Life really is delicious

Enough said.

Whimsy in the Park

I'm learning from my colleague, Patrick Green, to #steallikeanartist. So for my first sketch on the theme whimsy, I did a google search for inspiration. There are beautiful graphic designs with whimsical trees and birds. Following the tree idea, I also saw a poster at the SG Botanic Gardens recently with trees made out of simple shapes. I'm always trying to learn something new when I create something for a sketchbook, so this was my lesson in Adobe Illustrator. YouTube helped me figure out how to make the tear drops and how to draw shapes you can color in. It was fun! I hope you enjoy my whimsical adventure.

Can you spot the outlier?

My sketch this week was motivated by my visit to the Red Dot Design Museum in Singapore. The museum is full of good design...well designed objects, technology, furniture, graphic design, posters, videos, etc. While there, I saw some books on typography and fonts. I love fonts. I'm kind of obsessed with them. Betsy's sketchbook theme is "Outliers". So, I thought I'd use fonts to think about outliers. Can you spot the outlier? It's obvious. But what makes that one the outlier? (Hint, there is more than one right answer.)

a positive spin

a positive spin

Sandy's theme, "The Hamster Wheel of Life", got me thinking. I first thought about life in general and where we all end up. Then I remembered some really great photos I took at an old country cemetery. But this thinking was a bit negative, so I started thinking about the literal hamster wheel of life. When do we actually ride wheels? I remembered this photo I took at Santa Monica Pier in California. After showing Sandy my art for her book, she said it's the antithesis of the hamster wheel of life...another way to look at things. I googled hamster wheel and found this:

When life's melancholies and loss get to us, we need a spin on a ferris wheel. Hence the title, "a positive spin".

I turned this photo into a faux painting in Photoshop with the Oil Painting tool.

Thinking of Home

Rock Falls Post Office, Illinois

This is a photograph of the post office in my hometown. The nicest people work here. They have known me since I first moved to Japan and my mom started sending me care packages. Since then, they have followed me around the world and back home again.  They are always friendly and helpful. They always give me a smile despite my asking them to weigh everything and give me every option for mailing it. :)  B delivers mail to my mother's house. She is the kind of person who bakes us muffins when times are tough and delivers packages to my mom's door because she can't walk out to the mailbox. Whenever I visit other post offices, I remember why I appreciate the people at the Rock Falls Post Office so much. When I am there, I am reminded that I am at home.

Kelly's theme is "I'm really not wasting time." One way that I like to waste time is by going through the endless number of photos on my computer and picking some to edit. Lately, it seems, I never make time to do that though. Thanks Kelly for giving me a reason to play. I took this photo this summer when I was at home. It is actually five photos of the same thing at different exposures. I used HDR Pro Photoshop to combine the images into one HDR (high dynamic range) image.

Watercolor Quilt

My theme is exploration. Doing a sketch book is not something I normally do. I've typically not been someone who draws or paints, so I chose the theme exploration to inspire me to get out of my comfort zone and make some art. My sketches this week are watercolor quilts. There are two because I owe Heidi a sketch from last year. Her theme last year included textiles which reminded me of quilts which led to this. Each square was a kind of exploration. I did the top sketch first and I learned a few things and I made Heidi's sketch even better.

Looking forward to exploring with all of you.

Perspective on Singapore

Photography is the art form I'm most comfortable with and that's what I used for Scott's book on Perspective. Living in Singapore sometimes overwhelms me with the numbers of people and lack of space. I make sure to find another perspective on Singapore by looking for the green, open spaces when I need to feel space. So, I took a bike ride from Woodlands to Ang Mo Kio Bishan Park and captured these scenes. (I have to admit that Doug helped me post process the photos to get the vibrant colors that you see.)

Orchids for Heather R

I wanted to do some art on my iPad, and this was the result. It was fun to experiment with brushes and colors. I imagine it's a little bit like experimenting with different mediums on paper, but without the mess and without having to wait for things to dry. The app I used was Sketchbook Pro.

Exploration

I chose the theme of exploration because I am a novice explorer in the world of art. I never considered myself artistic or creative, but more recently, my definition of those words is expanding. I also thought that I couldn't learn how to draw, but after taking an art class through Groupon last year, I've changed my mind on that too! (This also reaffirms my belief that all kids can learn.)

For these reasons, and because I like to learn new things, I said yes to Becky's sketchbook fun. So off I went to Art Friend to look for supplies. Knowing nothing about art supplies, I just explored the aisles and ended up with a basic graphite pencil set and a set of watercolour pencils that intrigued me. Using Gustav Klimt's Tree of Life as inspiration, I created the above. I played with the pencils and water and saw the results. If I did it again, I could do it better...and that's the point, right? Happy exploring everyone!

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