From Painting to B-day Card

My younger brother has just turned 34... but he kept saying he's still 29 years old. Hah.


Well, coincidentally... I painted him as one of my series in recent exhibition by the Malaysian Watercolor Society (MWS) at NNGallery. You can read more about it at my other blog, Yartstik.

So... I thought, why don't I use it for his Birthday Card? A printed one, of course. Here's how it turned out to be (with the help of my good friend, photoshop) :

Translation: " NOOOOOO!!! I'm Still Young...!!"

Enjoy!

Testing the Tea Stains..

Have you ever tried using tea-stains for your art works? It's quite cool. One of my favorite illustrators online, Amalia K. uses a lot of this technique. She creates so many beautiful artworks from her giving heart and soulful imaginations. I've never actually tried this tea-stains until today... Actually, I'm having a bit of flu and was told to rest.. then I imagined it'll be nice to curl in my bed.. like a little birdie in its nest- which brought me to this idea for Creative Everyday Challenge this month- NEST! Wohoo!

So, before I took my rest, here it goes..

And below was the outcome.. after a little watercolor touch on it..

The tea-stains were quite classic and nice, huh...? Well, I like it :). This was a good experimentation.

Now, I can go to bed.

Enjoy!

A Special B-day Card for a Mom.

This birthday card was a special request by my client. She wanted a card that her mom would frame on the wall.. a card that reflected her love and the bond that they have between them. She wanted their portraits to be on the card. So I painted them with watercolor and made a simple A4 sized Card..

My client has also commissioned portraits of her parents, if you would like to see them, please visit Yartstik's ArtBlog, my fine art journal and gallery.

Hope everyone who stops by this blog is having a nice and wonderful weekend.

Enjoy..

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.

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..)

The Cartoonist in Me..

Aaah.. Over a cup of smooth frothin' coffee that I made myself one evening, I was looking at some old collections of my cartoon drawings.

 

  

Hehe.. I was smiling alone yet again.

I used to dream of becoming a cartoonist when I was in primary school. Those times, Gila-Gila was one of the most well-known humor magazine- just like MAD. Ujang, Jaafar Taib, Rejabhad, Ambo, Nud's, Asan, Cabai, not forgetting LAT... (just to name a few), were among my favorite cartoonists. It was not until after Form 5 (aged 17) that I had the chance to take a bus to Bangsar and searched for Creative Enterprise, the publisher and met the people behind the cartoons. I dragged along my brother Ali who was about 12 at that time, to accompany my little trip. He was crazy about the magazine as well.

 

Way back when I was 12, I actually created a so-called magazine out of my Exercise Book called SENYUM SENGEH ( translated as SMILE2x?). Unfortunately, I lost the few issues of my own magazines due to my family moving from one place to another over the years. My brother still remember the book. He said he actually copied one and sold to his friend! CHEH!! Too late for me to chase him around the house, I guess.

Anyway, back to my trip to the magazine's office- both of us (my bro & me) were quite excited meeting the cartoonist. They were friendly and funny.. and we even received a few souvenirs from them like a sketchbook with their signatures and a few of them sketched our caricatures in it too. Allahyarham Rejabhad asked me if I wanted to join his "Cartoon Workshop" during weekends? Duh, of course I wanted to join. A few months later, my first cartoon strip was printed in the magazine in New Talent's corner. A few more strips were approved and printed in the next month. A few months later also, I was offered to study abroad in Advertising. To cut a short story even shorter, I took up the offer and never returned to Creative Enterprise again.

But after all the years, I still love cartooning. That's all I have to say about that..

I'd like to make a note here that in year 2008, a Thailand publisher has published a book written by a Malaysian entitled Dos & Don'ts in Malaysia. I was thrilled as by chance, the publisher's rep commissioned me to do the cartoons for the book. I did almost 250 illustrations not without a lot of researches and references for over one year. It was quite a daunting task but I treasured the experience. Unfortunately, as the book was published, it was hit hard by a few bad reviews and controversial issues on races and beliefs written by the author... later it was asked to be removed from selling in any bookstores in Malaysia. Yeah, too bad my works didn't quite see the light of the day. Thankfully, the publisher did pay me and gave a few copies for my keepsake. Phew.

Owh, I just found someone selling it on ebay!

Here's a cartoon of mine that I wanted to produce for Raya card last few years. I think it's cute. Heh.

Enjoy..

End of Year 2009

Can u believe that time of year is finally here? It's the last month of 2009 already!! Huhuuu..how time flies.

Year 2009 really just 'swooshed' through me. I feel like I have not achieved much. In fact, I have been a total wreck..especially after losing my firstborn early this year. God must have had other plans for me that I couldn't see just yet. But most importantly, my baby boy is certainly in a better place now.

 Above is a small painting (A4 size) that I did after I lost my son.

Title: My First Love..Now He's Gone.

Oh well.. Life must go on.