Hat and Peonies

I would have preferred painting to drawing this hat and the fake peonies on my wall. Painting is like meditation. It is all consuming of energy, time and attention. My ideal painting endeavour is that day and night should be seamless with time being moved only by thoughts and ideas associated only with producing an outcome on canvas that I am happy with. Ideally, I should have the time and the solitude to paint. Ideally!

I would have preferred painting to drawing this brown straw hat and the fake purple peonies that have been in that position on my wall for months.

Tokyo characters at a Rock Concert

I happened to be sitting in a cafe with a glass window that gave me a clear view of the corridor outside where teens gathered to show off their anime impressionisms before the start of a rock concert in Tokyo a few years ago.

It was a sight to experience - these kids not just dressed the part but also adopted the mannerisms and the expressions of the characters they dress up as.

There were scary-looking characters, witches, characters that looked like they were there to make a kill with lots of blood spattered on the floor and hopefully not on the glass pane in front of me. I only had a small pocket-sized notebook and did my best to capture the imaginative costures while pretending to be busy planning the next day's itinerary.

I wish I had more time so that I could have enjoyed the drawing experience rather than just being focussed on capturing the costume designs before the kids stream into the concert hall.

Coffee-Break

My latest drawing while sitting in the open at a corner MacDonald outlet. So many interesting characters appeared before me - some going about their business, some stopping to get some fast food and some took their seats around me.

Young couples, mothers with babies, an elderly couple next to me who unwittingly shared their some of their business dealings with me, and a man with a cowboy hat looking for a seat. I thought he would make an interesting subject to draw but since he sat facing me directly at another table I decided that it would not be wise to draw him.

Then his girl-friend joined him sitting with her back to me. I was attracted by her long, silky hair and her blouse with the wide neckline and puffed sleeves that enhanced the way the hair fell around her shoulders. I also got interested in the chair she was sitting on that was made of rattan wound round a metal frame.

Fruit and Vegetable

The one time I broke away from ink was when I bought a pack of oil crayons in Genting Highlands because they were so unbelievably cheap for branded stuff. On the same day I saw some lovely custard apples at one of the stalls in Goh Tong Jaya. I could not resist buying them. After that, I was in possession of my one of my favourite fruits that would take time to ripen, a pack of oil crayons and time on my hands. Here's what I did to while away time because time was mine to dispose of. Back to my ink drawings. The capsicum was one of three that I had bought to make a salad dish for a party. Would have preferred to paint and since time was in short supply at that time, I did what I could do most efficiently to capture the freshness of this vegetable before it succumbed to decay.

Mushroom

Sometimes I just want to hold a pen and draw - anything. It's not what I draw that matters, it is just holding that pen and letting something from within me flow into a form. On one particular occasion, I was browsing one of my books on mushrooms and decided to pick up a pen to draw.

Palms

If you sleep under a coconut tree, make sure there are no coconuts hanging over your head.
Palm trees on the fringe of the hotel swimming pool at a Malaysian beach resort. This is the only time I used a felt pen-tip to draw. It is good to see the effects of different types of pens. I would like to try charcoal sometime.

Paintings of flowers

Once in a while I get the luxury of time to paint. Not often but when I do, I can sit for hours to produce something that I can happy with at the end of the experience. This painting was of real flowers that I picked from the grounds of West Coast Park.

Isolated Tree drawings

The first time I tried drawing with pencils. Drawn on-site at Sungei Buloh.The second time I took my time to get better acquainted with this medium at Marina City Park. Ink is still my all-time favourite because it makes me concentrate as mistakes cannot be erased at all without spoiling the drawing.

Trees in the distance

You will never appreciate the different types of trees that make up this scene if you just look at the general view. Drawing is really just a way of becoming aware of diversity, differences and details in nature - for me it is.