Zentangle Challenge: Straight Lines

Zentangle Challenge #219 was all about making a tile using only straight lines.

  I'm not feeling my bestest today cause I'm stressed out, but tangling helped calm me down. This tile was not my best work but in the spirit of the weekly challenges, I'm still going to show it:

It's done with "Paradox" which is one of my favourite patterns. 

  I might find the time to do another tile somewhere along this week or the next. Till' then, happy tangling to all of you.

  View my next zentangle challenge submission that was much better than the one shown above via this link. (There's also a really big announcement about my very first exhibition in that post, with a behind-the-scenes look at some of the art works that will be exhibited.)
  Or, you can view my previous zentangle challenge submission, which was pretty cool too: (click me)

The Results of Using Derwent's Blender Pens

  Back in January, I made a review of Derwent's blender pens. (Click this link if you'd like to see it. Don't worry. I'll wait here for you until you've finished reading it...)

  I loved the blender pens so much that for my April 2015 Giveaway, I chose them as the giveaway prize.

  It then occurred to me that I never showed a before and after photo of me using the blender pens... So without further ado, allow me to show you why I feel that these pens are magic and that every coloured pencil artist should have a set.

  This is a drawing of a bird that I've been working on in my sketchbook:

As you can see, the colours on the bird look rich and properly blended whereas the shades of brown on the tree stump look speckled and the colour of the paper is showing through.
Let's use the Derwent blender pens on the tree stump, shall we?

Voila! The speckling is almost completely gone.
I did not add any other layers of coloured pencils from the previous picture.

  The more layers of coloured pencils you put on the paper before using the blender pen, the richer the colours will be. I feel that right now, the tones on the tree stump aren't saturated enough. But you know what? I can always go over it again and add more layers, then use the blender pen again after. That's how I got the yellow on the bird to be able to fully cover the blue of the paper and still look so bright.

  The blender pen is amazing, I tell you. And I bought three sets just because I can't really tell when the pens will dry out, and I don't want to be stuck with not having one... I mostly use the thicker 4mm nib, but it's good to have the 2mm nib for finer details. The only complain that I have would be that I actually would want a thicker nib than the 4mm one for larger areas... But other than that, I highly recommend it. :)

Zentangle Challenge: White on Black

   Diva's 218th Zentangle Challenge was to use white ink on black paper. I used the dark chocolate paper that I had in my Journal Enviro sketchbook, but I drew out little boxes so that my drawing area would be the size of a zentangle tile. The most opaque white pen I've ever found was the uni-ball Signo Broad pen. The pen is a gel-roll pen so it has no toxic fumes. It also dries really quickly. However, when using it, I do have to draw more slowly otherwise the ink would skip. It also doesn't come in a thinner nib size, so you can't get super detailed in your drawings.

I used Coloursoft coloured pencils to add shading effects to the tile.

  I didn't have time to finish the 217th challenge last week... But since I was already tangling, I thought I should do something for it too. The 217th challenge was to do something called a "duotangle" which is a tile done with only two tangles. It was difficult to make the tile look unique cause I only had two patterns, Dex and Bunzo, to work with. But here's my take on the challenge:

Also, happy belated birthday, Laura~   *waves* 

  It was Mother's Day on the 10th of May in Singapore. (Apparently, some countries didn't celebrate Mother's Day on that day...) And I know this is super late to post, but I did show one of the following pictures on my Instagram and I thought it'd be nice to post the other two pictures here.... So, here's the gift I gave to my mum:

It's a decorative handicraft box that serves no purpose other than looking pretty.

And no, the cake isn't edible, either.
It's made of paper and sparkles.

So, yes. My gift was completely impractical but super pretty.
She loved it, and I'm glad for that. ^-^

  To see my previous Zentangle Challenge submission ( click this link ).

  To see my next Zentangle Challenge submission ( click this link ).

Painting of the Day: Entanglement

"Entanglement" by NeSpoon

  "Entanglement" is one of the works that was part of her exhibition, "Recrafted". You can view the art works that were exhibited at Recrafted and all of NeSpoon's other works via her Behance.

The Little Prince In The Dark at Alliance Française de Singapour

  The exhibition is by Arnaud Nazare-Aga and the Antoine de Saint-Exupery Youth Foundation. The exhibition pays homage to the ever-famous and beloved book, "The Little Prince". Arnaud faithfully recreates multiple white sculptures of various characters and planets from the book. Those sculptures are exhibited in a dark room lit with black light, and audio readings of extracts from the book are added to complete the experience.

A little poster regarding the exhibition displayed at the lobby.
The exhibition space is on the second floor.

Saint-Exupery~

Here's just one of the many sculptures exhibited in the hall.
The blue hue of the sculptures are from the black lights illuminating the space.

A sculpture of the Little Prince in a sandbox to recreate the scene where he meets the protagonist.
"If you please– draw me a sheep."

And here's a selfie of me and the Little Prince.
(It's very rare that I post pictures of myself, isn't it..? I'm quite sure very few of you actually know how I looked like before you saw this picture.)

  The exhibition is a wonderful visual-audio experience. If you're as much of a fan of the book as I am, I highly recommend popping down to take a look.

  The exhibition is currently being held at Alliance française de Singapour, 1 Sarkies Road, Singapore 258130.  Telephone: + (65) 6737 8422

You can visit the exhibition space from now until 20th June 2015. The exhibition opens between the following timings:
Mon – Fri: 11am – 7pm
Sat: 11am – 5pm
Closed on Sunday and Public Holidays

Painting of the Day: Porcelain

"Porcelain" by Nana Williams

  A beautiful sphynx cat with blue painted flowers on its body. I love the details in this– its paws, the gradient of its ears, how the blue of the cats' eyes match the flowers... Nana Williams has also very effectively captured the spirit of the cat in this drawing.

  You can support Nana Williams by buying things off her Etsy page.

Winner of Threadless' Big Hero 6 Competition

  I'm a supporter of Threadless.com because they're a company that creates beautiful products while helping artists to earn. Threadless recently held a Big Hero 6 design competition, and recently, they announced their winner.

  Congratulations, Samantha Germaine Sim!

  Samantha is also known as “Violet1202″. She's 22 years old, is a Singaporean, and recently graduated from Lasalle College of The Arts with a diploma in Animation Art. Threadless did an interview on her and how she felt about winning the competition. She's super sweet and you should definitely read the interview via this link.

  You can also visit her website via this link.

Try Out Thursday: Green Tea and Rum Kit Kats

  I'm sure you're familiar with Kit Kats.. We all know there's the regular milk chocolate flavoured ones. I also know that some places do sell the dark chocolate variety, which I love love love. And then, recently, green tea (or, as some people call it, Matcha) Kit Kats have become popular... But today, I found rum flavoured ones!

Apparently, they're called "Feuillanline" and are made with crispy cocoa crepe and rum powder. The other one is green tea with chocolate filling.

Look at how cute the box is~
The individual kit kats are bite-sized and the box can be closed by its tab.
I loved the flavour of this kit kat. It was on the sweeter side, but then you could taste a hint of the rum just as you finished the kit kat. I'd rate it 9 out of 10 stars.

Matcha kit kats. 3 in one box, with each packet containing two sticks of kit kats just like how the regular kit kat is like. Only these ones are smaller than your regular kit kats.

The cute thing about this one was that there was a little space on the box for you to write a message to someone and give it to them. Each little kit kat also had a little white box too. So cute!
I'm not a fan of green tea, so I have a biased opinion and thus will not rate it. The kit kat really does taste like mocha powder and it wasn't too sweet at all. 

  Best of all, you can get your own ones too! I found these at the NTUC Fairprice located at Simei, so do check whether the NTUC located near you stocks them too. The green tea ones cost me $2.55, while the rum ones cost me $4.15.

Result of the April 2015 Giveaway

  Congratulations, Terence Yap! You won yourself a set of Derwent blender pens. I've already sent out the gift and it should reach you in a couple of days.

  To the rest of you who took part and didn't win, I still read all of your messages. I really appreciate you supporting my artistic journey... I blog to keep myself inspired, to show you what awesome new art products and books are in the market, the Art events that happen in Singapore, and the new things I learn along the way. 

  These giveaways I host is my way of trying to engage more people in Art and to also thank you for following me on my blog. ^-^

Obviously, I haven't filled out his address due to privacy reasons...

  I wonder what I'll be giving away next time.... You'll just have to stick around to find out!

Zentangle Challenge: Brella

  Zentangle Challenge #216 called for using the tangle "Brella". As it was also the 4th of May, there was an additional challenge to pay homage to Star Wars.

  Here's my entry:

The drawing was the size of a zentangle tile, but I drew it in my Enviro Journal.
Also, the Milan eraser you see in the photo is absolutely lovely to use and I plan to write a review about all the different Milan erasers you can find at Art Friend.

And here's the finished piece.

#maythefourthbewithyou #StarWars #stormtrooper


  I know it's not the 4th anymore... But I did post it earlier on my Instagram. For those of you who aren't following me on Instagram, you can find me over there at "havepen_willdraw".

  This zentangle challenge was fun, and I'm looking forward to taking part in more challenges. :)

  To see the next Zentangle Challenge submission that I made ( click this link ).

Painting of the Day: Sky Jellyfish

"Sky Jellyfish" by Ted Chin

  A hot air balloon floating under water... A lightbulb octopus... A man meeting a unicorn... Those are some of the works Ted Chin creates. The art work above depicts beautiful jellyfishes floating through the sky. The warm light of the rising sun penetrating them and giving them a wonderful internal glow. I've always loved jellyfishes, partially due to the fact that I'm naturally drawn to water and partially due to how beautiful they look as they move with the motion of the ocean. Ted Chin portrayed that movement perfectly.

  You can view more of his works via his Instagram.

Book Review: Yellow Square

  "Yellow Square" is the fourth book in David A. Carter's series of pop-up books. This one follows "Red Dot", "Blue 2", and "600 Black Spots". (Links lead to my review of the respective books.)

  In "Red Dot", the dots were easy to find. In "Blue 2", the twos were slightly harder to find. In "600 Black Spots" the spots were in plain sight, just difficult to keep count of. In this book, will the yellow square be easy to find, or not?

  This book delighted the kids I teach all the same. The younger kids seemed to prefer this one as compared to "Red Dot". How about you? Which book in David Carter's series do you like best?