Recommended Artist: Sharntay

 

  View more of her works via this link.

Recommended Artist: Kathy Klein

"Danmala" by Kathy Klein

  View more of the beautiful flower mandalas via this link.

Christmas Minus The Snow

  Christmas in Singapore is one without snow... Which is sad, and partly depressing.... But at least we have a Christmas tree in our living room, and presents under the tree.

  Also, I've begun to notice that as one gets older, your Christmas list gets shorter and things that you can't actually buy are the things you want most. Like financial security, a job, happiness, a stable relationship, a unicorn, 9 hours of sleep each night, etc...

  For me, it's been a good year. I've had lots of growth in character, lots of mini adventures. I now have a loving boyfriend, a job, and the freedom to do more things. And I'm taking baby steps to being an even better human being and artist each day.

  I hope you're having a good holiday, and may I just remind you to evaluate how 2013 went for you and plan for next year. Here's wishing you happy holidays, good health, blessings upon you and your loved ones, and a merry merry Christmas to you. :)

  Our regular posts shall be back on Friday. Remember to subscribe, follow me on deviantart, instagram (@havepen_willdraw), Tumblr, and visit my website. And as always, you can contact me via e-mail.

"Fortitude" by Stephanie Jennifer

  "Fortitude" by Stephanie Jennifer. A zentangle inspired art work created for my god-mother who had a brush with throat cancer. She underwent surgery and is doing good now. About the drawing; The bear's paw print represents strength, and the mandalas represent sacred geometry and link to spirituality. The zentangle "paradox" is included as it is one of my favorite doodles, and I also included "diva dance" and various other new zentangle patterns I learnt recently.

  It's time like these that make me stop and think about the fragile line we walk on between life and death, sickness and health. It is also times like these that make me thankful for the advancement in Science that enable us to live longer.

  It'll be Christmas soon... Then the New Year's will follow quickly. I hope you, dear reader, are safe and sound, and are enjoying good health. Take a moment to be thankful for the blessings that you have, for your family and friends, and for the other things that we often take for granted.

Recommended Artist: James Roper

  Artist's words >  The pursuit of release or transcendence occur most purely within the seemingly opposing natures of religion and 'sin'. This is dealt with explicitly in my Rapture series, the inspiration for which originated from my interest in Bernini's sculpture 'The Ecstasy of St.Teresa' and how Bernini visualised 'religious ecstasy' in an abstract form and inadvertently drew comparisons to psycho-sexual release:

  "He appeared to me to be thrusting it at times into my heart, and to pierce my very entrails; when he drew it out, he seemed to draw them out also, and to leave me all on fire with a great love of God. The pain was so great, that it made me moan; and yet so surpassing was the sweetness of this excessive pain, that I could not wish to be rid of it."  (Life of St.Teresa of Jesus – St.Teresa)

  This is explicitly symbolised in the Rapture series by the use of porn stars as the vehicle for the expression of this 'spiritual' emotion, the shedding of carnal bodies giving way to an abstract purity beneath. The idea of release from the material to the spiritual is apparent in many religions as if there were a divine soul trapped in our earthly bodies, this is analogous to contemporary imagery found in comic books specifically the way in which Clark Kent, a normal man, sheds his clothes to become a Superman.

  My utmost favourite sculpture is "The Ecstasy of St. Teresa". The whole idea behind this series is also really meaningful and thought-provoking. The series was beautifully executed and it's totally worth going over to James Roper's Behance to view the series in full.

  You can view the complete series and more of his work via this link.

Painting of the Day: Nora

"Nora" by Thomas Golunski

  Gorgeous, minimalistic line work; brilliant details in the eyes; and the entire work really portrays the personality of the subject.

  View more of his works via this link.

Prado's Mona Lisa

  A lot of controversy surrounds whether a painting should be cleaned and restored. Reason being, some people believe that cleaning the varnish off an old painting would risk ruining the colours beneath. However, I think removing the old, decaying varnish off old masterpieces allows us to see the paintings in the way the artists painted them.

  Below, at right, is the Mona Lisa that we are so used to seeing. At left, is Prado's, a student of Leonardo, version of the Mona Lisa with its coating of varnish removed. As you can see, the details in Prado's version is much more clearer, and the colours are very much brighter.

  Learn more about the story behind Prado's version of Mona Lisa via this link.

Recommended Artist: Ramón Gutiérrez

  View more of his works via this link.

Recommended Artist: Diego Fernandez

  See more of his art here.

Stephanie's Sketches: v.4 (... and a review of Zequenz Signature sketchbook)

  Hello, dear followers. The weather has been terribly rainy these few days, so I apologise for the terrible lighting in these photos... Here's what I've been up to lately though, and a review of the Zequenz Signature sketchbook.

  I finished the "Je Taime" ('I love you' in French) a while ago;

Another typography work;

I did some pointillism work. Poppies. :)

  A creepy cat... (above)

  And, I've bought a Zequenz Signature sketchbook from Popular. It boasted that *picks up spectacles to read pamphlet* "hand-made collection... distinctive design... unconventional curved binding... and full 360 flexibility".

  The faux leather feels good to hold. I like the magnetic bookmark provided with the Zequenz sketchbook. It opens up beautifully and I'm in love with the curved binding. However, my only gripe is that the paper within the sketchbook is too thin.... :( Which is a shame because if the company provided more weightier papers, the Zequenz could completely become The Sketchbook. Some sketches I've made so far in the Zequenz:

  The paper is snow white in colour, just that my camera picks it up as beige-y. 

  There was some bleed-through in places where I wanted some pure black... Little specks of black on the next page is slightly annoying, but the sketchbook is light-weight and portable. The paper within the Zequenz is, I would guess, 80gsm. Thus, I would recommend it for people who like taking notes on-the-go, but not artists who want to do more intricate works. I tote it around because I absolutely love the 360 flexibility of the book.

Recommended Artist: Elia Fernandez

   I adore the soft palette Elia Fernandez employs. The simple compositions, and the brilliantly posed subjects make for beautiful, soft, and feminine portraits.

  View more of her works here.

Recommended Artist: Mapache Salado

  I absolutely love the line work and the newspaper as texture. The whole "subject out of frame" technique is really nifty as well.

  View Mapache Salado's deviantart here.

Art is Subjective- Musings of Stephanie Jennifer

  "Art is subjective- there is no standard to Art. It's unlike Science and Maths."

  I think it's fairly arguable whether Art is subjective. Humans do have an in-born sense of what is beautiful. Symmetry is said to play an important role in whether we perceive another human being to be beautiful. We know how to pick clothes, furniture, and products that appeal to us. As children, we could produce pleasing abstract pictures using paints...

  Art has rules. Composition, colours, design, placement, balance... Just like Science and Maths has. Sometimes, someone comes along and breaks those rules. Sometimes the art piece still looks good. Other times, it's disastrous. The same goes for Science and Maths- people change the rules and laws of it to improve or enhance what there previously was.

  Or perception of beauty varies, and I would agree that Art is subjective in a way that an individual's past experiences influence the way they perceive an art work. It, however, does not mean that there is no standards to Art. It's just that each person is unique and that each person will have their own idea of what good art is.

Stephanie's Sketches: v.3

  It's Friday in Singapore. I hope you have something awesome planned for the weekend, and if you haven't had the bestest week, here are some recent sketches. They were all done in my red monologue sketchbook, which I bought from Popular.

"Owl" in signo pens. I quite like how it turned out, actually.

"Stylised Wolf" in signo pens. Some people say it's a fox, others say it's a bear... Oh, well.

 "Bonne Nuit" in Zig clean color and signo pens. I like the composition but I need to learn how to make background washes more uniformed... It looks rather blotchy in this piece.

 "Flareron" in signo pens. I have plans to explore this kind of 'negative drawing effect' in the future. 

 "Learn From Cats" in signo pens. I need to remind myself to not be so uptight sometimes...

Work In Progress. "Je Taime", which means "I love you" in French. 

"Lovely Creativity" in signo pens. It was something my boyfriend, Kai, said to me; "Don't waste all that lovely creativity." It made me smile so I decided to make it into a typography work. I attempted to convey what each of the word felt like.

"Silent Roar" in pastel and coloured pencil white. I stuck a black piece of Derwent paper onto the sketchbook just so that I could draw this piece. I really like how it turned out.

  As some of you may know, I currently have a full time job, and it requires a lot of travelling, so what I do is that I sketch out the bases of each piece at home during my free time, and then on the train I ink them out. There shouldn't be any excuses as to why you can't find any time to draw. It's only a matter of whether you want to or not.

  A lot of things have changed in my life... With my current job I have to really be dedicated to continuing my personal artistic advancements, I now have a lovely boyfriend who loves me and has been really encouraging me to improve my art and myself... I have learnt to balance work, with family, with love, with my passion in arts. It's not been easy, but it's been extremely fulfilling.

  Funnily enough, even though I now have less personal time I am now creating much more personal works... Perhaps it's due to the fact that I'm now more disciplined and am now managing my time better. We're almost a month away from 2014. How exciting and dizzily splendiferous 2013 has been.. and how time has flown by.

  A shout-out to all my new readers, and a thank you to everyone who has continued following me on this blog since way before. I would love to hear what you think of my sketches, so leave me a comment in the doobly-doo. Anonymous commenting is enabled.