Book Reviews: Sketch Collection 2007, 2011, 2013.

2007, 2011, and 2013 Sketch Collection by Kim Jung-Gi

So, these are the books. 

Pictured: 2013 in its sealed box. Very cute car tape.
Be careful when opening this box cause the poster is right on top of it and if you're not careful, you might cut into it or tear it...

The much smaller 2007 book on top of the 2013 one.

All books come with a signed poster (the white paper in the picture is the poster, but it's closed) and a little bookmark.

  The 2007 book is the thinnest and smallest of the three volumes. I bought the 2011 book first, then bought the 2007 and 2013 books on a later date together. I loved the all three volumes for different reasons. (Do take note before watching the videos that there is nudity and sexual scenes depicted within the books.)

  The 2007 book was filled with more watercolour sketches, a good mix of gesture drawings, and sketches of animals and vehicles and caricatures.

  The 2011 was packed loaded with gorgeous pen and ink sketches and drawings, lots of watercolour drawings, gesture drawings, life drawings, erotic nudes, bondage scenes, and other sketches.

  I felt the 2013 book had more gesture drawings, and they felt more sketchbook-like. I liked that you could see the amount of raw talent Kim Jung-Gi had. I also liked the fact that he was just like any other artist and also made mistakes and like any of us do, and that he also abandoned some sketches sometimes. In the previous volume, the sketches felt really perfect and pristine, but in this volume he felt much more real, of sorts. There was also some really detailed ink drawings that were really full of details and there was a surprise waiting at the back of the book that I loved too.

  I bought all three volumes from Basheer Graphik Books, and I've loved them ever since. Very worthwhile buy.

Updates to this Blog

  I've changed the navigation bar because I felt certain posts needed to be easily reached. Now my most popular posts are in the "useful posts" link; and the links to all my social media platforms have their own tab. It looks neater this way. :)

  I've also changed the search bar into a more artsy one and have placed it at the top of the sidebar. And~ I've also added a "related post" widget at the end of each post. You won't see it if you're on the homepage. It only appears when you click on a post.

  I'm always trying to make this blog better and more user-friendly, so if you find any broken links or little things that annoy you, do let me know.


  I have a book review of Kim Jung-Gi scheduled to be posted next week. And also a review of Da Vinci's exhibition. I've recently ordered five other books from Amazon; I have a book titled "Subtract" that I backed on a Kickstarter project that I'm excited to show you guys; and I have other books I'm currently reading that I really want to review soon too. I'm also working on my Illustrated Poems Series, and I have other project ideas in my head too. So, it;s safe to say I'm pretty stoked for all of that.

  It's almost the end of the year... How fast time flies.

Da Vinci: Shaping the Future

"Da Vinci: Shaping the Future" happening at the ArtScience Museum at Marina Bay Sands; from 15th November 2014 to 17th May 2015. This marks the first time Da Vinci's original masterpieces are exhibited within Southeast Asia, and this post will tell you all you need to know about the exhibition.


Prices of tickets are as follows:

Regular Tickets:
Adult- $25.00
Senior (55 years and above)- $23.00
Child (2 to 12 years)- $15.00
Family (2 adults + 2 children)- $68.00

Singaporean Citizens, Singaporean PRs, Employment Pass, Work Permit, and Dependent Pass:
Adult- $19.00
Senior (55 years and above)- $17.50
Child (2 to 12 years)- $10.50
Family (2 adults + 2 children)- $51.00

Da Vinci Season Pass (Multiple Entry)- $30.00

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Public Guided Tours:

In English- Mondays to Fridays, 1pm.
In Mandarin- Saturdays and Sundays, 2pm and 4pm.


  If you're travelling via public transport, the venue is accesible via the MRT. Alight at Bayfront station; it's just a short walk from the station. Very accessible.

The gorgeous exterior of the ArtScience Museum... So many beautiful water lilies~

Learning about platonic shapes with interactive exhibits.

Original works of Da Vinci.

The topic of sacred geometry was touched upon. 

A part of the exhibition that touched upon flight.

  There were also original paintings within the exhibition that we weren't allowed to take pictures of. Some exhibits were also too large, or in too dark of rooms to take nice pictures and videos of, so I couldn't include them as well. 

  There were interactive screens, and mini computer thingies to engage kids in learning (I thought those mini computers weren't very well thought out, though. And some of the games were silly or the instructions were difficult to understand.) 

  The exhibition ended with a Da Vinci gift shop where you could purchase lots of different products.....  Books on Da Vinvi (I ended up buying a $120.00 book on The Vatican and its art works. You can view a video of that book here.) Da Vinci dolls which looked more like gnomes than Da Vinci to me. Gear clocks in various colours- I bought one of those. Magnetic sand hourglasses. Computer cases and headphones.... And they even had a booth with regards to 3D printing, and it was really interesting to hear more about the 3D printer pen.   In all, it was a very interesting exhibition and I learnt a lot from it. If you're a fan of Da Vinci, or want to know more about the accomplishments surrounding his life, I highly recommend this exhibition. If you're not very familiar with his works, I suggest going on a guided tour.

Affordable Art Fair November 2014

  Yesterday, I went to the Affordable Art Fair at the F1 Pit Building. Twas' a dark and rainy day, but it didn't dampen my mood much. I really enjoyed looking at all the art works displayed. I also took loads of pictures and compiled them into a little video for you to see a little peek behind what the fair is like.

  Earlier this year in May, I also did a little review of the fair. You can see that post right here.   The event will run till' the 23rd of November. Tickets to the event are available for purchase via Sistic. The link will also tell you the opening hours of the exhibition. Alternatively, you can also purchase tickets at the venue's entrance. Perhaps I'll see you at the next Affordable Art Fair. :)

Illustrated Poem #001

  Since this is the first drawing of this series, let me explain how the idea of the series came to be... I really like inspirational poems, and I also wanted a way for people to connect more to my zentangle drawings. I thought that if I used particular poems as my inspiration to my zentangle drawings, that people might be able to appreciate and understand the meaning behind my drawings more.

  Thus began my "Illustrated Poem Series".

  With each new drawing I want to create, I find a poem that I like or find inspirational and base my drawing on it. This is #001.

The poem that inspired it is as follows:

  "What matters is to live in the present, live now, for every moment is now. It is your thoughts and acts of the moment that create your future. The outline of your future path already exists, for you have created its pattern by your path."

-Sai Baba

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  What I imagined was that the circles were representations of your possible futures, and each of the patterns surrounding them were representations of your choices and actions in life. The bigger circle has a very faint yellow glow which stands for the brightness of your future.

  There were some hiccup to this drawing, but I managed to fix them and I'm really pleased with how it turned out. #002 is going to be a mandala with a whole lot of pointillism. I'm very excited for this series and can't wait for you guys to see the second piece once it's finished.

  If you'd like to see more of my works, visit www.stephaniejennifer.com.

Tutorial Tuesday: Turn a Shirt into a Scarf

  I ordered some stuff from Threadless.com over the Halloween period because they were having a free international shipping promotion. I had my eyes set on this particular jacket that I really really liked, but then I thought since they were giving free shipment, I should try getting a grabbag. 3 t-shirts in whatever size you want, for USD $25. Awesome.

  So I ordered two different sizes; female L and male M, just to see the difference in size and cutting... And thus began the wait.

  The goodies finally arrived and I received my super gorgeous jacket, plus 6 shirts. I liked them all but there was one shirt in particular that I didn't like....

This one.

  Now, I know who Kid President is. He's from the Soulpancake channel on YouTube and I absolutely love the good vibes that Soulpancake has and all the awesome content it produces, and Kid President is a sweetheart. But I just do not like wearing people's faces on my shirts.

  So... I did what any crafty person would do.

  I repurposed the shirt into a scarf. And I'm going to show you how I did it. ^-^

 
  I'm assuming you've already picked out the shirt that you want to use for this project.

First step: You cut the shirt horizontally. The place you make the cut depends on how long you want the fringes of your scarf to be. The more space you cut, the longer the fringe of your scarf can be, or the thicker your scarf can be.
I am using a printed shirt, so I cut along the highest point that was not printed.

Next, you flip the cut-out portion 180 degrees and cut the fringes. You want to keep the sewing of the hem intact otherwise the threads will come undone during washes.
For illustration purposes, I placed the scissors where it was on the shirt in the previous picture.

  Following along?

 A note of advice: make sure that the number of fringes you cut is an even number. This is important.You should have your fringes now. Stretch them. They'll curl on their cut edges after you do that and look nicer and also be easier to tie.

Next you tie two strands of fringe together in a dead knot and keep going until you're out of fringes. This is why you need to make sure the number of fringes you cut is an even number. Otherwise you'll have lonely fringes without a friend to tie to. 

Tieing will take a while, but go slow to make it look neat.  This is how the ties should look.

Next, do the same tieing thing, but slightly lower this time.

Once that's complete, you have your base for your scarf.
You can chose to end it here. Or you can keep going to add details to it like I did.

I still have the rest of the shirt... So I cut horizontal strips from that. (You can choose to cut the entire section away instead of following what I did, but I didn't want the Kid President print to be recognisable.)

All the strips. Andddd~ Kid President looks creepy now. But nevermind that.

Bundle the strips together...

Then cut some excess cloth so that you can tie the bundle of strips to your fringe circle.

Like this.

Tadaa~ You have made yourself a scarf. 

  There are a huge number of different variations to this tutorial that you could do. For example, instead of cutting stips, you could just cut one huge section and tie that to your fringe circle. Or, you could cut the shirt directly under the armpits so that you wouldn't need to tie anything together, like this tutorial shows.

  I hope my tutorial has inspired you to try to repurpose your old shirts into something new... There literally are thousands of tutorials showing you how you can change your old shirts into tote bags, or mini rugs, pouches, scarfs, wall art, and lots of other things so if this tutorial didn't tickle your fancy, do some hunting around to find a project you'd like to do.

  Shoutout to Threadless for creating some amazing tshirts with designs from some amazing artists

Giveaway Results

  Congratulations, Hui Yun. She replied to the email I sent her and has confirmed her postage address details. I've just finished packing the pens into an envelope and will most probably send it out tomorrow.

  I'd like to thank everyone who took part in this giveaway. Look out for my next giveaway which will probably happen in December. :)

Update: An e-mail from the winner...

Dear Stephanie,

  The pens you have given me have safely arrived and thanks for the small little note!
  They are very convenient to use and very fascinating to me. The blue one gives off a very paint like feeling! the black one don't really bleeds through the opposite page too much! Great for making good line art! Double joy! XD

  I sincerely thank you for these wonderful pens.

Yours Sincerely,
Hui Yun

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  If you'd like to see my review of these new Derwent pens, click here.

Last Chance To Join: Derwent Graphik Pens Giveaway

  I wrote a review about Derwent newest products- the Graphik pens, and am giving away one Graphik Line Maker and one Graphik Painter to a lucky winner.

Terms and Conditions:

- You have to be living in Singapore. 

- Tell me why you deserve to win and you'll be entered in the giveaway. Simple as that! Don't forget to add an e-mail that I can reach you if you're the winner of the draw.

- Like my Facebook fan page to gain two more entries in the draw. This isn't compulsory, but I'd appreciate the likes. ^-^

- Giveaway closes on the 16th of November 2014, midnight, Singapore time. Good luck~ 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Christmas Special: Scrapbook Materials Haul

  It's nearing Christmas, my ever-favourite holiday of the year. No, I'm not Christian. It's just a family tradition. I buy presents for my loved ones... We get to set up our Christmas tree... And we're hardcore on our Christmas decorations. We have a tree that's almost 180cm tall, and our decorations follow a theme we decide on every year, so every year is different. This year, we're going for a silvery-white Christmas. :) My mum roasts a chicken (cause turkeys are over-rated) and we gather with our friends and family and have a nice dinner together.  We exchange gifts and also reflect on on accomplishments through that year, and be thankful for having people whom we love around us.

  One of the ways I show I'm thankful for my loved ones is through hand-made cards. So in this haul, I'll show you the artsy, scrapbook-ing things I bought to make cards for this upcoming holiday. ^-^

  First off... Cards would not be without pretty, printed paper.

  I bought lots of printed paper from Art Friend. Each piece of paper is printed on both sides so you can make one card from each paper, or choose one side of the design to use. 

Sooooo pretty~

They even sold printed vellum paper. The silver looked so nice against a more solid background.
It was a nightmare to glue, though. I wasted half of a printed paper on botched attempts....
Never again shall I attempt glueing a full sheet of vellum paper to something, ever again.

The snow print looks so delicate and gorgeous. And the "falala" print is so festive. Love them.

Other papers I got for future projects.
The decorated papers cost about $1.50 each, while the plain colored ones cost $0.90.

  You can visit Art Friend to buy plenty of goodies and other craft stuffs. A list of their locations; here.

  Next on the list, is decorations for my cards. Which includes... 

Button stickers! Lookie~ So many designs~

   I bought them from a seller called "$3-$5 DIY Store" on aliexpress. They sell lots of crafty things on their store and provide free shiping to Singapore. Close ups of some of the stickers...

They're all matte, and very pretty.

Plus, they're very affordable.

  Also from the same store, I bought some other label stickers...

You can see that they've shapes punched into them, and they're glossy.

And some other labels and button stickers.
They're of the same designs, just that half of them are solid and thick stickers, while the other half are translucent and very thin.

The store also gave me a free gift- stickers that look like stamps. Very sweet of them.

Moving along... From Daiso; washi tapes, lace tape, and a punch. $2 each for the lace, and travel tape. The punch also cost $2. While the other three washi tapes cost $2 in a bundle. The Tampines Daiso currently has lots of washi tapes... 

I absolutely loved the lace tape but when I visited it again recently, they didn't stock them anymore. Shall buy more if I ever see them selling them again.

They also sold fabric tape. Very Japanese-y. I also loved the gold details on the tape, although I have no idea how I'm  going to use them... But they were sooo pretty~ I had to get them.

  Speaking of washi tapes, a while ago, I bought a bundle of washi tapes from this seller called "prettymagpie" on Carousell. She sells loads of different kinds of tapes, and also sells sampler sticks of tape. What are they, you ask? You can choose 4 designs from all the tapes she has, and she'll put 1metre of those tapes onto an ice cream stick and mail it to you. Each stick costs $2, and for someone like me who likes more variety instead of large qualities (since I'll never get around to using a full roll of tape), it's perfect.

I got myself 2 sticks, and I absolutely loved using the different designs.

   Prettymagpie also gave me a free gift with my purchase- some punch outs for scrapbooking, and amongst them were some butterflies, and I loved them. So I went on a search for butterfly punches and found a very suitable one on aliexpress. I bought mine on sale at slightly under $17, but it usually retails at $18 with free shipping. You can see the listing and buy one for yourself here.

They sent me a purple one, which was the colour I was hoping for and the butterflies are really pretty on my cards. I love it. 

  Here's what I did with all the pretty papers, and stickers, and tape:

Front...

Inside... (of course I haven't written anything in the cards yet... Personal mah...)

Back.

  And of course, with cards come gifts, too. I bought gift tags and wrapping paper from IKEA. Apparently they're stocking up a lot of silver and gold Christmas decorations this year and it was whilst my mum and I were shopping there that we decided we'd have a silvery-white Christmas this year.

Gift tags and a ball of gold string to tie gifts.

I made some bookmarks for a friend, which is somewhat counter-intuitive since I also bought her a Kindle......

Silver and gold wrapping paper (which I sometime use as pretty backgrounds when I review art products... teehee)

Annndddddd~ The silver star we're going to be putting on our Christmas tree this year.

  I argued with my mum saying that star should always be gold but she said we've had gold stars on our tree for the past three years or so, and that the theme this year was silvery-white so a gold star wouldn't match the theme. "You not thinking clearly," is what she said exactly. I had to agree with her, so here is our silver star for our tree this year.

  So! That was all the things I bought with this haul. I hope you've enjoyed this post as much as I've enjoyed writing it. I might even post another haul some other time too. ^-^