Mobile art

I have recently gotten more into mobile art. I own a Samsung Galaxy Note 3, which comes with a stylus so it’s almost the same as using pen on paper. Much better than the stylus that comes with my Dell laptop, which wouldn’t even allow me to draw a straight line or write anything remotely like my handwriting. There is good control of the Samsung stylus and the stroke are precise, an advantage I got to experience when I started playing Draw Something HAHA.

My phone comes with the Sketchbook app so all of my drawings are done on that app. It took a long while for me to get the hang of utilising the various tools offered in the app and I didn’t feel comfortable with it until quite recently. Which says a lot because the first time I ever used Sketchbook was like 3 years ago or something. Let’s just say I’m the kind of girl that gets confused without instructions but cannot really stand help pages (instruction manuals are another thing altogether, and so is desperate searching help pages).

Here are a couple of the drawings I made, and I might make more when I think of something to draw.

This painting was inspired by a recent Amy Tangerine video. I attempted to paint this because it looked so easy in the video and I was glad to find out that it really wasn’t that difficult, though the tree shadows didn’t turn out as nice as how I would like them to be.

This was a completely random drawing I made. I just picked a colour and then blend in more colours along the colour wheel, somehow ending up with sunset colours. I initially intended to do a sheep shadow but realised that I don’t actually know how to draw that so I settled for a cloud like shape shadow instead.

It’s not waste! Saved from packaging

We bought a new shelf for my room and my dad helped to put it together. While I am excited about the new shelf so I can be more productively organised (and also have more space which I can fill up with even more craft supplies) I am equally excited about all the random packaging that came with the shelf!

Spot the cardboard and the sheer fabric/cotton like thingy. Photo isn’t too clear or focused but I tried my best and my phone camera doesn’t seem to want to do that right.

I can’t wait to put some use to these recycled supplies. Cardboard because it’s always always handy to have cardboard around. Also I watched a video earlier today in which the corrugated sides of the cardboard are used as stamps and I want to try it out for myself to see how it looks. And the fabric like thingy.. well it’s just seems such such a waste to throw away such perfectly good stuff! I might have a small stash of it that I have saved up somewhere but I’ll admit that I’ve actually never used it in a project before. Right now, I can foresee sewing it into some kind of pouch or travel shoe/laundry bags, or attaching it to paper for some texture. Well, one day I’ll find the perfect project for these kind of thing.

What was the last recycled object you saved up? You’ll be surprised what ideas come up when you start to seriously brainstorm on the many ways recycled objects are useful in the craft room.

(Links are not affiliated, I just want to let you know what I have purchased.)

Ponderings: Spontaneity and Serendipity

Spontaneity is something that I have been working with for many months. Now that I look back on things, I guess spontaneity would have to be my word of the year, because I let myself go with the flow and do things. Or not. And for me this was very freeing, to be able to let my emotions take me where they want to go instead of getting cooped up in a cage while I debate with myself that there are more important and urgent things for me to do.

Granted, there have been trade offs that I willingly made. But I have not felt so connected to art since I allowed myself to get into this years ago. I realised that I can’t always do art by following a schedule, and embracing the way I work makes me a happier person than to go against it. I know many people encourage others to do art every day, even if it’s for a few minutes. But it didn’t work too well for me, for I can’t stand the idea or merely dedicated a few minutes each day – it’s either I do it properly or not. So let it free, and do what suits you best.

With spontaneity comes serendipity. I find myself liking the stuff I create on a whim more, even if they may seem odd or out of place or rough and in general imperfect. Because whenever I make plans for an art journal page, they never materialise. They just get stuck as plans. And that’s also why I like my current art journal too, though its pages are soon to end.

I leave you with one art journal page that I worked on just moments before I posted. It’s probably not going to make any sense or tell any story to anyone but myself, but I’m still drawn to it.

Both images are created using the same technique but at completely different time. That’s also another thing about spontaneity – starting and stopping as you like

Art sharing

Just want to let you know that I’ve been posting pictures of art/art processes on my revived Instagram (nocloudypooh). I am probably going to continue this because it’s an easier process than to post to the blog but we’ll see if I can link everything up in the future.

Visit to the National Design Centre

By pure coincidence I stumbled upon this building and brought home some brochures with the intention of going back again to check out what the place has to offer. So here’s a look at what I saw/what captured my attention in the small exhibition entitled “50 years of Singapore design”.

Kids playing corner where you can form things out of simple shapes. Shapes are held together by magnets. Now that I look at it, my creation looks like a platypus.

Really like the spotted nonya series design! So colourful and whimsical but yet still so traditional

I liked the design of the fauna catalogue – one large, clear picture at the top, and the name and description below it and on the bottom left hand side respectively. It could also be because the font used reminds me so much of typewriter font. One day, I hope I can own a typewriter that gives me this nice typewriting font that I love.

Apparently this video was very popular but somehow I have not seen it until today. And the idea behind the advertisement is ingenious! Go search for the video on YouTube is you have not watched it! I highly recommend it because it made me laugh out loud while watching it during the exhibition.

The iconic Singapore Girl uniform of the SIA. Turns out that everyone gets them tailor made. While it is somewhat hyped up it doesn’t lessen the thought process when into the design. As for me, I’ve always like the uniform.

This is one beautiful dress, the lovely folds of the dress giving the impression of floating and dancing and reminding me of fairies in general. And the golden orchid brooch in the middle just uplifts it into another level of elegance and grace. I wish I can wear something like that and float/dance but unfortunately I don’t own a dress like that nor do I know how to dance.

And that is all for the sneak peak of the exhibition. I quite like the exhibition and I think I might have gotten quite inspired by the exhibition because I can feel creativity wanting to burst out of myself after two months of downtime. Hopefully this means that I can craft freely now and flow with inspiration! Though it doesn’t mean that I might make things that I like or consider good, it still feels much better to be in the “I want to create” mode than “I should create something but I don’t feel like doing anything” mode. Or what I would refer to as the bah mode.

Kicking myself mentally again at the lack of design cells in my body while going through the exhibition. I imagine that is probably something I would love to indulge myself in, if only I know how to do it. But I shall content myself with making the small little things that make me happy but don’t mean anything to other people. For now at least, my crafting is something that I want to do to bring joy for myself. Because it’s the best form of achievement and satisfaction when you are happy with what you do.

Work in progress

This is how things look like when I work on a big-ish project. Currently working on an album on a past trip. I finally felt like doing this after so long; haven actually been in a crafty mood for nearly 2 months. Working on the floor because I have more space to manoeuvre and look at everything . It looks messy but to me it’s sort of an organised mess. Just thought I share something about what I’m doing.