Shopping Spree

.: September 23, 2012. Sunday :.

I skipped church service this morning which always the case whenever I need to work at Saturday midnight up until 6 AM Sunday morning. The timing of my work schedule seems to always clash with my ushering schedule, so this morning hubby went to church alone and I met him afterward for lunch. We had lunch with my cousin at Ichibanboshi, a new Japanese rest at Takashimaya (one of our faves).

The fun started after lunch. A second shopping spree for items to be brought for our Europe trip! Hubby went crazy for shoes, too cute ahhaha. I bought a moleskine sketchbook and a watercolor book, some new synthetic brushes, and gouache tube. Yeah, I'm planning to sketch in Europe, can hardly wait! Bought some pairs of tights as well and just about when we declared that the shopping was done, we passed a new store selling Japanese-style clothes. You guess, I walked in and ended up buying :p

No more shopping for months, promise :D

 

~ Bon Voyage! ~

(mixed with white gouache)

Lily of the Valley

 

April Highlight 2012

 

Happy Easter!

"The great gift of Easter is hope -Christian hope which makes us have that confidence in God, in his ultimate triumph, and in his goodness and love, which nothing can shake" (Basil C. Hume)

 

"Earth's saddest day and gladdest day were just three days apart" (William Penn)

 

Give Thanks

Give thanks in all circumstances, whether good or bad.

Color Splash

Was browsing through old files and voila, found a forgotten watercolor sketch. I still remember, after I finished this one, Ellen asked me if I wanted to go groceries shopping at nearby shopping center. Cold day, but we had a bright, clear sky.

 

This one below is what happen when I don't have a clear idea what to draw. But it's fun, just a few drops of watercolor on white paper, blow in every directions… and there you have it.

My New Sketch Blog

エヴァのスケッチブログ

At long last, I have new blog and it will be all about my drawing and nothing else; in pencil, ink, watercolor and oil painting. 

A drawing a day and it will keep you from stress v(^o^)v

A Long Forgotten Sketch

 

.: Watercolor :.

December 22, 2008

Supposed to be a local market… 失敗

the second copy

.: Watercolor :.

~22 February 2010~

Oh okay, so now it’s Valentine’s Day… Happy Valentine’s Day everyone ^^ and today also happens to be Chinese New Year day. As I’m sitting cool in my room typing this blog, I can’t help counting hours down to the time I’ll be flying to Japan *yay!* 32 more hours…

I actually don’t have any plan whatsoever today, except maybe going out to Orchard after doing laundry to buy some clothes and omiyage for my friend. You know, the weather today is nice, not too hot as any other day *Yeah, you will almost likely get hot, sticky day here in Singapore* so I’m getting this rare urge to sketch. In the meantime, I’d tell you more about this painting posted here.

It began during my college year, I started to oil paint. And as a starter, I used this watercolor tutorial book with so many paintings in it. I spotted one that i like, and I used it as a sample. So I did the reproduction of watercolor painting into oil painting. You can see it in this post. Sadly, now it belongs to someone else. I know!!!! being one of my favorite paintings, I couldn’t believe I gave it away just like that!! ughh, now I wish I had the guts to get it back hahaha *oh well…*

And to get over it and a way to redeem myself, I decided to paint it again. This time using watercolor. And voila, it finished on February 22, 2009. There are few things that I’m not satisfied with this painting, for one, the color of the shadow of the tree *what was I thinking? why on earth did I use GREEN??*

Torii 鳥居

What is Torii? Well, as you can see here, it’s a Japanese gate that usually serves as an entrance to the sacred place. So you pretty much can find it in a shrine. I remember the trip to Nikko and how I was soo fascinated by this torii, placed just beside the lake.

Lucky I took quite a lot of pictures of the must-visit Nikko so I can use them as future references to make sketches, because you see, it’s already been more than 6 months since the day I began my journey in Singapore. And during those times, no sketches nor paintings of Singapore I made.

I know… I couldn’t believe it myself. The thing is, in here, there’s nothing to keep me inspired. But you know what, I’m gonna stop comparing between here and there, ’now’ and ’back then’. That’s it, I’m joining watercolor course in Singapore on March *woohoo*

Travel Sketch :: Kita Kamakura

Few months ago, I was browsing through photos, looking for something inspiring to draw. Then I stumbled upon this one *I dunno what it's called; temple, shrine?* Especially love the way it looks kinda deserted.

It was one day in Autumn'08 when we set off to Kita Kamakura for Momiji hunting slash tracking. The sun shone bright enough to warm the cool autumn day. Well, exactly the perfect day for our outing. Me & Ria met up with the boys on the station's platform.

The photo itself is courtesy of Adi, our photographerAnyhoo, I enjoyed drawing this. And one thing that I do remember well about that day; I wore the wrong outfit! On my defense, I didn't know we were going to do tracking. I thought we were just gonna find someplace under the tree to chill out, take photos like.. a lot, finding the most perfect spot etc. well basically Momiji hunting things only, you know -  But... ぶっぶーっ no, we went tracking too!! and I wore boots, high heel ones!! geez... luckily the scenery was amazing, worked like a charm to ease the discomfort huahaha

Hmm Japan really has something to offer in term of uniqueness, unlike... well, unlike *really, pardon me*  Singapore - okay I know, shame on me. I don't know what to sketch here, um buildings, malls?? yeah right. Except maybe Chinatown. You see, Chinatown at night is something you should see here. Lampion's everywhere. 

Mini tulips and roses clay, and oh... some bread too

  Having one month of free time in Bali really left me with choices none other than window shopping, food hunting, and art to keep me occupied. And out of the questions really, to not hold yourself back on the first two options. Too much window shopping, and it can hurt your bank account... well, in my case at least. Weak at temptation *grin* Food hunting was another challenge. My, those spicy, rich in flavor Balinese food, mouth-watering steaks, and behold... the evil in disguised, CAKES! I didn't want to gain extra weight and it left me with the last option here. Art.

I did spend the majority of my time engaging in either doing oil-painting or sketching. Sometimes during the second week in February, I saw small children making pottery out of the clay. Well, I did want to try it too, but there is something about pottery that screams "sacred" and that makes me feel I either learn it whole-heartedly or not at all. So I thought maybe next time.

Anyway, that basically led me into another type of clay which is less serious, much more fun and most importantly no need of an oven, it's air-dry. I dove headfirst looking for air-dry clay without knowledge whatsoever about any specific brand or characteristic, and I ended up buying the wrong one. Luckily my aunt still had half the clay given by my dad's niece who owns a clay store/studio in Jakarta.

And so... the creation began. I was experimenting; making tiny croissant first, then flowers and baskets filled with twisted candies. Stuffs from bakery are pretty easy to make. I think you can make them in one go even if it's your very first time ever to touch clay, like yours truly. Flowers are a bit tricky tho. I did fail a couple of times to get the result I wanted. I made some tulips and roses. But um.. those tulips do look like roses, don't you think?? hhh 失敗～

Finally, you want to give it some color too. You might want to leave the molded clay a couple of minutes so it can get hard first before you paint it with acrylic. In my case, since I'm not a really patient person by nature, I went straight into getting it painted after I got the shape I wanted. Either way is fine I think.

I searched in art & craft stores everywhere but they don't sell it in Bali, this kind of clay. In Singapore, air-dry clay in a size of a brick costs for about 4 dollar, if I'm not mistaken.

Well, if you like mini stuffs, maybe you can consider playing with clay. It's a lot of fun.  

Orchid Sketches

:: Watercolor ::
~May 19, 2009~
.: Wedding Anniversary Present :.

Today's post is about orchid. Anggrek tuh bunga kesukaan papa, keknya dari aku kecil, first impression and image papa itu pertama: anggrek, kedua: bonsai, ketiga: kaktus. Soale waktu kecil kan tinggal di Lombok, nah di rumah Lombok dulu, papa punya buanyak banget anggrek, bonsai n kaktus. Waktu pindah ke Bali, trus pindah lagi ke Jakarta, papa uda ga ngurusin bonsai lagi, tapi anggrek?... teteeeppp. So whenever I see him tending orchids, it feels so natural. I'm not exaggerate thing when I say orchid is his passion.

Nahhh... waktu tgl 14 may kemaren ini aku balik Bali, kaget liat di kantor bawah kok ada pot anggrek 2 biji. Ternyata itu mama yg beli buat papa, kado wedding anniversary ktnya huehehehe... it has story, so I decided to sketch it. Pertama kalinya gambar anggrek, ga bisa pula bikin daun huks...

About those two pots of orchid, lucu aja liat mama sm papa. Mama yg ga tau gimana ngurus anggrek, kasian liat daunnya ada yg kering, trus potnya jg kering. Judging that they need water as much as human does, mom poured a bottle of water into the pots. Trus papa kaget liat potnya kok basah banget, hihi so they were fussing over it for a whole day. Mama yg nuduh papa ga peduli-in anggrek yg mama kasih, papa yg bilang klo tuh daun emang uda waktunya kering, klo disiram banyak air malahan jd busuk akarnya. Pokok'e lucu ja ngeliatnya, ampe karyawan2 jg pada ketawa hoho

:: Watercolor ::
~May 21, 2009~
Orchids in the Backyard

Klo angrek2 yg ini juga aku baru pertama kali liat pas pulang kemaren. Ga tanya sih dapet dr mana. Papa taruh di halaman belakang deket dapur. Bunganya buanyaaakk banget, jd gatel pengen aku cabut

Tulip Garden at Disney Sea ::Winter 2009::

Two paintings below are from photos, taken at Disney Sea, the second time I went there. The first time was with my fullcast friends in Summer 2007, it was a hell lot of fun. The second time was when my mom visited Japan in January 2008. We went there with my brother, just the three of us. Inside, I was so... thrilled to see a HUGE garden full of various kinds of tulips. So amazed *yeah my first time to see so many tulips, my fave flower* that I asked my brother - not really a fan of nature beauty - to take a lot of pics of me with the tulip garden until he grew impatient sheesh... If I went alone, I would love to just stare at those fabulous tulips and... just be there!

:: Oil on Canvas ::
80 x 60 cm
~February 2009~
.: Tulip Garden at Disney Sea :.

:: Watercolor ::
24 x 32 cm
~May 22, 2009~
.: Disney Sea :.

Quick Watercolor Before the Trip

::Watercolor::

.: December 23, 2008 :.
~Snow-covered country house~

I remember painted this in Machida. Too lazy to pack for our End-of-the-year trip to Hong Kong, I ended up picking up my brush instead. 雪が大好き～ Snow didn't fall that day. At that time I was hoping for a white Christmas, and it turned out to be no snow at all in Tokyo . Even if by some miracle it was snowing, all I could do was drooling over it since I was on the plane to HK with friends on Christmas day. Sigh. So no white Christmas for me.

Whenever I see this piece, it leaves me longing for a villa in a remote place somewhere, a huge fireplace, me and the loved ones together gather around bare Christmas tree ready to decorate it. The oh-so-Christmas warm bread ready to tease our taste buds. Arghh stop it! We're not even half way to December yet! *And look, this is what I got by reading too much Jane Green*

::Watercolor::
.: December 23, 2008 :.

My Monet Version

I did these Monet paintings in February 2009 with some directions in brush stroke from my art teacher *well... it's Monet after all, I needed help! *, and moreover, that was my first time dealing with big canvas. Kinda intimidating.

::Oil on Canvas::
90x70 cm

~February, 2009~



::Oil on Canvas::
80x60 cm
~February, 2009~

For me, this snow-scene painting is the most special

Travel Sketch: A Bit of Japan

::Watercolor::

~February 24, 2009~

Takoyaki Store - Kyoto

aaahh takoyaki I bought from that small store above was the yummiest takoyaki ever so far. I went to Osaka and Kyoto with my family and oh we only spent half a day in Kyoto... HALF A DAY!!! What were we thinking?? hm well, I just have to make sure the next time I go there, I'll absorb every detail of the beauty of the old city.

::Watercolor::
~February 27, 2009~

I forgot when it was when Benny gave us (Tokyo people huehehe ) an omiyage, mochi. The mochi was put in a box with picture on the lid. I happened to be the last one who got the mochi so Inge *or was it Ellen??* gave me the mochi and the box. I love the picture on the lid, very simple, so I decided to keep the box *didn't have the heart to throw it*. I guess you might find one in omiyage stores ^^ *'scuse me, I do some advertising here*.

::Watercolor::
~February 06, 2009~

It is another sakura sketch, in case you don't know what the heck is that pink, tree-like curvy lines. Nothing more to say. I love sakura.

Travel Sketch: A Bit of Bali

::Watercolor and Pencil::
~April 22, 2009~

Aahhh you should come and visit Bali last month. Three big ceremonies (Galungan, Kuningan, Nyepi) were held in succession in only three weeks time. Many Galungan decorations such as tall, curved bamboo pole called Penjor were planted on each side of literally EVERY roads created a festive yet serene air every time you drove pass them. Pecalang (polisi adat - tribal police, is a group of men from Balinese local village that acts as a police, they DO have the right to stop the traffic for ceremony) were everywhere. I always love to see what uniform they wear, you know, as every village has its own Pecalang uniform. They always wear sarong (which is always looks the same for every village. A sarong is a sarong afterall) and a shirt (now, that's the only part where every village can get creative with their own village's logo and everything). For me, only at that time of ceremony is Bali really reveals something other than its commercial face. It was somewhat magical.

Sakura

Well, since I don't get to see sakura this year, I decided to paint them. These are from photos I took a year ago in Ueno and someplace I didn't remember where. I went to hanami (cherry blossoms/sakura viewing) with Inge, Ellen, Stivan, Rendy and Teddy - who later joined us. It was so beautiful. Hehe the paintings really don't do justice here. You should feel the atmosphere at hanami. So alive.

::Oil on canvas 60 x 40 cm::
.: Sakura viewing at Ueno :.

~February 2009~

.: Someplace we went to after Ueno :.

::Watercolor::
~February 28, 2009~

.: Ueno :.

New Art Teacher

::11 February 2009::

I have new art teacher . He mainly does oil painting, surrealism style. Wanna know what he looks like? You know Kaka Slank? Yep!! He resembles Kaka a lot! The first time I met him, I had this feeling I saw him somewhere before ... then that evening I happened to watch a trailer of Slank's new movie (Generasi Biru) and I was like... "Whoo that's my teacher there!!" huahahaha

Oh but thank goodness he's done impressionism painting years ago. Surrealism always kinda creepy to me. I guess I made a weird face when he mentioned Surrealism that he said to me, "There's no such thing as a bad or ugly art. It's only a matter of liking or not liking the art object". Whew~ I can't agree more

But overall, I like this new teacher. He's a real artist, so passionate in art and has an art gallery near Discovery Mall Kuta. He's so much fun to be with. And you should see him holding the brush, eyes fixed on the canvas. Ughh it's the same when you see your fave athlete doing his/her things. It comes so naturally. Hope I can learn much from him.