Sunday, November 1, 2009

more...

the feeling of needing to draw and to express is growing. shiok!

xelex is gonna share today.

the word 'drawing' in my context here would refer to creating images bla bla bla...
well, i have a different take on this word now... draw means extract. yea, i simply use its another meaning... but it really help change my approach to drawing.

say, the artist is drawing the garden.
hence, the artist is 'extracting' the garden. i replaced the word to 'extract' so as to let u see how i see this word now...instead of focusing on the artist's illustration piece (the final drawing).... i'm putting attention to the process that comes before the act of drawing the art piece. it is the drawing/extraction of ideas and images from the given source.

we can't jus copy exactly from the source. if not, pls take a camera and take photos of your source. in art, i personally feel that the artist should (naturally) input his or her own take or expression to the subject. Draw/Extract what has make an impact on u, u may expand that feeling throughout the piece or anything else until you've achieve what u intended to put into the work.
(will explain more about the input part later)

'The artist is drawing the garden.'

do u see what i see now? The artist is extracting forms, light and shade, and colours from the garden to his work.

kk let's continue

now, someone is commenting on the artist's garden painting...
"The artist has breathe life into the painting. it's so magical yet so real! oh look at the colours. oh look at those strokes. Amazing..."

what has contributed to such wonderful praise from the viewer?

3 sources. (hahaha, 3 is the magic number)

World. You. Medium.

The World is the inspirations outside of you. And You generates your own inspirations 'inside'.

here's the input part :)

so when you draw something, you are actually drawing/extracting 3 things.

You are drawing the INSPIRATIONS you've got from the world and you are also drawing your personal STYLE into the art piece. Last but not least, the FEEL of the medium is the 3rd thing you are drawing. Pen, pencil, marker, brush, watercolour paper, photocopy paper, oil paint, ink, watercolour...they all provide different feel to your work.

In other words, a finished piece came from the 3 sources that you've extracted and put into it.
The World, You and the Medium.

i would say that the artist has painted the garden so fantastically because he/she has managed to draw/extract the right amount/choice of 'material' from the 3 sources AND he/she has proficient skill and knowledge to express them to the art work.

alrite, i've covered the new interpretation of the word 'draw' in the context of drawing, and the 3 sources that we are drawing when we are drawing. lol!

btw, we are unconciously drawing from these 3 sources when we are drawing, but never much aware of it.
Now i'm gonna single out 1 of the 3 sources that makes the biggest difference in everyone's art.

the medium will not 'misbehave' ....when you are using a pencil, the pencil won't give u ink, but what it has.
the world is always as it is, there is no 300 versions of the earth, but there are countless different interpretations of the earth.
YOU are the only source in the 'holy 3 sources' of art that is a non-constant. everyone is different and unique. every YOU is different and unique.
My observation is that the world will not ruin your work. the medium shouldn't ruin your work (provided they function well)...it is YOU who couldn't deliver what you want. That's where skill and knowledge is so important.
but even when YOU have acquired the professional skills and knowledge to draw, your work can still fail to impress. why? maybe because you didn't draw/extract enough from the yourself Or perhaps, you didn't even draw/extract a single bit intothe work. You probably thought that things that you've created, as long as it is visually pleasing will be great. (not for me) yes, orange and blue looks nice together. so is red and green. it's better to have foreground, mid-ground, and back ground presented to make the composition more interesting and they provide a sense of depth. 3-point-lighting is a good way to light your subject....These are all skills and knowledge. But what you've failed to draw/extract to the drawing could be YOU.
I'm refering to your personalities and interpretations. YOU are not enough in the drawing!!!!
yea, i believe that the value of a work lies in the 'YOU' factor.

let's say i'm right abt the 'YOU' factor...

hence, the secret to create art with life, style, personalities, unique interpretations is to IMPROVE YOURSELF! something that is actually very achievable. the more diverse you are, the more diverse your work can be. Constantly improving yourself would push your limits in art.

so if you are evil...you will be drawing/extracting evil stuff into the art. if you are lame, your art will be lame. if you have no personalities, you will be painting 'photographs'...totally no signs of YOU inside. If you are as fantastic as me or Hayao Miyazaki, you would be able to deliver fantastic stuff. what i'm lacking now is better skill and knowledge and a better ME!

In conclusion, 'YOU' plays the most important part in the Art of Drawing.
Be yourself, draw the right thing.

phew! that's about it. now its time to take a look at my not-so-recent and recent drawings, haha!
in chronological order, starting from the earliest.


draw from photos. trying out my o.o5 marker pen.
Done in june. my first few attempts with the pen.



draw from my creative mind :)



draw from a toy magazine.



drew this after reading H.R Giger's art+autobio book.
He is one of my favourite artist. cos u can 'see' HIM all over the artwork.
yea, he's the Alien designer. A genius.



Wanna 'draw' out the bad feelings in me and put them on the paper.



Wanna hold your hands...dur....
100% brush work for the characters.


draw from a photo on a newspaper. was doing COS duty in camp on sunday. damn...



added some grey in photoshop.


I had a great week as I was on leave. my mum came back on last sunday till friday. we went to Science Center's Body Worlds. It's a fantastic exhibition. It's not a scary thing, or make you wanna puke...in fact, i felt more alive after this exhibition. only $21 per ticket in exchange of this great experience! and i saw actress wong liling and her family. that's a plus!
i've learnt that, mammals on average have 1 billion heartbeats in a lifetime. a shrew lives less than 4 years at 500 heartbeats per minute. human have ard 70 heartbeats per minute, elephant is ard 30 and can live up to 70 years old. (it's related to their body mass). no wonder a shrew dies much earlier, becos it reaches 1 billion heartbeat much faster with its super fast heart beating pace!

anyway, i've tot of a romantic line base on this knowledge.
"A billion heartbeats of loving you."
It's means loving you for a lifetime.
nice lah!

and i've watched Michael Jackson's 'This is it" show at grand cathay. Cinema 1, seat E19 is a great spot to watch the show. next time mus book ard that area to watch other shows. okay, this film is a informal documentary about MJ's last show. Freaking nice!!! he can still dance and sing very well at age 50. truly a legend. he is one of the few guys who's heart for the world is the greatest and we can all feel it. the concert is going to be superb, but its really really sad to see that he has left before he even performed once to the fans. while watching the film, the knowing that he has already passed away, breaks my heart. this film has the most applause and cheers that i've ever come across in the cinema. everytime MJ finished rehearsing one song, the fans in the cinema (mainly girls) would cheer "woow!" "yeah!" and applause loudly. i guess that really enhance the whole experience. "Love lives forever". Indeed.

and i've came up with a new story idea AGAIN. and the Day of Defeat Lan gaming session was mind blowing!

(freaking long post, november special issue, lol!)

after all this goodness, i'm heading to Australia to eat some sand and grass till the end of november.
let the SHIT begin!

wish me well!


Friday, October 16, 2009

123th post! Ray Ray!

Post #123 is dedicated to someone special...

okay, this is probably my greatest work till date, LOL!!!

Presenting to everyone, let's welcome RAY RAY!!~~
He 'came out' from my heart. He may be me, haha!

(note: he is called Ray Ray. can't jus call him Ray. His chinese name is 雷雷. Pronounced as lei lei.)

Ray Ray is just as curious and playful as any other kid, but he especially loves mother nature (trees, flowers, hills, river etc) and his little red ball. His favourite tee-shirt has a big piece of green leaf printed on it. And his hair is definitely his trademark!

If i'm persistent and creative enough, i would create a series of Ray Ray Children Books.... Everyone will buy and read the books, and then i will mind control all the kids and become the first world-president...here i go again..haha!



this is my initial concept sketch of Ray Ray. His body proportions have yet to be finalised yet, so is the overall art style...I wish to make him more animatable...but i still prefer him to have a big head and short limbs...cuter that way.


Ray Ray's favourite tree. Here, I've drawn him in a more angular manner. The art style is less cartoony...more of my own elements inside. kinda like this approach :)

no colour template yet. gotta create his world too..not easy...i can't tell that if he's a causasian or chinese, lol! most likely causasian bah.

yea, i love trees. and i want everyone to love them too. Ray Ray probably came to this world to help me achieve this 'goal'. In return, i shall give Ray Ray lots of friends and lots of wonderful exprience :)

He will never grow old, always smiling, always loving the tree...

i shall help him say.."Hi!" hahaha!

suddenly wana sing....
ABC! easy as 123! oh simple as do-re-mi, ABC, 123, baby you and me girl~~~
(michael jackson's ABC song)

yup, tats all!

Sunday, October 11, 2009

cool

okay, i did go onto the internet and some bookstore to read up about I-Ching. its very impressive...but can be quite complex and hard to understand sometimes. will read more after my Australia training trip which starts from 08 Nov till i don't know when...lol. close to 4 weeks of military training there...wonderful...my ass...

so i decided to use my wacom tablet again...want to paint a tree...use a photo as reference...the composition is super boring again i know...spam lots of texture oso...but i had lots of fun painting this one. and i've learnt some new technics too. clap clap!



title: Blue Blue Tree.

Saturday, September 26, 2009

December 21 2012

I want to blog abt this since last year haha!

yeah, they call Dec 21 2012 as Doomsday and there's a reason why...

hmm, i guess everyone probably knows what i'm talking abt. the maya calender's prediction on the end of the world, pole shift, mass destruction bla bla bla. (and a movie abt this day is oso coming up. may watch it for the visual effects only) anyway, i would like u all to go through this vid before i start to tok abt what i think abt the prediction ...and rmb to read the comments oso...kinda interesting :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1aPNcUJuiLY


okay, i find that this is by far the most intriguing prophecy abt the end of the world that i've come across. probably becos the maya calendar is very accurate in its predictions...AND...the ancient chinese's I-Ching (pronounced as Eee-Jin) is another work from 'God' that i find its readings would be very reliable for i believe that the chinese and the mayans have discovered the secrets of everything in their own way!!!

i say that their works are works from 'God' becos i find it impossible to find out what-i-would-say a 'strict pattern' in the Way of Life. but yea, the chinese and the mayans did it. F#%@ing amazing!!!!!

(i noe there are probably others who have oso discover the order of the world...but i shall jus tok on these two for now.)



now let's check out the maya calendar and the I-Ching.


yes, this is the calendar. speaking of the perfect combination of art and science.



A-R-Mazzzzing!! everything abt life is in here...oh my...



this is an extended application of I-Ching on the Tao diagram.
again, the secrets of life are perhaps decoded here...
reminds me of Wheel of Fortune!
Big Money! Big Money! LOL!



If the periodic table governs the elements of this world.
Then I-Ching governs the elements of life and death.


thats my informal intro abt Doomsday, focusing on the knowledge of the past/ancient.
actually, i'm more interested to know more abt these ancient works than knowing if Doomsday will kill us all or not. simply becos i don't think human will be extinct on that day. as long as some can continue to live on, i'm more than happy. and perhaps that day will be just like any other day rite?

Ever since i started to put all my heart and soul into Art... I began to discover that there is somewhat a pattern to many things that run this world. There is an ORDER to things. if we OBSERVE, SIMPLIFY them , CLASSIFY them and STUDY them...we will be able to find patterns, cycles and orders in them. we will be able to know what is going to happen next...for we already know how the pattern is going...and there, we are able to predict the future!

what i've discovered is nothing...compared to the work of I-Ching, a simple product that provides easy access to the greatest secrets of Life. by classifying and re-organising all the signs of Life into symbols. made into a table that would contain all the possibilities of life. it was built upon the very basic of life...the Ying and the Yang. I hav no say whether the table is perfect or not, but i find that it is perfect. at least, from the mathematical point of view.

i'll (briefly) study I-Ching one day. haha!

okay, sounds like i really believe that Doomsday will happen on December 21 2012...
hmmm, actually i don't know. i don't really give a damn. and i can't do much about it.
i couldn't be changing all my plans and just go enjoy my life by doing nothing but play rite?...then what if 'nothing' happens on that day?

Xelex( founder of Xelexology) 's verdict abt Doomsday is....

Still believe that Doomsday will fall on December 21 2012. And that I will most probably die on that day.
I will continue with what i'm doing as per normal but with a sense of urgency that i will die very soon. Therefore, i must live life to the fullest by trying to achieve my primary goals of my life before that day comes. so that if i really die on that day, i would have no regrets :)

time is running out.

time is indeed my greatest enemy.

Lastly, i would like to blog down this dream I had last year.
I was at my house and all of a sudden, everything is like heading towards the 'wrong' direction...i hav a very bad feeling abt what's going to happen. Dark clouds spread across the sky in a very short time...(just imagine the movie, The day after tomorrow)....and when i dashed to the balcony to check out what the hell is going on, i realised that the city is flooded by the sea already. there is no sign of hope at that time. i'm dumbfounded...i stood there helplessly... watching the sea level raising higher and higher...
BUT! beocs i live at the 33rd floor and it is high enough for me to escape this disaster! the sea couldn't devour my hse, haha! i'm safe. when i'm at home, i will be safe from this disaster. thats the msg i got from the dream. so i'm going to invite all my frens to my hse and have a crazy party on Dec 20 2012!! rmb to bring lots of food and swim wears just in case! we'll be the kings and the queens of the new world! alrite!!!!!!

haha, i'm so not taking this seriously.

whatever comes after Dec 21 2012 is a bonus.

Be prepared.


further readings...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Ching
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_civilization
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_calendar

Saturday, September 5, 2009

Keep Breathing...

some old pics. went to some toy convention thingy at art museum. as expected, the toys (on sales) didn't wow me on that day. however, something unexpected there, jus wowed me! those freaking cool toy guns (for trying)! i got to play in one of the mini-death match game. and as expected, i got zero kill and one death at the end of the game.

yeap, met zishen there. and gotta thank him for introducing this hobby to me.


G.I.JOE the rise of the revenge of the fall.



all sorts of weapons, COOL!



Terminator 4 : Resistance Fail



nice cosplay


ghost buster gal and the legendary mask riders. Epic win!



finally, here r my latest doodles.


my "just-draw" feeling is back.
hence, a random piece of art is born.
the rabbit theme was discovered later after putting in some random objects/subjects.
just draw lah!




don't pissed of that peeing guy there, pete.
hmm, i used ink brush for this one. and later used a 0.05 fine marker to refine some edges.
will continue to explore this medium :)


i've been spending more time reading recently. little time for drawing. its fine, cos i noe i'm slowly progressing to the direction i want to go. and this (great feeling) helps me to overcome ALL SORTS OF BAD THINGS that happened in my camp. i'm super overworked, super shag, super pissed off, super sian....and time passed really really slowly for me. the next thing i noe is that my weekends are burnt like free. likely can claim day-off.

my knee is not healing. i fucking hate this injury. its one of the main reason for my unhappiness in camp. (bite lips)

nvm.

nvm.

nvm.


breath in, breath out...

kk, let's enjoy this wonderful piece of song.
Keep Breathing.



all that i know is keep breathing...

hang in there :)

Sunday, August 30, 2009

i can see it

i've found a wonder book recently. super happy.

this book really makes me feel that i can realise my dream.

i'm super motivated.

but i'm super occupied.

mum's back from HK todae. had a lunch with her, told her abt my "Butterfly Language" story idea. She loves it. Its the first time she praises me abt my own story. B4 this, she would jus nod her head, one ear in one ear out. haha

eh, previously i tot i'm going to study in HK city university's Creative Media. nope, not anymore. I would go for some other fine art course in some other Uni in HK. cos, i know what i want. Thanks to Digital Media Design :)

watched District 9 with sis. I think its the first time i watch a movie with my sis. we both enjoyed the show. worth the money, very entertaining.

watched UP alone, lol. first time watching alone. (all watched b4 except me)
like Wall E, the first part is very well done, then gradually becomes any other typical show that is ends with lots of actions. to me, both Wall E and UP's first act and their 3rd act has different direction, style and approach. basically, their 3rd act spoils the show. simply becos they thot that the audience would prefer to watch some actions in the films.

i say Ratatouille is the best Pixar show.

the next show i wana watch is Moon! can't wait!

kk, gotta go.

dinner with mum. scene 3 act 2 take 1.

ACTION!

Monday, August 17, 2009

this game

having off today...will bk in later.

hmm i hav no complains about my life for now...

no wait...

there's something i need to complain about...my right knee's ligament strain is BACK. it's not 'working' well again...i have to stop running after running just 1km or less. in the end, all my preparations for the 21km, Army Half Marathon (16/08/09)has gone to waste as i could not take part...but i was there! looking after the participants' bags. nice...

the strain has been around for more than a month already. maybe i didn't stretch properly bah...cos i can never touch my toes when doing leg-stretching exercise...Sit and Reach failure I am. haiz...inflexible piece of shit.

nvm, other than this...life is pretty good now.

however, i noe...i noe...i noe...whenever i've settled with some conclusions abt my (on-going)life, the next moment something will change the course of things and u will have to adjust to it.

u cannot complain...

the cycle of peace and chaos will take their turns to 'play' with your life. i say, learn to enjoy sufferings.

i'm already anticipating my chaos to come.

pessimistic? nope, i think i'm starting to understand this game.

and i'm starting to like it.

i don't think this game is abt winning. i still don't know what's the goal of this game...i believe no one can win this game...and perhaps, there's no win or lose in this game. it's about something else.

i think it's about...


time to book in.




haha, i'm not trying to be like that art tutorial(maybe i am)...hey hey, i'm really trying to figure things out. but u mus be ready that error may occur mid way...but as long as u've enjoyed the journey..the final result is never important. tats why i like that vid?

did i make a point?

nvm. hope i didn't waste anyone's time here.

bye bye!