A Grim Children's Cartoon

A new pet ostrich was meant to be a birthday gift, 

Given to Henry as a form of surprise;

It ran away from the party stealthily and swift

With Henry on its back,

Blindfold still covering his eyes.

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Done Diddly-Doo

At long last! I'm here again! Just a quick update on a recent work I did for a flyer/banner ad. My friend is part of it's organizing committee so I helped them do up a design for the 'Fun Cycling at Kebun Baru' event. I pretty much like how it turned out. Let's just say, making things simple isn't as easy as it sounds. Well at least for me. Anyway here it is:

Obviously the elongated tail ends of the 'F' and 'C' that makes up the event name is extended to form a pathway for the cyclist. And everything is kept as minimal as possible as it works best that way to convey the simple message.

So yeah, if you happen to live in Kebun Baru, go ahead and join in the fun! I mean it's only freakin' $2, isn't that a great deal or what. Plus you'll get some free stuff like a tee and towel and a chance to win in a lucky draw. So there's no excuse to be a lazy!

Cheers!

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Year of the Rabbit

Dwarf Rabbit
25.7cm x 36.4cm
Acrylic on canvas

This is the first time I tried painting on canvas as I managed to finally get my hands on a few. It was really fun dabbling with thick blobs of paints with a large brush onto the canvas without caring about the mess! Tinier details were added later on with a smaller brush.

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Illustrators Drawing Illustrators

Mara Cespon Portrait(c) Sarah Zainal Abidin
Mara's blog is over at http://mara-louise.tumblr.com. Go check it out!
Mixed Media
A3 Size

This is my entry for Travel Write Draw's 'Illustrators Drawing Illustrators Project' initiated and organised by the beautiful Meagan Morrison.

The portrait is of Mara Cespon, fashion illustrator, who blogs at http://mara-louise.tumblr.com. I tried to capture her interest in Japanese fashion by making it look kawaii with the pose (one of my favourite pictures of her is the one where she was pouting). I'm kinda liking how it turns out. I hope Mara likes it too!

The very talented Veronika Horrocks will illustrate me and I'm so excited to see it. Also can't wait to see what others will come out with! Everyone will post their works on their respective blogs on 11th January, so watch out for their updates.

Thank you Meagan for organising this project!

Edit: This is a repost as I accidentally deleted the original post and the comments are ALL gone too! =(

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{Request} Hello Kitty

Watercolor & Pencils.
A4 size.

A lil' something for a sweet lil' girl who wanted me to draw her a Hello Kitty.

She liked the rabbit I drew for her on her handmade birthday card. It was a pink watercolor rabbit and I attached a real satin ribbon bow around its neck. I was really happy to hear that she pasted it somewhere in her room and that she really treasured it.

I guess she's the inspiration for this work after all- her fascination with Hello Kitty, all the girly-ness and childlike imagination.

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Illustrations for School

Character Designs

Sewing Room

Laundrette Street

The classic fairytale- Hansel & Gretel

Attempt at gradient mesh tool on Gretel's face.

It was a mad rush to create these works nearing their deadlines but it's what I enjoy doing. And honestly I'm thankful to the pressure as it's what makes me work hard- trying to beat the clock and squeezing all my creative juices in my brain and putting my drawing skills to the test, yet still learning new tricks.

It's my holidays now and one of my goals is to just keep drawing! So i have a new blog dedicated to drawing portraits simply using a ball-point pen at http://ballpointpenportraitsbysarah.blogspot.com/. The name's kinda long but it helps me to keep focus on its main purpose.

Anyway check out this cool initiative: http://travelwritedraw.blogspot.com/2010/12/illustrators-drawing-illustrators.html and participate. Deadline's TODAY- end of 28th December! The blog's seriously amazing too.

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Selling Post! Well sorta...

Window to the Soul

Pencils on paper 

210 x 197 mm.

The image above is watermark protected. Contact me for details if your're interested in a print without the watermark- email me at sarah_za [at] hotmail . com . Support will be greatly appreciated =)

Feel like framing up the original and hanging it up in my living room... to replace this silly drawing of my cat:

LOL. The things I do when bored.

Will be away for a short trip. Be back on Sat.

FYI, I'm going to Jakarta for the first time in my life. 

Nervous 

scared 

excited. 

Alright off to pack now. 

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Ocre yellow Trench Coat

Watercolor and pencils on paper.

Limited myself to 4 colors- Vermilion, yellow ocre, pale orange and brown.

Liking how it turned out =)

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Black Leather Pants

Color pencils & watercolors on paper.

210 x 297mm

Just satisfying the recent drawing thirsts. Not very confident about posting this up... but here it is anyway.

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Lolly

Color pencils on paper.

210 x 297 mm

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Vahidha's

Color pencil & digital edit.

Something for a friend's birthday.

Everyone keep asking me if it's hair or a scarf.  It's only her decision that matters.

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back from long hiatus

If you're wondering what killed me the last few weeks... (or was it months?) it was a crazy load of assignments, submissions and exams.

So to 'celebrate' my freedom, cos apparently i have no life, i just decided to try out something new. Since i don't have and have never tried painting using oils, i simulated the experience on Corel Painter -.-

Used a reference photo which is one i took some time ago wearing bunny ears cos i knew i was pretty much happy at that point in time.

Below: Screenshot of working on the details. (u can see a small section of Bouguereau's painting in the back- he's my favourite master artist so far.)

The painting is still incomplete... and kinda creepy lookin.

And somehow the oils' capabilities were not as intuitive with my drawing tablet's pressure sensitivity so i switched to acrylics halfway through.

Below: Before adding the aqua colored highlights.

Just need some opinions... Do you think it looks better with or without the aqua highlights? Like should I just stick to the warm color palette?

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turto

it would be fun to hop on a turtle's back and just float away into a utopian underwater kingdom while passing by hills of abundant coral reefs.

try that in reality and the turtle would say "F U human!" which i can imagine this one below saying:

image via here.

that's some major grump face on a turtle.

be kind! if you wanna ride a turtle do it underwater so that you'll be 'lighter'.

ok just kidding, this is just one of the photos i stumbled upon while looking for references.

quite a cool vintage shot i think.

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tragic fairytale in the making

"... just one look would capture his heart."

Working on adapting a fairytale... which doesn't end like how a fairytale should. *evil grins*

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saying it out

it led me to the realization that i could have taken her for granted. have i? it was hard to remember her features. which part of her had i inherited? i wanted to use my own reflection as an easily accessible reference. after all i am from her. what i remember better is her spirit. my memory of her is beyond her appearance and that is what matters to me at least. indeed there's nothing like a mother's love. her strength, energy shaped a major part of my world and how i view it. yet i see her too as a human- the tribulations that i had seen her endure reveals a strong-willed woman whose energy transcends into my world. that was how i wanted to depict her. i see her colors as beautiful, passionate and cheerful overcoming the dark areas in her life. at times the darkness might engulf her but i always expect her to pull through whatever difficult situation. i was very much influenced by how an indonesian artist popular for his self portraits, affandi, viewed and portrayed himself as a spiritual entity represented by flows of energy.

the theme for drawing class today was "this is my mother" which i felt i had to find a deeper meaning rather than just a simple portrait of her. a mother is way more than her role in society of doing household chores, bearing babies and more than being a mother in itself.

i was peeling away the external layers to really search for the way i feel about her.

and here's a shot of yours truly- greasy back from school look with messed up hair and faded lips. and oooh my gold leaf earrings matches my handphone now!

warning post is about to get girly. retreat before any of you boys puke if you haven't already.



gave this 4 year old baby her third skin change. diy-ed with gold pixels and floral stickers. major attention seeking bling. whenever i whip it out well... you can imagine what people will say.

it's not entirely covered yet but the pink and gold seems to work well for me. disco days, pixel geek, feminine floral, classy gold- all these themes seem to be mixed into one.

price wise i got a really good deal. each patch of gold stickers bought at $2.50 and the floral ones were $1.90. so i've used up less than $6 worth of stickies for this phone. saw the same pixel stickers being sold at $9 per piece at a shop in Jurong Point which is more than 3 times the price of what i got them at.

and don't ask me where i got them. i basically raped the shop of these stickers and have none of the gold ones left i suppose... unless they're restocked- whereby i will selfishly rape them again of these goodies.

yup don't ask. lol.

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musical eccentricity on canvas

Lamps placed lying down on the ground emphasized the highlights and shadows of the objects even more giving them a visibly higher contrast in light and dark areas. This gives the items a more dramatic look. Together with music that greatly influenced our emotions, our inner expressions were translated onto the canvas with swift strokes of charcoal, vivid smudging of poster colors and watercolor paints. Indeed the resulting style is freer, looser and more expressive i feel.

As the music played everyone dibbled and dabbled on the canvas following the rhythmic patterns, tension and changes in climax and lows which is further visually perpetrated by the nude model. He performed and danced emotionally as he lifted objects off the podium with grace, spinning, posing, even pounding a thick long stash of slender rattan sticks. Contemporarily straining and relaxing his muscles alternating between forceful and gentle movements.

The drawing class was quite a liberating experience. For once i got a taste of just letting go and not trying to perfect every line by fading away marks which i thought were mistakes. Mistakes? It's hard or even impossible to say what is a mistake if the intention is just to let loose and be free on the canvas.

Shot after the drawing class.

And oh yes... poladroids and such photo morphing applications are sometimes just means for me to make average pics look interesting and hide their mediocre quality by covering them in a visual blanket of vintage feel. (Gosh i hate trends. Now that everybody doing the same thing it makes something which is initially appealing just becomes annoying.)

Plus you can't really judge how horrible i look from a morphed picture can you?

Anyway... Have a fun weekend everyone!

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still life class drawing

He sells seashells on the seashore.

Finally this week's lesson in advanced drawing workshop is something i could do and particularly liked... using a soft texture or feel in a drawing. What does that mean.. soft texture? I interpreted it as gentle strokes, light shadows and curved lines... AND making it pretty (even boys). Like deliberately feminizing his facial features into ambiguous androgyny.

A silly looking picture taken by my mischievous friend using her i-phone. Speaking of which, i got a good deal for an i-pod touch from my ex-roomie who's interning in Apple. So i won't consider getting an i-phone until they upgrade to a decent camera quality which was always the major turn off for me.

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Painting On Wood

[Click pics for a sharper, bigger version]

The progress [click to biggify] :

Its a refreshing change to use wood as a medium as compared to working on paper. It presents different challenges as well as advantages like the natural grains which gives it a beautiful texture and warmth.

Just decided to try it out one day while i was at Art Friend and saw these wood planks of different shapes and sizes. Looking the those wood reminds me of the works of one of my favourite artists who paints brilliantly on wood. (Can you guess who it is?)

I used one of my own photo as a reference but exaggerated the eyes to make it bigger cos that's where i'd like the focus to be. I slowly built up on the colors yet allowing the beautiful texture of the wood grain to show through. Thus gradually the portrait will slowly emerge from the wood.

It's enjoyable to work on wood but my expenses are tight these days- especially felt it after the surgery. So who knows when the next one will be...

Oh well at least it helped me to lose weight cos i can only have liquid-ish stuff. Lost about 2-3kg in less than a week. Not that i wanna be thin (like who would want smaller boobs?) but on the bright side, it's a fun way to irritate my bf cos now i can call him Fatty without him throwing it back at me.

Very matured i know.

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Doll-like Cubism

Today's sketch/doodle.

Perfection... is not simply fixing what's broken, it's way beyond that, infinitely.

Perfection is not = happiness.

Perfection does not exist in this world because we're only humans.

Perfection is only a word to describe an achievable standard.

Perfectionists are the most anal people on earth (gee... sounds like me).

Perfection is prejudiced towards defects.

Perfection is not why life is worth living for.

My rant ends here for tonight.

Feel free to add on.

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"In A Grove" Illustrations

Attempted to depict his death in a beautiful graceful manner as though he's fallen into a deep slumber so that he can forget the tragedy and betrayal that happened. Eternally resting in peace.

The woodcutter is the one who discovered the body in the grove though the account he gave is questionable since he is suspected of stealing the dagger or murder weapon.

The story is from a novel,"In A Grove," by Akutagawa Ryunusuke. Below is the plot summary.

The story opens with the account of a woodcutter who has found a man's body in the woods. The woodcutter reports that man died of a single sword slash to the chest, and that the trampled leaves around the body showed there had been a violent struggle, but otherwise lacked any significant evidence as to what actually happened. There were no weapons nearby, and no horses- only a single piece of rope, a comb and a lot of blood.

The next account is delivered by a traveling Buddhist priest. He says that he met the man, who was accompanied by a woman on horseback, on the road, around noon the day before the murder. The man was carrying a sword, a bow and a black quiver. All of these, along with the woman's horse, a tall, short-maned palomino, were missing when the woodcutter discovered the body.

The next person to testify is a homen (a released prisoner working under contract to the police, similar to a bounty hunter). He has captured an infamous criminal named Tajomaru. Tajomaru was injured when thrown from a horse (a tall, short-maned palomino), and he is carrying a bow and a black quiver, which do not belong to his usual arsenal. This proves, he says, that Tajomaru was the perpetrator. Tajomaru was not carrying the dead man's sword, however.

The next testimony is from an old woman, who identifies herself as the mother of the missing girl. Her daughter is a beautiful, strong-willed 19-year-old named Masago, married to Kanazawa no Takehiro- a 26-year-old samurai from Wakasa. Her daughter, she says, has never been with a man other than Takehiro. She begs the police to find her daughter.

Next, Tajomaru confesses. He says that he met them on the road in the forest, and upon first seeing Masago, decided that was going to rape her. In order to rape Masago unhindered, he separated the couple, luring Takehiro into the woods with the promise of buried treasure. He then stuffed his mouth full of leaves, tied him to a tree and fetched Masago. When Masago saw her husband tied to the tree, she pulled a dagger from her bosom and tried to stab Tajomaru, but he knocked the knife out of her hand, and he had his way with her. Originally, he had no intention of killing the man, he claims, but after the rape, she begged him to either kill her husband or kill himself- she could not live if two men knew her shame. She would leave with the last man standing. Tajomaru did not wish to kill the Takehiro in a cowardly manner, so he untied him and they had a swordfight. During the duel, Masago fled. Tajomaru dispatched the man and took the man's sword, bow, and quiver, as well as the woman's horse. He says that he sold the sword before he was captured by the bounty hunter.

The second-to-last account is that of Masago. According to her, after the rape, Tajomaru fled, and her husband, still tied to the tree, looked at her with great disdain. She was ashamed that she had been raped, and no longer wished to live, but she wanted him to die with her. He agreed, or so she believed- he couldn't actually say anything because his mouth was still stuffed full of leaves and she plunged her dagger into his chest. She then cut the rope that bound Takehiro, and ran into the forest, whereupon she attempted to commit suicide numerous times, she said, but her spirit was too strong to die. Of all of the accounts of the crime, the woman's is arguably the least believable, and in great discordance with the other two. At the end of her confession, she weeps.

The final account comes from Takehiro's ghost, as delivered through a spirit medium. The ghost says that after the rape, Tajomaru persuaded Masago to leave her husband and become his own wife, which she agreed to do under one condition: He would have to kill Takehiro. Tajomaru became enraged at the suggestion, kicked her to the ground, and asked Takehiro if he should kill the dishonorable woman. Hearing this, Masago fled into the forest. Tajomaru then cut Takehiro's bonds and ran away. Takehiro grabbed Masago's fallen dagger and plunged it into his chest. Shortly before he died, he sensed someone creep up to him and steal the dagger from his chest. Throughout, it is obvious that he is furious at his wife.

Via here [also has links to additional readings and interesting info].

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