Lisbeth Salander and Mermaid ...

Sorry to have been missing for two weeks.  Blame it on Lisbeth Salander, the heroine of Stieg Larsson's books.

I'm not really a big fan of thriller and crime fictions, but enjoy them in movies!  (Weird right?)

So when "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" movie was released a few weeks ago in Australia, I went for it.  I had no idea I was in for some really disturbing scenes. Probably because of this, I still haven't made up my mind if I like or dislike the film. But one thing for sure, Lisbeth Salander had made a huge impression on me.

A week after the movie, I downloaded the ebook version and started reading it.  I wouldn't say it is well-written and while I still remembered most of the storyline from the movie, the plot remained riveting.  I actually had a hard time to tear myself away from it.

(Mind you that the original version was written in Swedish and the only Swedish word I know is IKEA.  Hmm ... not even sure if IKEA is a Swedish word?  So obviously, the one I read was an English translation from original.)

After the first one, naturally, I had to read the 2nd one - "The Girl Who Played with Fire" and I'm about to finish the 3rd one, "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest".  Unfortunately, due to the untimely death of the author, there won't be any more of Salander's stories.  I can say that I'm already missing Lisbeth.

Aside from this fantastic distraction, I had several "crash and burn" experience with painting my girls.  As disheartened as it was, I accepted it as part of the learning process.  This also made me realize that I need some professional help.  Hence, I have joined Suzi Blu's Mixed Media Mermaids Online Workshop, which was highly recommended by fellow blogger & creative, Lisa.

Though the class is focused on mermaids and my girls are without fish tails ;) , I'm sure the workshop would help me greatly with my own drawing, painting and art making skills.

So hang in there, my fellow bloggers / creatives ... there will be new drawings & painting upload soon.

Til then, have a nice week ahead!

"Moon" and "Prickly"

Here are 2 of my latest girl drawings.

"Moon", Pencil Sketch

"Moon" CU, Pencil Sketch

"Prickly", Pencil Sketch

"Prickly" CU, Pencil Sketch

Hope they didn't shock you too much. :)

When I started my girl drawings about a month ago, I imagined I would have loads of fun making up clothes for them.  But as soon as my pencil move to below neck line ... well you can see what have been happening from the above drawings!

I have to admit that I was in quite a shock initially, but after the first nude girl drawing (which I didn't include in this post), the resistance was gone. I found myself enjoying drawing them quite a lot!

As much as the girls brought me joy, they also touched on the fear associates with being a creative person.

I have hesitation to post them.  I worry about how people would react to them and if the drawings would change how people think of me.  (Not that I have any status and / or reputation to maintain.) Ultimately, it is fear of rejection to my drawing (hence me), which have me holding onto the drawings for some time.

But that's exactly the point. Unless I give up my creativity, rejection and acceptance come with the territory.  

To me, creativity is about freedom, the free will to follow my intuition and instinct to create.

So there you go, the fear is gone ...

As usual, my fellow bloggers and creatives, what do you think of my girls?

Fear

It looks like my neck pain is finally under "control" (via pain medication, chiropractic manipulation and improved sleeping.  Yes, apart from neck pain, I got mild insomnia on the side ... )

I should be feeling good but instead something else crops up.

Currently, I'm working on overcoming the "fear" in relation to some of my drawing subjects.  Sorry if the post read a bit cryptic here.  I need to sort out the fear before I could start talking about it.

At the mean time, here are some links which I used when I encounter such "sticky" situation.  Thought to share them with all my fellow bloggers and creatives.

The Rebel's Manifesto - Keri Smith

Tips and Tricks of An Art Slave - Eric Fortune

An Interview of Ray Caesar by Chippy Coates and Richard Scarry

(Quite a long interview.  The part which I'm most interested in is:  a piece of advice for a young art grad?)

(Not that I'm young and an art grad ...)

(If you're interested in Ray Caesar and Eric Forutune [and other fantastic artists] works, follow the Artists link on my side bar.  The link is updated on a regular basis.) 

Enjoy and have a wonderful week ahead!

More Girls ...

Aside from dealing with the nasty neck / shoulder pain, I try my best to keep up my girl drawings.

Here are two of the sketches done two weeks ago.

"Girl 3" pencil sketch

"N Girl 1" pencil sketch

Right now I'm concentrating on the front view plus getting the "look" right, if you know what I mean.

Sorry for such short post ... have to be really careful not to overload myself with computer and drawing work.  (BIG LONG SIGH)

Hope you still enjoy my drawings and do let me know what you think.

Cheers and have wonderful day.

Girls

Instead of working on The Holeys, I gave in to try out drawing girls head.

Is it because of procrastination, bored of my own ideas,  new object of interest?  Probably all of them.

I won't pretend to know what I'm doing.  In fact, here is the funny thing about my 1st girl head drawing.  The idea is to draw a female face looking directly at me.  By the time when I finished the drawing, you can see that it became a young girl looking down (at something)!  Should I laugh or cry?  ;)

"Girl 1" pencil sketch

 
For the next girl, I drew the eyes much smaller and further apart from each other to see how she would look like.  O.k. she looked quite odd but in an endearing way.  I actually quite like her.  (Gee, am I weird?)

"Girl 2" pencil sketch

There is still a long way to go before I could draw a whole girl and let alone of painting one.  Nonetheless, I believe that my drawing skill is improving with each sketch & drawing that I made.

So my dear fellow creatives and blogger, what do you think of my drawings so far?  All comment are welcomed.

Til then, stay warm (in my part of the world) or stay cool (in your parts of the world) ... 

P.S.  Apologize for the poor pix :(  No other excuses than my very poor photo skill

The Holeys

Here are some of The Holeys I've been working on.

"Rupert", micron pen on card stock

 "Winnifred", micron pen on stock card

 

"Edgar", micron pen on stock card 

 "Lizzy" (Elizabeth), micron pen on card stock

I like that they have the potential to spin off into other art projects.  Here are a few I'm thinking about:

1) A set (or a few sets) of hand-drawn Holey Calendar Card 2011, like this ...

"Rupert - Mr. January", micron pen on stock card

2) A set (or a few sets) of hand-drawn Holey Note Card

3) A story blog of The Holeys

4) Turn them into paintings

But with my current health condition and other art project, I wonder if I'm asking too much of myself?  Also, I really need to spend more time on learning & practicing both drawing and painting skills.  But ..... what is the best way to learn & practice other than working on a project?  Any thoughts?

Anyway, my fellow bloggers and creative, I'd love to hear of your comments about The Holeys.  Take care and have nice week ahead. :D

"The Holeys" copyright 2010 Hybrid J / Jamie Lee. All rights reserved.

Keep Calm Kobo & Interactive Paint

Not mean to be absent for this long ...

It's just the neck pain has come back and seems like no matter what I do or don't do, it just sits there and refuses to go away .... :(

And in order to pick myself up, I had given in to two of my whims.  I got myself a Kobo and ta-dah ... acrylic paint. ;)

The "Keep Calm" Kobo and "Interactive" acrylic paint. 

OK, a bit of Hybrid J trivia here: I love reading and have been an avid reader since the age of 2.  (I used to flip through magazines sitting in my crib when my mum was out doing grocery shopping.  Or at least that's what my mum told everyone.)  And you would seldom see me without a book or carrying some sort of reading materials.  When eBook came out quite sometime ago, I thought it was the most ridiculous idea in the world.  I remembered I told my friends that they'll never catch me reading a book from a computer or any electronic devices.

But over the last few years, I began to see that no matter how often I buy book cases to store my forever growing book collections, there are always books lying around the house waiting to be sorted, read or put away.   And since I started to draw and paint, buying art books become a must.  And gee, those art books are gigantic!  A few of them could easily take up an entire shelf.  I'm sick and tired of doing this "storage catch up game" that I gave in to the idea of eBook.

As soon as the local Borders started selling Kobo about month ago, I bought one.  Well ... there's also another reason I got myself this little gadget.  The Kobo comes pre-loaded with 100 free ebooks of the English Classics. Now, how can anyone walk away from freebies!  Plus when I look at the price of the average eBook - it is almost about 1/3 to 1/2 of the  paperback / hardback version.  By switching to eBook, I'm saving space and money.  Plus I'm now carrying 100 books in my bag and could read it anytime, anywhere!  I think I just became a convert of eBook. :D

I'm re-reading my favourite crime stories - "The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes".

(BTW, my Kobo is actually of black color. I bought a "Keep Calm" gelaskin for it.  Check out the little history of "Keep Calm" by clicking this link.  I also got a Union Jack gelaskin as well.  And yes, you're right, I have a sweet spot of Englishness ...)

Now for the acrylic paint.  Honestly,  I have no idea why I bought it as I'm still learning to use ink. But I guess apart from using it as some kind of retail therapy, I must be under the influence of some of my favourite artists (see the Artist Link on my side bar).  A lot of them are either using acrylic or oil for their paintings.  From fellow blogger / creative, Lisa, I learn that it is easier to correct mistake from acrylic painting.  Probably that's why I want to give it a try.  The brand I bought (Atlier Interactive Acrylic Paint) is an Australian made re-wettable acrylic paint.  It is a new kind of acrylic paint which allows longer drying time for painters to work with.  I won't pretend to know what it means until I use it.

Anyway before I plunge in to use acrylic to paint, I decided to practice a little bit more of color mixing. So far I got my oranges, greens and a few browns.  I'm having troubles of getting more than two shades of purple. Been scratching my head to understand why.  Maybe I should just forget about it and use whatever premix purples the market could offer! ;)

 As of my drawing projects:

- Continue to develop "The Holeys" and will post them as soon as I think they are ready.

-  Hope to be able to start "Sketchbook Project 2011" this month.

That's all for now, my dear fellow bloggers & creatives!  Hope you all have a nice week ahead.  :)