. Like this one, I made it last night, while watching TV. But not ready for trading yet. I experiment with different scanner setting few times but still difficult to get the original quality image. Without tweaking, I think the original still looks better. Below is the comparison between image produced with scanner and camera. Give me your opinion, or advice, please. But I always prefer to use camera than scanner. Glad to have apron in my drawing at last! I loooove aprons. If I can have many of them, I would be happy changing aprons everyday! I love sewing aprons and the chef hat...still learning how to sew that one. I even dream of selling mangosteenskin-branded aprons one day!

p/s: She does look a bit fat (maybe 5-10% fatter) in the camera photo, right? Or is it just my eyes?

Bollywood

Hari ini aku kembali ke kedai yang tutup masa Good Friday itu hari. Kedai itu kosong. Dan berkunci. Aku dan Lily terpaksa tawaf tiga kali. Kali ketiga, ada seorang amoi sedang duduk di meja bertentangan pintu. Rancak bercakap di talipon. "Chong cheng chong cheng...cancer...hai you...", dan seterusnya. Kami masuk. Hampir 15minit layan diri. Aku pura2 ambil satu set glossy paper dan masuk dalam beg. Amoi itu masih x perasan.

Aku sudah nekad. Biarlah amoi itu bercakap puas2. Berapa lama pun aku sanggup tunggu. Aku cuma mahu tanya sedikit hal. Aku tidak mahu pulang dan berfikir2 hal itu lagi.

"Sekalang tiada stok, kalau mau cuba cari di Bollywood lah, Kalamunsing sana".

"Bollywood?".

"Iyaa..cali saja kedai komputer Bollywood. Kami cuma diaolang punya dealer. Diaolang kami punya supplier". Amoi pakai eyeshadow coklat kelabu.

***karamunsing**

"Li, tiadapun kedai nama Bollywood. Mari kita tanya orang".

"Cari dulu. Kalau masih x jumpa baru kita tanya orang".

"Ko rasa tadi tu dia maksudkan Bollywood ka, Boulevard?".

"Yakan, kedai komputer Boulevard memang ada!", gigi Lily yang besar2 itu sudah mula kenampakan. Kebetulan, kedai Boulervard itu betul2 di depan mata. Hahahaha. Nasib baik kami x sempat tanya orang,

di mana Bollywood?.

***Announcement***

The 2nd, 7th, 8th and 9th person to comment this entry will get mangosteenskin's initial freebies!! So kamon men, komen!!

I will not publish all unmoderated comments until I get the lucky 9th commentor.

Fresh prints of "Heavy", Rescued Sistahs & Lotus Leap

TQ Speech(less)

I know I'm a bit slow at responding to tags and awards. I feel so honored to receive such awards, and tags from you guys. I start to feel my existence in the bloggy world. Thank you so much to abgjas, who had always been supportive since the first day this blog was created (even before). And to emila and rizal, I feel so glad that I found you both. Because of both of you I manage to revive and refresh my passion in drawing. Frankly, if I never take part in illustration friday, i would've never realized what I can do. You're right emila, it is fun. And ezooone, you are the first person who tagged me. Thank you to all of you who have been so supportive all these days...my hubby, my old and new friends.

Hahahahahahahahahaha. Macam berucap atas pentas sambil pegang award lah pulak. Hihihihi.

Thank you emila from Emila's Illustrated Blog for the "award fiesta!". There are 13 awards all together, but too heavy to carry. So I just leave'em there for emila to take care.

Rizal from Rest n Rileks awarded me with this beautiful Inspire Me Award. Thank you rizal!

Bluecrystaldude from Hot Shit Form Here awarded me with this awesome Peoples Choice Award during his 11th Hot Shit Awards Ceremony on March 15, 2008. Thanks dude!

I am speechless!

Rescued Sistahs

I almost throw this sketch away while doing some tidy up, because it was done on the back of paper I used to test my watercolor mixture. But then, I think I better get it scanned and see what can be done with it digitally. I purposely leave the absorbed watercolor mark and add some background to the sketch.

If you like the background, you can download it (or other downloadable digital freebies) from scrapbooketc. If you love scrapbooking (or photography, or art!) , you may find this site very useful and fun. Enjoy!

Pet Peeves : IF

I hate dust! Today I do the dusting, tomorrow surely I will find them again, smiling and waving happily from wherever they landed. Sometimes I just ignore seeing them because they really get me peeves.

Included in the illustration are my pets; Mr. Kontot and Mr. Noko...and yes one unlucky birdy, rapunzel, the prince and his runaway horse. Haha.

Just Hobbies

Apart from art and photography, I also found passion in DIY stuff. Sometimes my window shopping destination includes gardening and hardware sections, checking the price and sort of tools or material I could buy there when needed. Considering cooking and sewing as DIY, they too hardly escape my list. During my younger years in school, I used to make handmade cards and bookmarks for friends, files and paperbags, pencil holder, bookshelf, pillow and pillow cases, straw flowers and curtains for my room.

Unlike most of my friends, I never went to kindergarten. But thankfully, I'm quite a fast-learner and manage to catch up very fast later when I went to primary school. In those not-going-to-kindergarten years, I spent much of my time playing with my mom's sewing machine (and get myself scolded for broken needles). I made small shirts just for fun (even my little doll can't fit) and small sling bag for myself. Sometimes, I play with mom's yarn and knitting needles. There were times I play with my dad's tools. To name them; hammer (there was a small hammer for knocking small nails and I like that one very much (I thought it was made for me), saw, screw drivers, plyers, etc (of coz I got scolded by him too for many reasons). Everytime I finished using his tools, I will put them back to where they belong but my dad always know someone had disturbed his stuffs, hairan. I wonder why I didn't grow up being a martha stewart? (not yet maybe...haha).

These are two sites where we can get a lot of DIY ideas for hobbies and home improvisation (like them so much). Check out DIYideas and martha stewart's website (who don't know her?).

Today is Saturday

A quick sketch in response to rizal's "apa cerita? saja suka2. =)"

Oh I thought yesterday was Saturday! (Just realize when I'm typing title for today's post. Will continue posting the sketch coz it's already done anyway.

Since it's a holiday, I planned to look for blue fabric to make apron for my sister in-law, and maybe some buttons, brown thread and smaller needle for my sewing machine (actually I'm still not familiar with this sewing thing so I planned to ask the lady at the store). I also planned to drop by at my frequently visited bookstore and perhaps buy some iron-on print paper for a personal project. The drizzle started getting heavier but luckily I have an umbrella!

Guess what, all the shop that I wanted to go were closed. It's Good Friday lah. How could I forgot that? Actually I don't know that shops might be closed on Good Friday. Not even the slightest of such idea came to my mind.

So I wander around the complex, until I started feeling hungry. Very hungry.

Ok. Saturday story. Weather; cloudy.

I wake up a bit earlier today, thinking about doing the laundry, the apron, illustration friday, who's going to send my mom home in the evening, what's for breakfast, and feed our pets. If you still don't know them;

Mr. Noko is nocturnal. He's very lazy and such a sleepyhead during the day. He's cute but NOT friendly especially to stranger. I think he don't like Mr. Kontot as he will get anxious and angry if he sees Mr. Kontot around. Mr. Kontot is a very naughty and hyperactive squirrel. He chewed the curtain, neighbour's astro cable and broom stick and bit my thumb a couple of days ago. He eat almost everything. So if you want to make friend with him, just share your potato chips, chocolate, cookies, crackers, peanut, pistachio, banana, apple, waterchesnut, sunflower seed (or fried fish and chicken wing?), etc. He escaped from his cage twice but return before dark.

Dare to Tag

Time for tagging thing again. I've been tagged by ezooone.

~~Begin Copy~~

This is the easy way and the fastest way to :
1. Make your Authority Technorati explode 2. Increase your Google Page Rank. 3. Get more traffic to your blog. 4. Make more new friends.

Rules : 1. Start copy from “Begin Copy” until “End Copy” to your blog. 2. Put your own blog name and link. 3. Tag your friends as much as you can.

1. Picturing of Life 2. Juliana’s Site 3. Shower Your Children With Love - The Right Way 4. Life’s a journey, not a destination 5. Simple Life 6. Life is beautiful; Life is love 7. Lovely Mummy 8. Lemonjude 9. Faith,Hope,Love 10. Newife Blog 11. Good things in life… 12. …the Guru-Guru life… 13. Ezooone 14. mangosteenskin

~~ End Copy ~~

Ehem...i'm tagging those who inspired me:

abgjas, allyson, blucrystaldude, coralie, emila, gennine, heilly, helmi, janeapron, jiwasintetik, leanne, mika, mr.naga, baizurah, pupu, rasso, rizal, sahar, saharil, senta, tafteh , teh aida and lastly tokrimau. As usual, this is not compulsory ok.

Enjoy!

Heavy : IF

I got the idea for this week "heavy" theme when I saw a photo of an old nepalese woman carrying heavy load around her head. The original version of this illustration was arcrylic + pen on paper.

Time Killing

A pen and a piece of paper, end up digitally.

Happy Birthday Lily!

Batik

Pen on paper + digital

Batik is among the most prominent expressions of the cultural identity of the Malay world. Not only it is the most popular traditional type of textile in this region, but the various decorative styles used bear testimony to a cultural history that spans at least two thousand years.The historical centre of batik making is in Java, and naturally much attention is given to the designs originating from there. However, batik is extensively used in other parts of the region, and also made in Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula. Nowadays, there are many choices of modern batik, with more bright colors and contemporary patterns. Batik is not only worn for clothing purpose, but the function has evolved to wider variety such as for making handbags, purse, shoes, or even decorative painting on the wall, etc. Thanks to the late Datin Paduka Seri Endon who had refreshed and brought new life to the batik world.

While waiting to be picked up, I sat at McDonald and made the above doodle yesterday. Below is what inspired me (taken from the book "Batik Design-Traditional Textile of the Malay World published by The Pepin Press, 1993):

Borneo Garden : IF

Watercolor + colored pencil on paper

Painting landscape for this week garden theme was everything I want to avoid. I want something like a close up of tiny creatures crawling underneath the leaves or just simply an arragement of garden tools. Somehow, i end up playing merely with composition and colors (landscape!). I purposely ignore the need to work on the detail and use pencil color to touch up and reveal the paper textured surface. It didn't take long for me to finish working with the watercolor but the touching up extend the whole process to 4 hours.

Enjoy, and have a nice week!

E award

Thank you soooo much emila for this.......
I don't think my blog deserve this award of excellence (like yours).
But this will certainly encourage me to work harder!

I suppose to pass this award to 10 blogs that I consider to be excellent blogs.

They're;

1. Abgjas - Pedang Samurai
2. Allyson - Allyson Hill
3. Jenz Iggo - The Journey Towards a Better Me
4. Sahar - Cartoon City
5. Tanya - Grand Revival Design
6. Senta - As I was Saying
7. Kiki - Heilly's Illos
8. Geninne - Geninne's Art Blog
9. Baizurah - Prozak Nation
10. Audrey Kawasaki - Okonomide See her excellent works!!

Lotus Leap : IF

watercolor on paper

She picked her favourite lotus bud,

and leaped her way home happily;

She loves you deeply in her heart,

and forever yours - she will be.