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.

Recommended Artist: Jeremy Mann

  Jeremy Mann is an artist that many would admire- one that can paint many subjects beautifully. The gorgeous painting above titled "The Antique Clock" is my favorite. Antique things always intrigue me because I always wonder about the history of the objects.

  The beautiful darks frame the main subject; the lovely warm palette of ochres and browns paired with the unusual subject... I can't help but read symbolic meaning into the piece. The pendulum of time continually swinging. The endless turns of life represented by the clock's gears. How the bright circle at the back reminds me of a sun-rise; that we'd see many sun-rises in our lives... Yet, how many do we really notice?

  View more of his works via this link.

It's Okay to Be Human- Musings of Stephanie Jennifer

  Vince Lombardi once said;

 "We are going to relentlessly chase perfection, knowing full well we will not catch it, because nothing is perfect. But we are going to relentlessly chase it because in the process we will catch excellence. I am not remotely interested in just being good." 

   I think that's my attitude towards my Art. In the past, I've had an almost obsessive behavior towards perfection. I wanted everything I created to be perfect, but of course that wasn't possible because I am human and humans aren't perfect. I learnt. I learnt...

  I learnt that it was okay to make mistakes. I learnt that I had to give myself the time and space for my abilities to catch up with what my imagination could conjure. I learnt that I would never be satisfied with what I created, but that it was okay because that meant I knew I could improve. I learnt that it was okay to let myself be imperfect.

  In many ways, art has influenced and changed who I am as a person. I am an extremely introspective person, and yet I like to internalise things, to not talk about my thoughts or feelings to others. That was unhealthy for my soul. I was bottling all my emotions as feelings inside me, and those raw emotions, ideas, thoughts, creations... all those things had no where to go.  Art became an outlet to release all those things.

  Art taught me patience. It taught me to be critical about myself, and at the same time, to be kind to myself. It taught me to allow myself to be human- to love and be loved, to speak about my thoughts and feelings, to allow myself make mistakes, to be okay with being imperfect and creating imperfect things.

  We chase perfection. We (perhaps-maybe) achieve excellence. We fall. We fail. Yet we must get up again. It is through mistakes that we learn, and it is through mistakes that we become better people. But first, we must learn to tell ourselves that it's okay to make mistakes. That it's okay to be human.

Painting of the Day: Color

"Color" by Andrew (andrework on DeviantArt)

  I absolutely love the colour in this piece. Plus, the simplicity of the composition is extremely pleasing- a tight crop with minimal details. Sharp edges on the face, paired with subtle edges to render the hair makes for a lovely contrast. It's also appropriately titled "Color", because how can a viewer miss looking at this when it has such a catching colour palette of a bright yellow background with pure red hues in the subject.

  View more of his works via this link.

Art Is Useless- The Musings of Stephanie Jennifer

  I overheard a conversation of a child and her mother. The child said that her Maths and Science teachers had "borrowed" their Physical Education and Art lessons to make up for extra classes. And when her mother asked why, she replied "Because Art isn't important."

  I think some of us forget that lots of things in our lives are related to Art. Design is Art, and the things we use were all designed by someone. Advertisements are all made by designers. Clothes too. Almost everything that we use in life is created by a designer.

"You can't eat a painting. Science makes discoveries and technological advancements."
  Art doesn't do anything for society." But it does. Art is a record of its time. Art moves people and ideas. Art is part of culture and identity. Art presents existing problems to society and asks that something be done about them.

"You don't contribute to society."
  We, as artists, pour our souls into doing something that we love. There are things far more important that money and stocks. One of them, I believe, is doing something you love and loving what you do. Artists show people the way they think, the way they feel and see things. We show the beauty there is on this marvelous planet we live on. We show people the wonders of our dreams, and the beauty in imagination. Afterall, in a time before space travel and flight, someone had to say "I wonder how it's like to fly..." and then conceptualise a flight machine to accomplish his dream.

  What I'd like, is for Art to be taken seriously by everyone. I don't like it when people joke about a person having no future just because they decided to study Arts. I believe after society reaches a certain mark in economical growth- where most people in that country have a roof over their heads, have a job, have enough food to eat and clean water to drink... That country will soon want to engage itself with Arts. It is only human to do so- we want to feel secure before we head on to more "nobler" things like Arts, and technological advancements, and the likes.

  It is my wish that Singapore is headed to a more artistically inclined future- one that takes artists, dancers, singers, athletes, and musicians more seriously. A country that takes pride in the talents it creates. It's headed in that direction already, and I can't wait to see what the future holds.

Recommended Artist: Tom Bagshaw

  They're digital paintings. Would you believe that? It's breath-taking what artists can create in a digital format these days. Tom Bagshaw's works feature fantasy scenes and ethereal girls. I adore his colour pallette, and the symbolic meaning behind some of his pieces.

  It's definitely worth viewing more of his works via this link.

Recommended Artist: Jeremy Geddes

  The falling astronauts with pigeons paintings in his series aren't really my cup of tea. Neither are the floating human figures. I can appreciate the realism that they are drawn in, and I would think there is symbolism in them, but they don't speak to me. I like the dead pigeons, and the post-apocalyptical scenes though.

  Perhaps it's my obsession with the idea of death- the beautiful yet scary and partly tragic idea that all things eventually cease to exist, and that eventually everything will be forgotten... The starkness of the last image above also adds to the idea that death must be experienced alone. I once read in a religious book about Islamism, that everyone will suffer when they die, that we all pay for the misdeeds that we have made in our life, that we have to go through that pain to reconcile with ourselves and make peace with God before we can move on to a better place with Him.

  That, even with wings, even birds can't fly far or fast enough to escape death...

  You should see more of Jeremy Geddes' awesome works though. Visit his website here.

Recommended Artist: Brooks Shane Salzwedel

  How I absolutely adore simplicity. Black, grey, and white. The industrial against nature. His paintings are foggy, almost ethereal... The compositions are also brilliantly composed.

  View more of his works here.

Melania Brescia_NO (forgive to forget)

"NO (forgive to forget)" by Melania Brescia

  I think this project by Melania Brescia is a beautiful portrayal of feminity. The soft shadows, the gorgeously soft hues, the fluidity of the cloth. I think back-lighting the subject worked really well in this series. I also love how vulnerable the subjects look; almost fragile, partially hidden from view, sort of being cocooned by the cloth.

  View more of her work via this link.

Painting of the Day: Una

"Una" by Michael Shapscott

  My gawd, how much this piece speaks to me. The cool hues of purples and blues on her face paired with the yellow triangle... That's just genius and is what makes the entire work so strong. I almost cannot stop staring into her hypnotic eyes. I also absolutely love the soft edges of her hair to the right, and the simplicity of the background. It's an absolutely captivating piece.

  If you'd like to see more of his works, visit this link.

Painting of the Day: Mylan's Wave

"Mylan's Wave" by Matthew Cursick

  A beautiful piece of Art depicting a crashing wave. Matthew Cursick uses cut pieces of maps to create scenes and portraits. I think it's wonderfully symbolic- that people are part of the world, that the places we go to or live in are what makes us who we are; and that people from all around the world travel to different places to see the majesty of what Mother Earth has to offer.

  View more of his works here.

Recommended Artist: Hiromi Miura

  Check out more of her art via this link.

Art Product Reviews .1

  I went shopping for artsy things not so long ago, and thought of telling you guys all about my buys.

Portable easel from Art Friend (-Buona Vista branch)

  I'm absolutely in love with this easel. The wood is perfect, although there was a slight chemical smell to it when I first bought it, but it went away after a few days. It's fully adjustable, has little clasps to lock the drawer and the stand in place. Its design is also splendid. It is, however, a little heavy and I might not see myself carrying it out. It serves its purpose of providing me with a proper drawing space on my desk though, and the drawer is very useful in helping me keep my pencils while I'm working on a certain project.  I have an Art Friend membership and it cost me about $76, if I remember correctly.

Sketchbook from Daiso

  What drew me to this sketchbook was that it had the little guides, which is awesome cause I'm currently learning to design logos and the guides are very useful in helping me keep the proportions correct. The paper is a little thin for my liking and you can see the ink on the reverse side of the page when you use markers, but it doesn't bleed through that much. At 2 dollars for each, I'd recommend it if you're a designer that like to do lots of rough sketches, or if you'd like a sketchbook with guides that you can bring on the go.

  To see where DAISO stores are located in Singapore, click HERE.

Krylon Archival fixative spray (Matte)

  This is NOT reworkable. As always, when using any sort of spray fixative, you have to use it in ventilated areas. It dulled the colours ever so slightly when I used it on a coloured pencil work of mine. It was fast drying and non-sticky, and dried evenly.


  If there's any art material you'd like me to review next time, tell me about it in the comment section below. Or send me an ask to my e-mail; you know how to contact me.