Save the Love Story & the Date!

My sweet client, Hana;)...
she has been asking me to make this simple animation since early this year.

And now... with her special day not so far away, I thought why not put a link here so her friends who cannot receive her MMS could also view it from their email link!

She has also commissioned me to illustrate not only ONE but THREE love books as gifts for her groom to be- (untuk 1 dulang hantaran la tu kan, Hana? hehee..). Here's a sneak peek:

A love story to be kept for years to come... :)

I'm still taking my sweet time completing them all in between baby Zain's short naps and long sleep at night- huhuu!

In the meantime, especially to HANA's friends & family please enjoy the sweet reminder of her upcoming precious day... 

My Wedding Toonies

I really enjoy creating my little 'toonies' for any occassions. So I was happy when recently, there was a few requests to make Wedding Couple Cartoons!

The Same MalayWed Toonies in Different Colors!

Western Wed Toonie

Another Malay Wed Toonie

Enjoy!

Firefly...

Someone sent me this song :).

Uriah Heep: Firefly

My love lives at
The end of a rainbow
One day I'm gonna
Fly there on a firefly
High above white angry water
With a love song in my heart

Someday, somehow
I know I'm gonna get there
I've been patient for so long
All my daydreams
Seem so much nearer now
And I beg you hear my song

Firefly
On your glowing wings I'll ride
Till I sit beside
This dream of mine
Firefly, high on a risin' tide
Only wanna touch
The things I've seen

Steppin' lightly from star to star
Cross a wilderness of blue
Wonderin' how much
In love with me you are
'Cause I'm so much in love with you

Firefly, can you take me
I ain't had no lovin' lately
Firefly bring me love

To my new horizon
The one that I've still
Got my eyes on, my my firefly
Firefly, firefly, firefly

In my dreams you come to me
The answer to my prayer
As I begin to feel
You warm my heart
I awake and you're not there

Now and then I see your eye
As the stars begin to shine
No rain to cool my passion
No, Not now
No, now you're mine.

Inspired, I painted something for him...

" Fireflies in Love"
Watercolor Pencil & Digital Editing

Hehehee... 

Enjoy.


**Especially for my Bee. 

An Elf and A Coffee Stain..

Last night, I made a cup of black coffee (brand: kopi Che' Nah) for my bee- the coffee addict.. and who has turned me into one too! Huhuu...

I was looking at the coffee leftovers and thought, " Hey, why not try and see how good coffee can be on my artwork ...?" (I remember my good old friend from ArtVentureKids' suggested it too!) I've tried the tea-stain technique last month, and it turned out quite gorgeous.

So, let me show you how coffee stain looks on the watercolor paper...

I liked the sepia colored effect it gave to the illustration.

When I saw how the color turned out.. I hesitated to go further and added other colors because I was afraid I might spoil the stain effect. Oh well, maybe I'll do that sometime later.. when I have the gut.

See the expression of the flying elf? It was as if she has bottled up her feelings about something... 

Perhaps a fear... perhaps a disappointment.. perhaps a sadness deep inside.. Something you'll never know...

"Bottled" is the theme challenge for this week's Illustration Friday. So here's one for it.

Enjoy.

P/S: My CONTEST has 2 days left. See the Prizes up for grab and JOIN NOW! :)

CE: Small

" Whoa! I can't believe how small you are!!"

"Syyyyyyyyyyyyyhhh.."

The theme for CreativeEveryday- "small"... yet again brought me to the time when I fantasized about the world of fairies and the invisible magical world. The illustration above showed exactly how I would've reacted if I saw one of them. Any bigger than that (or uglier).. I would've fainted, I think.

Back in 1980s.. when I was in a primary school in Kuala Terengganu, there was a little rumors (which later turned to be one of the biggest 'news' throughout Malaysia) that went around the neighboring school- some kids saw 'little people'/ orang kenit who had their own little village under the big trees at the end of my school field. Yes, the kids aged between 7 to 10 years really saw these little people who seemed 'invisible' to the grown-ups' eyes. Some of them saw the little people entering the classroom and playing around while the teacher was teaching. Imagine how the teacher freaked out when the student told her, " Teacher, he's on your desk!." A few of the kids actually met the  little village's Leader and found that the latter had his own aeroplane too! Cool, huh? That year, so many reporters came by the school and interviewed these kids for the newspapers, magazines and TV. Until one day, one of the kids said, the little people finally decided to leave the place because humans came and disturbed their place. So, just like that.. the story ended. Where on earth did they go?

I did wish to check out if it was true but my parents already warned me, "Don't even think about it!"- well, sort of. I wonder why those little people didn't come to my school, sometimes. Such a mystery. Many people think these kids made up the stories to gain attention or they were just their imagination. Hmm.. I don't know why would the kids do that. Sometimes, the only people you can trust are kids. They don't lie. They tell you what they see.. and that's that!

There's so much we don't know about this world.. no matter how far and how many countries you have been. God's creations are so vast & variety. There's no denying in that. When you know so much, there's still so much you don't know. 

Ilmu Allah sangat luas.. 

Nothing is impossible :)

Oh, by the way, if you're interested.. come & join my Contest-Giveaway til 15th April! Just for the FUN of it..

Click HERE!

Find your Wings to Fly..

The Butterfly Girl. Watercolor & Ink.

No matter what you do in life, you can be successful.

If you love drawing, doodling, painting, crafting, singing, dancing.... 

..just keep doing what you love.

We are born with differences. Everyone has her own purposes..

If you're one with FAITH, believe that HE will lead you the way... sooner if not later. 

Don't fret and don't regret.. because the time will come.. 

and things will fall into their places eventually.

But don't just sit around, doing nothing.. 

..just keep on doing what you love.

If you're not successful now, doesn't mean you'll fail later too.

Nobody can take away the passion inside of you..

Each of us is special.

Listen to your heart..

We just have to find our own Wings to fly.

Well, just some thoughts I would like to share this morning because of my little illustration of The Butterfly Girl that I did last night. 

When I was a little girl.. I really enjoyed drawing stuff like that. For many, many years... I didn't just let my imagination fly like what I'm doing recently. Maybe I was too caught up with being a traditional artist who paints 'real' people and life. Until one day, I got fed up and wanted to find a different direction. But I got stuck.. not knowing what to paint anymore. Everything seemed dull and ideas were hard to come by. I always had to ask others for ideas.. because i was sort of, lost it. Then, I began my journey to redefine myself as an artist.. and I guess, I still am. 

Having a blog almost seems like this journey is documented and some day, I'll look back and see how I've developed and progressed in my ventures. It's a blessing to be able to share with people I don't even know in real life.. Not many will find the time to read whatever is being written in others' blogs. Those who are sincere enough will do that and share some thoughts too. Others may look at pictures and move on. Another 'surfers' may dropped by to check out what others are doing and copy it (hey, please don't!) or just ignore it.. That's OK. I'm not doing my blog for anyone but for my own sake and sanity. 

I'm much happier inside now.. that I've allowed myself to explore my imaginative world while doing illustrations and cartoons.. just like when I was a little girl. I really feel good after I painted a little illustration or made a sketch. Even though I'm not sure where this is going.. I know I'll keep on doing it. At the same time, I'll also keep painting some 'real' ones too.. which you can see more of them at Yartstik's ArtBlog. 

So.. good luck everyone in everything that you do :).

Success is not the destination; the Journey is.

P/S: Oh yes, before I forget- let me remind you that there'll be a fun CONTEST coming up soon! hihi.. it's for something that can 'fly'.. but mine, doesn't. 

Current Projects..

I would like to change my blog header but I still can't get down to it. I'm thinking I should 'doodle' my header.. on things that I love doing.. creating.. or maybe something that is more 'me'. Oh well, perhaps I'll have the chance to do it after finishing a few current projects I have in hand.

One of them has just finished and already sent by hand this morning to my lovely client, Emelly. I must tell you how brilliant she was with this creative idea for her wedding next month! By the way, I did her wedding caricature last year too! She was pretty organized and planned her wedding well.. so yes, she prepared many things for her wedding since last year. But last week, she asked whether I could do something like a 'story board' of her beautiful LOVE STORY to display on her wedding ceremony. I simply answered "Yes, I'll try my best".. although I've never done anything like it before. But I just couldn't resist to do this fun idea of hers :). She posted me all her ideas on a sheet of paper, some thumbnails of her storyboard and 4 photos that she wanted me to tie them together with a nice illustration... which I did :).

When I saw her smile upon looking at this illustration board this morning, I felt like flying with joy.. :). All the best, dear Emelly!

The next project I'm still working on is creating a simple and nice Wedding Invitation Card.. it's more of a graphic design work and printing to do later on. My client's dad is more like the 'Creative Director' in the house...hihi. Much of this card idea came from him. He's a pensioner who teaches Qur'an during the weekend, does the landscaping outside in the morning and has a fine taste in interior decorations and crafts! It's no surprise that he is now working on the 'bunga telur' (little gifts with boiled eggs to give to the wedding guests) for her daughter's wedding in November. Wow.

Here's the mock-up I designed. I'll post the finalized version.. hopefully- when everything's confirmed.

Another thing I'm doing and rushing to finish before the weekend is another fun hand-painted ECO BAG project! Again, the order came from one of my most appreciative clients, Kay from BlingLustre! With more events she has planned for her business, she made me created some goodie bags to use for them. I found in my supplier's stock some pink non-woven bags and I know Kay simply loves pink! However, my supplier said that these will be the last pinks he has in stock. Boo hoo! He also said he is discontinuing the cream color bags I used to paint on! What?? But I love doing my artwork on the cream colored ones. So now, I'm stuck with a bunch of LIMITED multi-colored non woven bags in stock- light blue, black, orange, yellow... well, I guess, in the near future you'll see more colorful ECO bags in my creations. Yay!!

 

Phew! My eyes are quite tired. I must retreat from my project report record right now. An old friend is asking me to create a Logo for a new tuition center and she wanted it to look as grabbing fun as the Artventure Kid's logo I did before... and I must develop a logo for a logistics company which I already proposed a few designs last week.. and now, the boss came back to me with one that he likes but needs more tweaks! I'll sleep on it tonight.. and hopefully more fresh ideas will come tomorrow. yawn..

Till then, enjoy..

Hop in and Join the Ride!

One day, Tee wanted to go to the little shop in the village.

Din offered her a 'ride'.

NOTE: 

It's amazing how useful the coconut tree is. From top to bottom. If you're not from Malaysia, you might not be familiar with this game. You could actually ride the coconut's leaves. All you have to do is sit on one end, and the 'driver' will pull the leaves forward and take you wherever you want to go. Err.. you might hurt your butt if the ground is rough with lots of little stones. Ouch! It's better to play on the grass :).

Enjoy your weekends, everyone!

For my Lovely Little Sister..

I bought her a new Drawing Block.. but I ended drawing something in it. It was something for her to color :)

I haven't drawn any fairies for so long.. and it's almost forgotten until I saw a few of my talented blogger friends drew and shared some. Well, anyone who grew up reading Enid Blytons would surely has delightful wonders about fairy that flies, gnome that stalks, doll that talks, etc.. world of fantasy creatures. 

Yes... sometimes you just want to be there again.. the time and place when you have no other worries.. and more often than not, trying to catch a glimpse in the backyard garden of.. perhaps, there were such thing as fairies flying around and maybe you could see them.. if you focused your eyes hard enough. But no.. I never did see such thing. But when my mind saw it, I drew.. I doodled.. in my drawing blocks.

So, here's one for my 12 yrs old sis, Sue.. I just want her to practice her coloring skill when she feels like it. No pressure... but I WANT you to make it beautiful, ok Sue?.. teeheehee.. it's just empowering to be the firstborn, in case you don't know, my friends.

She's all smile now..

Sue is my biggest fan when it comes to the fun, cute Artsy creations/ drawings I made. I'm glad she has learned the art of Appreciation. The other day, she found an old frame that I painted a few years back lying somewhere in the house.. she asked me if she could have it for herself. Then, she put a favorite picture of herself in it and display it on the shelf. 

 It's just lovely..

.. as lovely as a little sister could be :).

Colorful Mood!

Well, the festival mood of Eid is still in the air... and last weekend, there was another festival celebrated by Chinese known as the Lantern Festival. I'm definitely inspired by these colorful events :).. so I sketched a little pencil-colored piece as shown above! It's nothing much... but I've got a bit of batik element in this sketch. Read about my batik inspired drawings in my other blog too, alrite?

Enjoy.

Have a lovely colorful day to you too.

Happy Eid-ul Fitr!

Thanks to Allah...
We are still here on earth to celebrate Eid-ul Fitr or as we Malaysian say.. "Aildilfitri" after successfully completed our fasting month of Ramadhan.
For those who do not understand what the celebration is all about, you may go to my illustrator friend, Emila's site for a brief explanation or wikipedia or IslamCity.com.

From my understanding, Eid-ul Fitr is simply to come back to our "Fitrah".. It is a concept of our "original goodness" as a human being as opposed to the "original sin" in Christian theology. Original goodness here means each and everyone of us was born with goodness- no sins at all... but because of the elements of surroundings, environment, intellect and free-will, decide and choose to conduct ourselves in a wrong or unlawful manner, while we're growing up or till the end of our lives. Nau'zubillah.. '(We seek refuge in Allah (from evil))'

Well, as many say... Nobody's Perfect.
We're all just human beings with both greatness and flaws... It makes our whole world.. balanced, I guess. As one old wise man used to tell me.. " If you don't know something bad, you wouldn't know something good."

On that note, I would like to ask for your forgiveness.., in case I've done any wrong doings since I started my blog. Maaf Zahir & Batin.
Thanks a lot for each & everyone of you who has supported me in one way or another.. I really, really, really appreciate it.

An Old Doodle- in Watercolor

Found an old piece of paper out of a small sketchbook.
Year 2002's watercolor doodle.
What is it about?
Hmm.. I remember that time I was feeling so close to Nature. Especially that was around the year when my parents were living in Kuching, Sarawak near to the city's River. We had big trees surrounding the house. The happy sounds of birds in the morning were loud and clear.. but it got quite creepy at night.

A Doodle on Recycled Paper

I find it hard to throw away some old things... even a piece of a blank paper. So, what I have now is a lot of 'junks' as my mom pointed out some time ago. And this brown paper has been around for a few years in between my stacks of 'junks'. Then one fine day, I happened to pick it up and just drew something on it. Hmm.. now I'm falling in love with the paper. It makes a simple pen & ink doodle stands out and good enough to make a card for someone special. Heck, I could even sell it if I wanted to :).

Simple & Cheap Card- Unique nonetheless.
RM 1.50 only. Going once.. going twice... SOLD!! to myself. haha.

Birthday Cards!

Code: DD003

BLANK inside

Size: 4 x 6 inches (closed)

Medium: Watercolor & Ink on Watercolor Paper

Price: RM 3.50

including a very nice colored envelope

(postage not included) 

 

 Code: DD003

BLANK inside

Size: 4 x 6 inches (closed)

Medium: Watercolor & Ink on Watercolor Paper

Price: RM 3.50

including a very nice colored envelope

(postage not included) 

 

Hurt my back a little while doing these two. They seem quite simple but each characters is quite detailed yet fun to do.. Oooh, my eyes are tired too but I really enjoyed doing the cards...and now, it's time to sleep. zzzz.

Have fun, you guys.. Get a good rest when you can, alrite?

100% Hand-Drawn & Colored Card 4 SALE

I have been meaning to sell some Greeting Cards that I have created with my own hands. Well, maybe they are not that "crafty" but 100% ORIGINAL, UNIQUE handmade, hand-drawn & hand-colored CARDS.. I promise.

(For now, I'm only selling this in Malaysia.. until there's any demand from somewhere else in this world :) )

To start the ball rolling, here's a couple of them:

 

Code: DD001

Size: 4 x 6 inches (closed)

Medium: Watercolor & Ink on Watercolor Paper

Price: RM 5.00

including a very nice colored envelope & a tiny 'surprise' on the card

(postage not included) 

SOLD ! to Ms. Sheila 

 

Code: DD002

Size: 4 x 6 inches (closed)

Medium: Watercolor & Ink on Watercolor Paper

Price: RM 5.00

including a very nice colored envelope & a tiny 'surprise' on the card 

(postage not included)

SOLD ! to Ms. Ulfa

Inside the cards, you'll find nicely drawn "congratulations!" word.

GRAB fast!!! There are none other like these...unless, someone has copied mine :p. Boo Hoo!

Anyway, enjoy your day and take care. Let me know if you have any inquiry. Lots more will be coming, God willing..

I'm Here.. but I'm Hiding.

A 5x7inches watercolor & ink fun illustration just for fun :) I enjoyed drawing the backgrounds and coloring it. Sometimes I make this kind of drawing for my youngest sister, niece and nephews to color. What I love most was when I see them smiling while looking at the drawing.... Precious. Awwww..

AAaaarkk!! Don't Eat Meeeeee!!!

Kissed.. Sealed.. Delivered..

Just a short one before it escapes my mind (or I got lazy again- heh) , I'd like to present my finished project of the Custom Designed Wedding Card which I've recorded the progress in this blog.

The ribbon was my client's Mom's idea and she looked happy with the finished products. I pray the wedding will go on well and smoothly for the sweet and wonderful family :). Have a great & happy one, Ida.

I Want Colors!!!

Oowhh.. Sorry blog. I've abandoned you for a while.

I was busy... attending to my own mood swings and whimpers of trying to find some new inspirations for new paintings while doing a couple of projects in hand. And then.. I was also not so sure what to talk about. But my thoughts was full of playful bursting colors. I wanted to be more colorful and I do need some cheerful evidence to my fateful life. 'Want'ing is one thing...but making it happened is another story. Perhaps, I had the tendency to play it safe... and didn't express myself enough. Huu..

So, I came up with an idea. I wanted to make as many 4x6inches cards as possible with series of fun lookin' cartoons or illustrations. As with many skills in life, coloring also needs practice.. yes, even for a seasoned artist.

Here's a few that I've created to get the bursting colors out of my head. Medium- watercolor & marker pen on watercolor paper:

Enjoy...and there'll be more to come. (Wish me luck! Hihi..)