Canvas galore!

bag ladies

Hey guys. It's been a long time since I've updated this blog. So I came back from 2 weeks orientation for Creative Arts Academy. Twas amazaling. Never knew that Bible school also consists of surfing and eating copious amounts of dessert.

So anyway, my course leader is in something called Ladies Mentoring at Jubilee Church, which is a course for ladies to dig deeper and get to know God better through fellowship, reading the Word and doing various activities to explore their faith. Sinta asked me to do some designs for their canvas bags so here's two of them.

拜拜!

The Day Before Tomorrow

In less than 12 hours I will be heading down the motorway towards Maidstone! Really excited about CAA. So what do I do the day before I start a new chapter in my life? I spent it in one of my favourite places in London.

Camden Town.

One of the great things I love about London is that everything is within walking distance. When I walk through Camden there's always hordes of tourists, people selling their CDs, punks with banners. It's such an eclectic mix of people and I love feeling anonymous.

Whenever I go by the Lock I'm always greeted by this front of Chinese people trying to sell their £4 noodles. They're literally shoving their chicken samples into your mouth!

I've noticed how the place is a lot less dirty and grundgy as it used to be. They used to sell more varied things. Now, it's all the same China-imported vintage fashions. I like the stalls still, don't get me wrong, but it's lost a bit of it's, dare I say it, edgy-ness. I suppose you can't keep a place the same. London is constantly evolving, with or without me.

Here are a few photos that speak more than words can say.

It's buy one get one free at the Bubble Tea place by the Lock. Hurry! I got a green tea with tapioca and a taro with lychee bop.

I love how the seats are made from old motorbikes! Imagine if the engineer forgot to take away the engine and you drive straight into the river.

So now it's goodbye Laaaandan Taan and hellooo Maidstone! We'll be heading down to Cornwall for 2 weeks for orientation so I won't be blogging. Unfortunately, due to the nature of the course I probably won't be able to do as much art as I'd like but hey, that's just the way it is, things will never be the saaaaaaaame.

Yes I'm quoting 2pac, and what?

再見!

Memory Lane

For those of you film buffs out there, the much-anticipated "One Day" starring Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess is showing in cinemas near you. I went to see it yesterday with a college friend and you know what? It wasn't too bad. I had read the book and normally films aren't as good as the book but this time, I have to say the director didn't do too bad a job. In fact, I got a bit tearful at certain points of the film. *Ahem...moving on.

It's now 2346 hours and I'm snacking on this:

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it's Onken peaches and oats yoghurt with cheerios on a chinese bowl and no I am not ashamed. Who cares that every single calorie will cling to my hips as if it's holding on for dear life? Nobody says "no" to Onken.

Anyway, moving on.

Grrr why is it taking me so long to write this post?! Just started eating pitta bread (wholemeal!) with taramasalata and now watching interview with Hathaway and Sturgess. How do you even pronounce his surname? Now I have fish breath but hey, it doesn't matter because you can't see or smell me!

So. I decided to take a walk down memory lane and go to Hampstead Heath. I went to a secondary school near there. No, not the Catholic school La Sainte Union (we had a much ruder term for them back then) but the girls' comprehensive that is Parliament Hill School for Girls. Makes me shudder just typing the words. It was weird. I hadn't been there since I left sixth form 4 years ago (Yes I'm 22!) I walked through Waterlow Park, past Highgate Cemetery then down the hill, past the Rollin' Rolls shop that sells bacon butties for £1.20. The Egyptian guy who works there is still there but don't think he recognised me. Thankfully I didn't bump into anyone from school. Man, can you imagine the awkwardness?

I walked past the school entrance too and lo and behold, hundreds of year 11's on their lunchbreak, chilling by the gates because they don't actually have a designated area to hang about. To think I was one of them all those years ago...

So that was that. It was, what's the word, cleansing (?) to take that trip. I felt quite emotional, not because I was sad, but because I realised how much I had changed. I mean 4 years, going to art school, parents divorcing, becoming a Christian, going to Bible college, you're bound to change right?

Wow this is turning into a diary! Not sure I like this, sounds a bit self-indulgent. Ok, back to art!

This is me trying to draw people doing normal things. This is quite a poor attempt because I didn't even bother to see what angle the table should be I just gave it a slight slant so you can tell it's 3D and just whacked it on. Otherwise, it's ok I guess. Think I need to work on body proportions.

I was watching Marie Antoinette and felt inspired to draw some French-style ladies. This duchess or countess or some other regal person, don't know, haven't thought much about it, is meant to be drinking wine but I was a bit too heavy-handed with the ink. Hopefully I managed to salvage it ok. Maybe she's holding the glass on her face because she's checking herself for 17th century meningitis?

It may seem that she has an unnaturally bulbous head but I like to call this "stylised".

One of my friend's boyfriend bought a mobile phone case from me on ebay. Yay! More money to pay for CAA fees! He gave me some extra money too because I was selling the case for 1p. So I drew a card for him. It's an image of him and my friend playing badminton. "What's going on with the thing in the middle?" you ask. It's the net aka a mistake I made and tried to cover up.

Ok, so a rather eclectic post. It's like going for a pick'n'mix bag at Woolworths. RIP Woollies.

Ok. It's 1234 hours now, I better check out.

再見!

Rush Hour.

This is the part when I should write something witty but I just can't muster the creativity.

Something for the Caas!

OK so as you all know, I've been on a drawing rampage the last few days, cramming as much Indian ink in as I can as this Saturday I'll be starting my Creative Arts Academy course woop! So excited! Can't wait to learn about worship and dance :)

Haven't seen my lovely Yotties in ages (I did a Year Of Training aka YOT course last year) and I need their craziness in my life.

Anyway, back to art, so as a way to get a good start, I thought I'll make some drawings for my prospective course mates, most of them I know already so it wasn't hard to think up ideas on how to draw them.

Haha there's a funny story about this one actually. This is for Kiran, my friend from Jubilee Church. She's Indian and both her and I have this joke about getting haircuts from your aunties and always getting jobs through a friend of a friend of a friend. Without aunties, we wouldn't be anywhere. Some 1st generation Asians have this caricature idea of Westerners being promiscuous and prone to divorce hahaha! It's not true of course but very funny. So this card was kind of a parody of that.

Here's Sinta, my course leader doing her crazy acrobatic dance moves with her two adorable children in tow.

This is Hanne from Belgium, I know she loves hiphop so thought I'd draw her as a gangsta. Realised I forgot to give her glasses but actually think her being glassness is better.

This is Jamie from Isle of Wight. On orientation the SWEATies joined us and he wore these ridiculous-looking frog shoes for running called Vibrams, so I'm not drawing him all frog-like on purpose.

My lovely Faith from Uganda! This is her performing her own song Shake It in the only way that she can do.

I always think of Tim with that wolley hat and shades.

During the Leadership Training Banquet, Jono performed with Hannah and Glenn and they dressed up as, actually I don't know what but it was a lot of black. Jono donned this afro mane, shades with a fake cigarette in his mouth. He looks a lot more sane in real life.

Jana playing Bambelela on piano!

Katie! With her signature glasses, beanie hat and scarf.

Hahahaha my other yellow asian friend. Michel and I were the two girls on YOT who ate the most. She is the queen of sauces. Don't give her the mayo jar, you'll get like 3g left once she's done with it. She also had this wobble board that she shared with Ash (who always said "You've got to be kidding" in her Aussie accent) but as she's from Malaysia she says it funny like "wobblebblebor". I don't know, you really have to listen to it in person.

Paul Kloppers! Such a hilarious guy. One of his famous sayings. Also, I was in his and Jana's room and there was this tin of Carnations condensed milk, opened on the floor with nothing left in it; he ate the whole thing by itself! I know what to do him for Christmas.

Emmas Vanhyfte! My gorgeous crazy cellie and all round crazy Flemmish friend. She would always shout "CHINGALING!!!" whenever she sees me.

This is for my London friend Isi, she's not doing CAA but seeing as we've been friends for some time thought I'd draw something for her too.

So there you have it. They were quick sketches. I didn't pay too much attention to the thickness of the lines, just draw it for fun. Feel quite liberated that I'm not drawing to get the grades but just for recreational fun.

再見!

A nice cuppa char!

Ok so I know I did a post 15 minutes ago but after boiling the kettle, sorry no, saucepan (my mum has this theory that gas is cheaper than electricity and seeing as we're in a recession, every little helps) to make a cup of tea, I was tempted again to get out the indian ink and go crazy!

This literally took 5 minutes. This obviously isn't me because I use massive mugs with tanin stains on as opposed to teacups and I don't live in rooms with chandeliers. I decided to leave the next page empty as it gives the image more of a sense of space.

So there you have it. Another 5 minute illustration :D

Just for interest, how do you like your char? I let the teabag brew for 3 minutes, then take it out and add just a tiiiiny splash of milk. No sugar por favour, don't want to spoil the flavour! At the moment chai tea is my favourite and good out Twinings has send me a 50p voucher so will definitely invest in a box next time I go shopping.

再見!

Messing about.

So after doing 1 hours of my hermeneutics module, which was a relief seeing as I had a dry spell of about 2 weeks and my assignment is due early october, I called it a day. Not only have I turned a new leaf when it came to studying but I've also been getting quite creative recently. Below are some quick illustrations. Whadya think?

A famous Bible verse which I love and have said over myself over and over again this year. The typography needs some work though. Think next time I should use less colours and be more strategic when it comes to which words are in capitals and which in smalls. Christ should have played a bigger role in this illustration I think, with the other words fading more into the background. Perhaps layering with colour next time?

I'm not entirely sure what I wanted from this picture, just wanted to make bored eyes, as recent illustrators of late seem to do this a lot. Maybe she's in a dance studio attempting a plie?

Some characterisation. Wish I knew someone who looked like the boy second left.

再見!

My Bubz-inspired fabric frenzy!

After watching a video posted by Bubz, a youtube vlogger

http://www.youtube.com/user/bubzbeauty?feature=chclk#p/u/10/RQGFmvunk_Q

I felt inspired to do some DIY and create my own cute bow top :)

Bought a £1 navy blue t-shirt from Primark and got snipping.

Using fabric scissors snip the neckline so it can be worn off the shoulder.

Using an old silk scarf, I made 2 bows. Took a bit of patience as they had to be adjusted.

Once I got the right size I sealed off the ends using my beautiful sewing (given to me with love by my gorgeous friend Sarah Williams from Deal :))

Then I cut some white cloth into long strips about 5.5" wide and turned them into bows.

I then placed them into position and sewed them onto the top.

Trim off any stray threads.

There you go!

What do you think? I was quite pleased with the end result. Quite proud because it's the first top I've ever made too. My bows are a little larger than that in the video and I used different bows because I wanted to use scrap material around the house rather than buy from a fabric shop. The total cost of this project was £1. Being Chinese and a student, this is a plus for me!!

That's it for now really. Erm....going back to Bible college in 6 days time to do Creative Arts Academy, a live-in course designed to build your Godly character and teach you what it means to live a lifestyle of worship. I'll be joined by 2 of my friends from the Year of Training course as well as some new people so am super excited!

Stay tuned.

再見!