Happy Valentine's Day friends!

Big thanks to Hilton Hanoi for always giving me flowers.:)

Happy Valentine's Day friends! Spread a little love and kindness to those around you. And have a great weekend! :)

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When these two were happier than me....*winks*

Judging by the happy smiles on these two faces and the birthday cake, one would think that ONE or maybe BOTH of them were celebrating their birthdays, right?

Nope...it was my birthday celebration and they were just happy because there was cake! *LOL*

And the photos with me in them looked terrible so none of them made it to the scrapbook album (Life is too short to live with ugly photos that live forever in your albums..hehe).

Playing along with The Studio Challenges.

P/s: Last birthday layout from 2019! *high fives all around*

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The process of drawing my nephew Gan Solo

New year, new nephew. Friends,  meet my nephew Solomon, son of my cousin A and his Vietnamese wife....or as my corny cousin affectionately calls his son, Gan Solo (yep...Star Wars reference..*LOL*).

I started with a quick sketch using a coloured pencil (Faber Castell Polychromo).

Once I was happy with the general placement of features, I darkened the drawing further with the same coloured pencil.

Next, I worked on the mouth...

Then I gave him some colour on the cheeks...

And gave him some hair...;)

Getting in on the details...this took me over a week to draw (a few hours each day)...

And it looks nothing like the reference photo...hahaha!

What do you think?

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Family fun in Orchard Road

Back in December, my sister and I went to Sephora in Orchard Road (Singapore's downtown shopping belt) for a Kenzo fragrance event and decided to bring the folks along to enjoy the Christmas lights.

We didn't get great photos because of the flashing coloured lights along the streets. Plus there were queues to take photos (yep...the folks had to queue to sit in the Christmas carriage..hehe).

But we did stop for Godiva ice-cream cones! 

And yes, your girl went into the highly neglected drawer of border punches yet again...*Go me!*

Playing along with Stick It Down.

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Make Stuff Monday - an upcycled paper bag

Hello friends! Today's Make Stuff Monday is an upcycled paper bag. :)

I started with this lovely turquoise paper bag (mum's friend gave her some CNY goodies in this bag).

I really wanted to incorporate the Queen of Spades playing card so I pulled out embellishments that matched the colours on the card...and just build up from there.

The black bow ribbon came from a Jo Malone box packaging (last week's first decorated box of 2020) so I cut it to fit my bag. To tone down the bold patterned paper background, I added a piece of paper doily which served as a perfect mat for my embellishment cluster. :)

I switched up the paper bag handles with the handles from another paper bag to match the reds on the decorated paper bag.

What do you think?

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Food Friday: Dessert photos from my phone *scroll on a full stomach*

Hoshino Coffee. Gurney, Penang

To end the week on a sweet note, I thought it would be nice to indulge in some dessertporn from my phone.... *winks*

First up, an elevated French toast with fruits and ice-cream.

CODE Dessert Cafe, Terminal 21, Bangkok

Not a French toast person? How about Thai Tea Lava Toast with ice-cream?

Intermezzo, The Westin Sydney

Something lighter and more refreshing? How about a caramel panna cotta with pistachio brittle, honeycomb and buttermilk gelato?

El Cerdo, Kuala Lumpur

Well, a cheesecake is always a good idea...

Hurricane's, Bondi Beach, Sydney

But some days you just want churros with chocolate sauce.

Garibaldi, Singapore

Or perhaps a classic Lemon Meringue Tart?

Which one/s would you pick?


Happy weekend friends!

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Drawing mum - a page from my sketchbook

Hello friends! The other day mum showed me a photo of her younger self and I decided that I should be less narcissistic (one would think that given the number of self-portraits I have been sharing...*LOL*) and draw mum instead. ;)

Here is younger mum...back in the early 70s.

As always, I started with a rough sketch with my non-dominant hand. Yep...it looks terrible but I find that it helps me loosen up and not overthink.

Here is a mid-process shot. I only used one coloured pencil for this sketch.

What do you think? Do I resemble my mum?

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How to eat a scone...according to Papa Yam *winks*

So the other day I decided to try my hand at making the award-winning scones I saw on YouTube. And of course, one would typically break up the scone to spread the butter/cream and jam on it.

Papa Yam (aka my dad) decided that that was just too much work so he flipped it over and applied the jam to the flat side of the scone. Yep...that is How to eat a scone...according to Papa Yam. *winks*

Anyway, when I whipped up my phone to get a photo of him demonstrating his method, mum thought it would be funny to "photobomb" the picture with a fly swatter. Yep...my parents are just big kids and contribute to my "laugh life".*LOL*

I played with lots of patterns as always. :)

Worked in my alpha and ribbon stash too. (Yay...go me!)

Playing along with Let's Get Sketchy.

P/s: The scones turned out yummy...in case you were wondering. ;)

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What I've learnt from participating in #the100dayproject

I challenged myself to participate and complete #the100dayproject and I did it. Sure, there were moments of doubt and dread along the way but I pushed through and drew 100 eye sketches in 100 days. Okay, technically speaking, I did it in less than 100 days because I just wanted to get it out of the way but you know, give or take a few days. *winks*

Now lots of people have successfully completed #the100dayproject over the years but it's my first time so here's a summary of what I've learnt from participating in #the100dayproject in 2019.

Eye sketch 100/100

1. Being specific in your creative project will help you to keep on track.

Initially, I thought that I should just challenge myself to be creative for 100 days straight. Not be too hard on myself. Keep the stress levels down. You know, slacker mentality. *LOL*

I suppose that would work if you don't create that often but I was already challenging myself everyday to be creative in other aspects of my life so my goal needed to be really specific for me to achieve a breakthrough. Of some sort. So I went with something I loved doing, was already doing but amped it up to see if I could improve dramatically in 100 days.

Eye sketch 22/100

2. Your goal should be challenging but totally doable if you work at it.

I'm not one to shy away from hard work but I decided to work with small eye sketches so that the task at hand won't seem too daunting, I can really work on the details and can totally catch up if I missed any days. This format also made it portable for me to work on it on-the-go especially when I was travelling.

Sketch 6/100

3. Be kind to yourself.

Not every piece needs to be a masterpiece.

There were days I was just too tired at the end of the day to work on something challenging so I "cheated" and did a quick sketch just to keep up with the scheduled days. Not my finest work for sure.

As time progressed, I realized that I shouldn't be so hard on myself on a daily basis. I decided that I didn't want to do lacklustre sketches that do nothing to improve my drawings so I gave myself permission to "skip" days and catch up later with somewhat decent pieces at the very least. And that worked out much better. I planned ahead and got a headstart on sketches when I had free time. It's amazing how not starting with a blank piece of paper can just push you forward.

Sketch 54/100

4. Keep it fun and interesting for you.

Let's keep it real. Drawing the same subject matter repeatedly gets stale fast. And you do not want muscle memory to set in and for every piece to end up looking suspiciously like the last one.

For me, I went in with different art supplies, tried out different eye angles, worked with different paper substrates and experimented with various colour combos to "force" myself to learn with every sketch. I'm proud to say that I did not waste a single sheet of paper throughout the whole process. Even when things went awry, I did my best to "salvage" the drawing and make it look somewhat decent. *Gives self pat on the back...Mother Earth smiles in approval...triumphant music plays in the background*

Sketch 25/100

Sketch 41/100

Sketch 87/100

5. Learn from your "mistakes" and try again.

There were some eye angles that I struggled with but I tried to improve on them by working on the same reference photos but tweaking the colours and varying the angles slightly. Working on different substrates also yielded different results.

Sketch 71/100

6. I didn't expect to fall back in love with old art supplies.

I didn't buy any new art supplies for this endeavour but chose to revisit supplies I already own, challenging myself to use them in new ways. In the process, I learnt to love them again. Like Copic Markers. And now I can say that I've used every single Prismacolor Premier Colored Pencils I own at least ONCE. Yes, 150 of them.

In summation, I think that #the100dayproject is a great creative challenge to try. Sure, you can do it at anytime but knowing that thousands of creatives are doing it at the same time is like having a personal cheering team behind you. I think I might just do it again in 2020. Probably not eye sketches though. Maybe dessert drawings...I have so many references on my phone. *hehehe*

Will you join me in #the100dayproject in 2020? 

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