Resources vs Bits of Paper

As part of 'Operation Money Crack Down', created a symbolic global amalgamation of different currencies, printed with similar simple text...

A merging of currencies... different places - same story.

A world without borders...

Photoshoped

The idea is to fold it and toss it in an area easily seen, inevitably leading to someone picking it up (so high wired we are to associating money to our survival, we almost can't help it.. :) )

Will be using this 'global' bill for some of my upcoming paintings...!

Thanks for visiting.. :)

p.s. A good video that goes in to detail, the train of thought put forward by the notes text..

Art For Grabs - Human Rights Day (10th & 11th December)

In conjunction with Human Rights Day, Amnesty International and Annexe Gallery will be hosting all sorts of activities including 'Art for Grabs', for only two days, this weekend!.. Art will be sold at bargain prices, and I'll be contributing some work too, so don't miss it!!..  (check out Minut Init for more details)

 ( FREE ADMISSION )

See ya there!!... :)

Dragon Eye Underpainting

... and the dragon eye underpainting is finally complete!.....

Acrylic on Canvas Board
about 5" x 7" in size

Depicting a mythological instant of creation or creations, reflected in the eye of a dragon (the eye also a play on the etymological root of dragon 'drakein' which is 'to see clearly').
Dragon's have been associated with the beginnings of time, chaos, in various myths and legends in different contexts. Some mythic representations are not really dragon's in the original stories per say (like Tiamat) however the dragons imagery was somehow attached later on... Reflected in it's eye is the inside view of a black hole, the singularity of creation seemingly brought to life by Michelangelo's God as depictedin his 'Creation of Adam' masterpiece....  Ancient symbols tied with creation from various civilizations (ouroboros, Om, tao, pheuma and kneph) are carved in the dragons skin...
A questioning juxtaposition of humanities beliefs through the ages and its inexhaustible search for the true nature of the beginning of time and indeed the meaning of life itself.....

 I've always loved how the underpainting, and then dead layer of these pieces look, and thought it would be nice to have displayable art pieces of them at these stages. Thus it occurred to me to have them made in to high quality giclee prints. If your interested in one of these prints, I will be posting details soon.. I've just started selling prints of some of my work on several sites, hopefully giving all of you more choice, depending on what corner of the world you live in.

BUY A PRINT AT IMAGEKIND (IN & AROUND USA)

BUY A PRINT AT REDBUBBLE (IN & AROUND AUSTRALIA)

Still straightening things out and should have permanent links here on my blog soon...

Check them out! :)

other related posts

Carved sculpture for reference

Brainstorming ideas for composition

Sketched Composition 

Caricature of My Love

2B Graphite on Paper

size: about 7" x 7.6"

A quick little caricature sketch of my boy toy.... :)

Dry Brush Portrait Drawing

I'm back with my latest commissioned piece in a whole new technique I'd never tried before, dry brush drawing with oil paint.. 

I first came across this technique on Youtube, by an amazing portrait artist named Igor Kazarin. Check out his website, it's chock full of amazing work and he's ever generous with his knowledge and skills as an artist...

'Stella & Bo' Dry Brushed Portrait

Lamp Black Oil Paint on Watercolour Paper

Size 16.5" x 12.5"

Although slight highlights are picked out with a rubber this is not a technique that leaves much room for any mistakes so one has to be totally mindful of each stroke made... 

I found this technique had a very natural (instinctual) feel to it which made it quite a joy to do. The only picture my client had, unfortunately, was a really low resolution pixilated mobile picture, so I had quite an uphill task of coming up with the detail needed for an A3 size drawing, while still capturing the essence of my models with little room for mistakes... I don't mean to sound like it was that bothersome though for it's probably good for me to work this way once in a while ( I get so tied up in details sometimes). 

I may post a WIP of this drawing but one can't go astray by checking out Igor Kazarines drawing videos showing his whole dry brush process,.. they helped me quite a lot...

Thanks for Visiting!.. :)

Mini Watercolour Portrait

My nephew Max just turned one recently and I decided to hand paint a small Birthday Card for his 1st Birthday!... :)

'Card Cover' (the inside was inscribed with a quote
by Jonathan Swift " May you live all the days of your life"...)
Painted from a pic - Watercolour on Watercolour Paper
Size 3" x 3.6"

p.s. this would actually be the first portrait I've done in watercolour (a medium I'm still grappling with) and one so tiny, but it was all fun and great practice!... :)

The Calm After and Settling Back to the Good Stuff

Ahh.... all is well again and I'm ecstatic to be back doing what I love (with no foreseeable interruptions) in a great environment...
I'm back home, and it's been decided that we'll just install more secure gates and stuff and stick around here at least for another 2-3 years.. :).. which is great for me,..
I never realized just how much my enthusiasm was fed in to by my environment... getting to go out in to my garden n mess with mud, the occasional, though always welcomed interruptions from my cats, and well, I guess, just being closer to the earth and real things
 (besides having better lighting,.. :) ),.... 

Thought it was about time I posted an update of my ' Survival of The Fittest?....' painting...

' Survival of The Fittest ?... '
Completed Dead Layer

Alkyd on Canvas Board

Size 14.5" x 12"
Are the dominant views of reality today and the values that arise from them sustainable for humanity's survival..?

All other progress pictures before this was lost with my stolen camera, but I'll still be writing a WIP on my 'Materializing Inspiration' blog with new discoveries and info on wet sanding and such.... 

Also be sure to check out my 'The Deliberate Practice of Art' blog if your interested in daily studies I'm doing to improve a wide range of skills as an artist...

Thanks for Visiting Guys!... :)

Starting from Scratch

When my nephew was about 2 years old, I endeavored to paint his portrait.. I was in college at the time and as assignments piled up the portrait in question got abandoned to the ever hopeful promise of finishing it Someday. ...

My nephew's 12 now...

Oil underpainting originally done for the piece...

p.s. the other day in a fit of sorting some old stuff out, I decided to continue where I'd left off . However after much deliberation and brainstorming I surmised that it needed nothing short of a complete overhaul. Thus I attempted to use turpentine and sand the underpainting off, but soon realized that after 10 years the paint wasn't going to budge and literally had to sand down to the raw canvas,.. I then got distracted with some other project and thus it still sits in a corner of my studio....

p.s.s. this was really just an excuse to post something since I haven't in some time,.. Seem to have gotten myself in to some unrelated graphic work for a bit and will get back to you with an update of the last painting I was working on (still a WIP) and a few " Materializing Inspiration" posts.. till then! .. :)

Small Acrylic Portrait

Just completed a small commission for Valentines Day yesterday. After receiving and finalizing the details on friday there was just enough time to make the frame from scratch, prime and complete the painting by Sunday night. Thankfully it was a very small painting. I feel I could have worked on it a bit longer though, but then again I always do.. 

'Valentine Girl'
5 in x 6.5 in
Acrylic (in a watercolour technique) on Canvas

This pic has quite a bit of glare on it,
as it had to be taken indoors under artificial light by the time it was finished.
Will post a better pic as soon as possible.

As it was to be a surprise, a low res facebook profile pic was the best my client could find at the time as reference. However it didn't pose too much of a problem since the portrait was small too. Normally though, a high res pic would be a must. Even better would be working with a life model or meeting and getting to know the person to be painted before hand, giving just that extra bit of oomph and life to the portrait :)...

Anyways thanks for visiting!.. :)

p.s. glad to say the painting was a huge hit with valentine girl and their both already planning another commission from me of them both together!.. :)

Wishing Everyone a Happy Chinese New Year!

1" x 1.2" graphite,.. 

quick thumbnail sketch 

in leu of the year of the Rabbit! :)

Since it's the new year, I thought I might pop by and wish everyone... :).

Still working on my next painting for the exhibition, which is scheduled for the end of this month!

Till then! Thanks for visiting! :)

New Zeitgeist Movie Finally Out!!

This would be another detour from my normal arty posts,.. but this was too important and I'm besides myself with excitement and had to post something about it... The newest movie, "Zeitgeist: Moving Forward" by Peter Joseph, will be finally out for free download on the long awaited 25th !...
Latest update!.. will be out at approx. 9am EDT (26th)!!.. :)

UPDATE! : Before watching this latest movie, it's best to watch it's prequel "Zeitgeist Addendum" first (if you haven't already), for it sets the stage about the fractional reserve, the monetary system and on society as a whole.... "Zeitgeist: Moving Forward" answers many of the more pervasive questions that have been brought up since "Zeitgeist Addendum"...

watch (Zeitgeist 2) "Zeitgeist Addendum" on YouTube here!

watch (Zeitgeist 3) "Zeitgeist: Moving Forward" on YouTube here!

Below is the great news the movement emailed it's members on the movies amazing success!!.. :)

" Bravo to the Movement!!

*UPDATE:
I'm happy to report that "Zeitgeist: Moving Forward" is a wild success and
turned into an unprecedented film release premiere. What started as a
thought of having maybe 30 total theaters screening the film instead turned
into 30 languages alone with a total count of 335 theaters in 60 countries,
and still growing daily! With multiple screenings at most of the 335
theaters, our total number of screenings is well over 1,000 world-wide. The
response to the film has been huge... reports coming in of sold-out crowds
in venues ranging upwards of 500-900 seat capacity.

For the Love of Tradition

The new years on it's way and I thought I'd pop in and post a lil of what I'm getting up to. Here's a final sketch of a painting I'm preparing for another group exhibition next month.

It will only be a small piece 12" x 14.5". A mix of realistic and flat 2D surfaces...
Also forgot to draw a carved inscription on the table top 'Andy Was Here',..
 Andy being the shortened version of Andrew or Andreas
(check out their root meanings and you'll see where I'm headed.. :))

I'm still mulling over the title, but so far it's called 'For the Love of Tradition' (kind of because I'm trying to tie it in to a love theme for a friends exhibition.. tho the painting would be kind of an oxymoron to the theme,.. lol. Anyways I'll try to think of a more fitting title). It's a poke at society's blind love affair with centuries old and superficially axiomatic traditions or belief systems. Belief systems that perpetuates circumstances that concentrate 85% of the world's wealth to only the top 10%, half to the top 2%! These are stats from way back in 2006 however, the divide of inequality is ever widening. Traditional belief systems that are still pervasive and held on to because of fear and ignorance. The tradition of running after the proverbial carrot in the backward monetary system we call the rat race,... The emphasis on self-assertive values (competition, expansion, domination) that are still preserved because of the perceived upper-hand gained.

Anyways I could go on but I hadn't really planned on writing about it here... just yet, so forgive me if I haven't been as eloquent as I should be....

Should post the details of the exhibition by the end of the month or in February...!

Reference :- turkey carcass by clang boom steam (Flickr)
- weathered wood by m.gifford (Flickr)
Both were under the Creative Commons (for commercial use, adaptation, modification or to be built upon).

Thanks for visiting! :)

 (UPDATE : decided the title would be ' Instinct ?...' which articulates the question of what modern society takes for granted as 'instinctual behaviour' and the more pervasive 'survival of the fittest' Ayn Rand indoctrination of modern times. Not sure if it's enough to articulate other aspects of the painting though)

The New Year's here,..Yay!

Hope everyone's been having a blast during this past holiday season. Christmas and the New Year's celebrations have come and gone and I must admit I'm somewhat relieved the festivities are over, and the distractions that come with them... I'm pumped to get back, full on, to my art work!. Here's a taste for the year to come... :).

A Dragon Eye Sculpture done as reference for my next painting.
Media : Plaster of Paris

Various ancient symbols with ties with the concept of creation

Check out how I made this simple model on my Materializing Inspiration blog here!..

Making a Simple Plaster of Paris Model

Have a Great Year Everyone! :D

p.s. View the Dragon Eye Underpainting that this sculpture was used as reference for here!

Framed and Ready for the Exhibition

Finally finished framing this painting last Saturday. This will be the one and only piece I plan to exhibit at the Minit Init Group Exhibition this Saturday ( which will run from the 27th of Nov- 30th of December).

This was no ordinary frame, for it was needed for quite an unusual piece. This mixed media piece is extremely heavy and has a non braced hardboard support. It needed a frame that could support my carefully molded thick plaster of paris sculpting, the heavy rocks and straighten the warped hardboard backing. All while being strong enough to carry their weight when hung on the wall.

So by sawing, carving, drilling, sanding and oiling, a custom fit frame was made that molded to the edges of my mixed media painting, and hopefully will keep it safe and secure for years to come....

Just waiting to be wrapped up and transported
Ancient Satori
Mixed Media
1 painting divided in to 3 panels
Click here to see how it should look hung on the wall

Check out the WIP of the frame here... as well as other detailed discriptions of some of my painting methods and much more at Materializing Inspiration.

Been creating stuff faster than I can write the WIP posts for them,.. but no worries I'll get to them... 

Also coming up is a WIP post on a plaster of paris sculpture just started of my Dragon Eye Painting. This is to help me paint from a more informed and solid basis, and hopefully the realism will translate as it should in the final piece.....

Still being carved the Dragon Eye Sculpture
See it completed here

Don't forget to check out the exhibition! :)

Minut Init Art Exhibition

Hi y'all, check out this art exhibition from the 27th Nov - 30th Dec for a plethora of interesting works of art... from sketches to sculptures, all sorts will be on display... I'll be showing some of my work too!.. so come on over! :)

New Dragon Eye Composition

Ok this is the rough draft of my new composition,.. there will be deep etchings of symbols in the dragons skin and a clearer reflection of the inside of the black hole in the dragons eye. Taken as reference is an artists rendering of how it would look like (for that split second before one was annihilated) from NASA's official website....

Can you see the tiny reflection of
Michelangelo's 'Creation of Man' (the God part) from the Sistine Chapel
in the dragons eye?...

The above composition came about after many revisions of an older version I almost went forward with...

Had more abstract shapes in this one, that I like,
but which I felt detracted from the main focus of the painting...

I may go in to the elements added to the composition when it's done, but hopefully it speaks for itself. Right now though it's ready to be put together on the canvas and get it on its way.... :)

p.s. Here's a mini sculpture I've done since, as reference for this painting...
p.s.s View Completed Underpainting here..

Buy prints of the underpainting at

Imagekind (for those in or around USA) 

or at 

redbubble (for those in around Australia)

Learning from the Masters

Here it is.. Finally it's finished...!

Completed oil painting,... Dust and all! and finally my partners got his painting I've been promising for so long... :)
Oil on Canvas Board
21" x 16"

As promised, here is a detailed explanation of the technique I used in repainting this painting, one of Clayton Crain's Original Ghost Rider art pieces in non digital media- Acrylic, Alkyd (fast drying Oil paint) and Oil paint (depending on the painting stage ) ....

As I have mentioned before, Clayton Crain is an incredible artist who does a lot of work for Marvel, the Ghost Rider series being one of them... To check out his awesome work first hand, here's a link to his website claytoncrain.com . It's important to clarify again that this painting was done for educational purposes only and not for any monetary gain on my part whatsoever. 

Mr. Crain on the whole, as I know it, creates most of his comic art digitally (photoshop...) as with this one. In so doing he creates highly detailed luminous effects in his paintings similar to those achieved in the Venetian or glazing technique used in painting with traditional media. Although painting on screen achieves a luminosity that cannot be surpassed via traditional media due to the lighted screen reverberating throughout the layers, I believe that that becomes irrelevant once printed out and thus an attempt at recreating a semblance at least to the printed version is possible. In so doing, I endeavored to learn a little of Mr. Crain's artistry...

Thought it would be better to break the whole process in to 4 main stages (posts) so you could jump to the ones you feel are of most interest to you and for overall ease of access..

Click on the links below to leap in!!....

Part 1 : Preliminary Drawing

Part 2 : Detailed underpainting (in earth toned Acrylic)

Part 3 : Detailed Dead Layer (in a greenish Alkyd)

Part 4 : Multiple Glazed Layers (in Alkyd and normal oil paint)

Epigenetics and the Theory of Evolution

First off I'd like to say this is taking a detour from my usual art posts but I had to post this rather interesting article. Feeling the nurture vs nature argument rather simplistic in its take thus far (being either one or the other)... I've felt nurtures role, of rather fundamental importance, and rather disregarded in the nature argument. Thus I found this article very interesting on a deep ecological (systemic) level. Now I won't go in to it more, I'll leave that to one's who have developed better literary skills than I and point you in their direction here... 

Will post a picture of the completed Ghost Rider painting soon, as well as a blow by blow of the technique used in my companion blog Materializing Inspiration.

Thanks for visiting!

One of me Cats

Here's a tiny pastel I did of my cat Crookshanks. Been working day n night on the Ghost Rider Painting and so all other projects have been put on hold for now...

Just thought I'd post this quick one for now...

Till next time!... :)

'Crookshanks'

about 2.5 x 4.5in soft pastel on sugar paper

Small triumph for all Malaysian artists....

Syed Ahmad Jamal ( revered Malaysian Artist ) stood up for his rights and in so doing won one for all artists in Malaysia. Read all about it at Arteri... 

Thats all for now folks!.. :)

Check Out My Latest Blog

Heads up on my latest blog 'Materializing Inspiration'. Focused on WIP's and details of my working process for those who may be interested.. It frees up this blog for others who may not be as interested about the technical details... 

However I've always found (as I stated in my new blog) these details to be of great help and interest when I've come across them by other artists. Seeing how other artists work has opened up new perspectives and tips in tackling my own work and I continue to find new insights and inspiration from reading about their techniques....

Anyways, check out my latest post there on how I prepare my canvas boards (these particular ones are for my Fantasy art miniature series), and leave me a comment if you think there is anyway I could improve the post, or if you have questions..

Thanks for visiting!... :)

Dragon Eye

I've been having a blast brushing up on my drawing skills lately with Nicolaides schedule, and find I'm already getting much faster and more confident practicing his technique of using all of ones senses in drawing.... but thats not what I'm here for, rather it's to let you in on my latest project that I've been working on, besides the Ghost Rider Painting (featured below),... a series of small Fantasy Art Paintings,.. ! 

Below are a few of my preliminary thumbnail sketches for the first painting.. Naturally I'd be doing a dragon at some point so why not for the first of the series..:)... 

Before hand, quite a bit of research was done about "Dragon anatomy", though there is still much to learn.. Now of course, they are fantasy creatures, and there are no definitive ways to portray them. However it couldn't hurt to get a few lessons on feasible anatomical constructions for such a creature, if they were to so exist.... Anyways I started off with a detail of a dragons eye, and the sketch below is the one I've decided settled on...

Referring to the eyes of cats and lizards, I tried to construct a convincing dragon eye, still letting my imagination run free as to how it would all blend in together,... What one has to keep in mind in giving a convincing look, is the light source (which probably doesn't translate much in this sketch)... I might make a complete detailed tonal drawing to work out more of the details before proceeding to transfer the finished concept on to my roughly 5 x 7in small canvas board... yes quite small but very cool size for a mini series..

I've always profusely loved fantasy art (besides being an avid fantasy literary buff). That love was a very strong factor in influencing me in doing art in the first place,... but strangely enough, I'd never attempted doing any.. till now that is!... :)

It's sure going to be fun letting my imagination and creativity run wild, creating whatever fanciful fantasy I wish.....!

Thanks for Visiting!.. :)

p.s. See the completed final sketch ready to be painted here!
p.s.s See Completed Underpainting here!

Buy prints of the underpainting at

Imagekind (for those in or around USA) 

or at 

redbubble (for those in around Australia)

A work in progress....

Alright guys I think it's about time I finally posted some images of the latest painting I've been working on for some time now... It however is not an original of mine, rather a painting of one of Clayton Crain's  Ghost Rider Original art pieces... Mr Crain does most of his work in Photoshop including this one but I was inspired when I saw it to do it in a flemish oil painting style (which I will go in to more technical detail later)..... He's an amazing artist and does a lot of work for Marvel, the Ghost Rider series being one of them... To check out his awesome work first hand, here's a link to his website claytoncrain.com .

The reason why i decided to endeavor doing a piece that would require such a huge amount of time and effort while not in the end ever being able to reap any monetary or creative recognition for, was simply because I took it as a learning experience ( and I certainly gained loads in that area) and cos my boyfriend is a huge fan of his work and art too (he's the one who introduced me to Mr. Crain's art) I would give it to him as a present,... 

Underpainting
21" x 16"

Now I've been working on this piece off an on between other part time jobs and paintings and its been a long 3 years now since I started it back in 2007.... Yep!... Now hopefully I'm nearing it's completion plus my boyfriend has lately been dropping by my place, unawares, before I've had a chance to hide it, so he's basically seen the progress so far, at least as of a week or two ago. Thus I've decided, posting it's progress now could hardly spoil the surprise...

As this was but a copy of someone else's hard thought out composition and creation, I was able to concentrate fully on just the technical side of the painting... 

The amazing luminous quality one can get from doing paintings in photoshop is not only because of the monitors backlighting which doesn't really come in to play anyway once printed out, but the multiple semi transparent layering that reverberates throughout the painting.. I thought it would give me the perfect opportunity to really sink my teeth in to the flemish glaze technique that I've seen create such amazing realistic results by other artists...

Beginning the dead layer

I tried this technique just once before (you can check it out here Zen Stone in my Random Old Works blog) and knew I needed to practice on something more complicated that would fully focus on the simple decisions made during the painting process (how much medium.. (as there are so many layers the amount of linseed and other medium has to be carefully controlled), the order of succession in colours to be painted.. etc...)  The combination of concentrating fully on practicing my skill and the extra drive to do the best I could as it was a pressi for my boyfriend helped me hopefully push my skill (the technical side at least) to the next level....

This is a really long post ay... Well I'm just going to post the pics for now and will update later with a WIP post (with more pics) giving a play by play of my working process.

Will not discuss the progress I've done since these pics just in case the bf decides to drop by the blog.. :P....

Thanks for visiting!..:)

p.s. Check out the final completed painting here!

The Natural Way to Draw

As I won't be able to post a pic of the current work I'm working on for copyright reasons (hopefully in the future), I thought I would post about a related project that I will be committing to in the coming weeks...

Drawing is of course the fundamental building block for everything (art wise), and there is no end to improving ones skill (which I need a lot of). Though I have been practicing, it has been somewhat sporadic. Besides sketching and times when I need my drawing skills, practice on improving my drawing skills has not been serious for sometime (since my college days in fact). Thus I've decided to concentrate a few hours a day following a method (and in fact whole course) formulated by Kimon Nicolaides. He came up with the concept of contour drawing and his teaching methods encapsulates all of ones senses... to draw , as he put it, the natural way.

In his book 'The natural way to draw' he has lain out schedules of daily practice sessions approximately 3 hours a day. He does suggest dividing the sessions to 1-2 hour sessions if time is limited,.. so I have committed myself to at least 11/2 hours a day. The lessons have been arranged in a progressive method, each building on what was learnt last. As such skipping ahead is not recommended nor do I wish to, as reacquainting myself with the basics with a clearer eye would, I feel, help me grow even more wholly as an artist.

As an example, the first day (which I'll be breaking in to two, omiting the rest time)
is as follows...

Half hour: Contour (1 drawing)
Half hour: Contour (1 drawing)
1/4 hour: Contour (1 drawing)
1/4 hour: Rest
Half hour: Contour (1 drawing)
One hour: Contour (1-2 drawings)

Contour drawing, if your not acquainted with it already is a method of drawing in which one draws the outline of an object (with the feeling like the pencil tip is touching the actual objects surface) All this is done without letting ones eyes stray back to the paper (keep your eyes glued to the object, following the  contour of the object, your pencil tip keeping the same pace as your eye).

It's important for this exercise to not let your eyes stray to what your drawing.

Now till I have some contour drawings on file here's just a normal sketch of my other half, deep in Ps3 concentration..

'Playing Ps3'

Graphite on Paper

size A5

Ouroboros

'Ouroboros'

Oil on Canvas

"SOLD"

Thought i'd post this here as it is a fairly recent painting.

Done mostly by knife, it's highly textural, using olioplasto to beef up the paint and make it more stable.

Completed in a little over 3 months it was done based on commission for a former colleague. She had liked a previous work of mine and wished for something similar. As she stays in Australia (I'm in Malaysia) most of our correspondence was done online. Thankfully she was able to pick it up when she was here on business and went home a happy art collector.

Buy a print at

Imagekind (for those in or around USA) 

or at 

redbubble (for those in around Australia)