watercolour inspiration + DIY Bubble Lamp

I've been wanting to make stuff and post on my blog forever but work has been crazy lately (I'm practically sleeping there) so it feels like it's been a longgggg while my friends. But here I am, back again - this time with some inspiration from other sources. I have to admit that even though I love drawing, I really don't know that much about art AT ALL... I can probably count on one hand the number of artists I can actually name (uh... Picasso? Van Gogh?) and I have to say that I sadly don't know any art techniques... I just... experiment and make it up as I go along. So lately, I've been really amazed at artists who use WATERCOLOUR because I don't know how to paint. 

Since I have been a work-zombie lately, I've been much more prone to observe art than to make it. So here are two sources of inspiration that have amazed me lately. The first is actually from a style look-book that I picked up for free at MONKI (a really cool European clothing store). Aside from an awesome clothing collection, the look-book also featured different artists and even had a DIY idea for a BUBBLE LAMP. I'm totally going to make one for my permanent home in the future but for now, I thought I'd share the idea with you all... so I took photos of the instructions haha.

The look-book also came with a free art poster by a UK artist named Laura Laakso. I think she uses watercolour and pen for her drawings... I love the chilly winter style of her illustrations and I think they're fabulous!!! I put the poster up under my own little doodle frames (which by the way, have verses written in them now... also sources of inspiration for when the going gets tough).  =)

 My second piece of art inspiration comes from PageONE, an English bookstore in HK. Last weekend, I spent more than an hour in there by myself, wandering through every section just looking for books to catch my eye (yes, I was judging them by their covers, bahahaha). I ended up buying a book called Smile, please by a local HK artist named Jeanie Leung. She's a girl who had a job in finance but then quit to become an artist (that's inspiring in itself! haha). Her picture book is all about finding contentment and one's identity - I feel like it's really more of a story for adults and I really liked its message. I also liked the book because the characters kind of reminded me of the fat-faced cartoon people that I draw. 

Just looking at the pictures inspired me to try watercolour painting so the next day I went and bought watercolour paints... and today, I FINALLY had a little time to experiment with them. Honestly though, I had no idea what I was doing and it was really hard haha... I think I'm quite impatient when it comes to painting even though I know it takes years of practice and I can't expect to be good at it right away. I ended up just making a giant green blob on a piece of paper... haha PAINTING FAIL... but at least I made up a quote to write on my green blob and make it look half-decent. Do you like it? (ironically, the quote I thought up is all about patience). haha. 

Anyway, I hope you were also inspired by these artists... I expect you all to go make your own bubble lamps now. 

who says you can't play with your food?!

Yup. It's been awhile. But it's EXAM SEASON which means I've basically been a slave for the past few weeks with absolutely no life. During one particularly long meeting, my ears were listening (or at least trying to listen) to the speaker while my eyes were intensely concentrated on doodling. I stand by my personal theory that I listen better when I'm drawing. Anyway, aside from exam season, 'tis also the Christmas season at McDonalds. In an attempt to be festive, I ordered a gingerbread latte and a gingerbread cake (hey, I need all that sugar to have energy for a 3-hour meeting)... =P

I ordered the gingerbread latte to go, but next time I want to order it in store... and I expect nothing less than that foamy gingerbread man smiling at the top of my latte.

I was in a doodling mood but didn't have any paper to draw on, so I had to find other drawing surfaces...like the McDonald's paper bag...

...and the cake box...

...and the inside of the cake box...

...it was good cake by the way. I enjoyed devouring every crumb of that little gingerbread man's face.

rest in peace little gingerbread man (spoken while I pat my stomach creepily)... rest in peace.

Hamlet's makeover

My little piggy HAMLET resides at my desk and keeps me company at work everyday. But today, I felt like he needed a little makeover.

 So with my packet of post-it notes, I set out to give Hamlet a little more character...

You can never go wrong with the bowtie + moustache + monocle look... with a toilet-paper cape thrown in for good measure.

Throw in the pig/cow skull as a Shakespearean reference and we've got ourselves a true classic Hamlet act.

It was a nice craft to help me relax a bit after work. Although immediately afterwards, I was so tired that I fell asleep on my laptop... and when I woke up... this is what my Word Document looked like:

hahahaha... oh man. And THIS, ladies and gentlemen, is why I clearly need more sleep. Speaking of which, sleep is probably a good idea right about now. Good night!

love + friendship is all i need.

Remember the bird doodle from THIS post? Well, with my friend's iPad, my doodle was digitally transformed with random app effects and it looks totally different from my original sketch. Then, I added two quotes that I like about love and friendship - dedicated to Randolph and to all my friends who are far away! =)

 I like how the sepia-toned + friendship quote turned out... I feel like printing it out and framing it somewhere. It would make a good poster on my blank white wall!

weekend adventures!

The adventure started when my friend Quie and I had a huge burger and ice-cream fest (yes... another one of those... it should really deserve its own category on my blog). We each got 3 mini-burgers from Ruby Tuesday (1 chicken, 1 crabcake, and 1 beef burger).

I usually don't like pictures with flash, but I think using flash captures the greasy gorgeousness of burgers.

 Afterwards, we went to Haagen-Dazs for dessert - that purse below is actually an ice-cream cake!

 We ordered this ice-cream + creme brulee dish below. I took a picture because I was skeptical whether it would actually look like that when it came (pictures are deceiving in Hong Kong)...

 ...and for once, the picture didn't disappoint!

After this whole burger + ice-cream bonanza though, Quie and I felt like we should do something healthier the next time we hung out.

So... the next week...

we climbed a mountain!

I saw this mountain every day at work and every time I looked at it, I wished that I had time to climb it. After 3 months of procrastinating, I finally attempted it...

 At the foot of the mountain, people like to hang their clothes to dry in public... but they also like to dry things like garlic cloves on cardboard...

... and white vermicelli noodles on towels... which are right next to an old abandoned mattress... YUM.

We trekked along narrow pathways lined with bushes...

...through dried-up (sewer?) tunnels...

 ,,,past giant barb-wired fences...

...and up steep flights of stairs...

...until we finally reached a run-down, abandoned house...

(look closely... do you see anything extra creepy? hahaha...)

This place would be a perfect location for one of those cheap home-video horror movies... honestly though, this house would be so creepy at night.

We walked a bit further and came across ANCIENT MEDIEVAL CASTLE RUINS (sepia-tone added for extra effect)... haha... randomest thing you could ever find in Hong Kong.

Seriously, this place reminded me of the stone table where Aslan was killed in the Chronicles of Narnia movie... yes... agree with me...

This would be a good set for one of those high-fashion photoshoots haha...

Anyway, we found a flight of stairs that went up to the rooftop of the ruins...

...and looked out onto this beautiful view!!! I love how you can see the outlines of other islands in the distance...

... on a side note... do you see anything creepy in the picture below? I only noticed that scary flag at the bottom when I went home and looked at the picture closely. Yet another horror film moment.

But even that couldn't ruin the whole experience of just taking a day off to explore nature...

 Apparently at night though, there are wild feral dogs that roam the area... we only saw one dog on the way back down and I thought it was dead (it wasn't).

In the end, it was such an awesome adventure (even though I'm pretty sure I almost fainted on the way up due to lack of regular exercise)...and of course, we ended off our wonderful little hike with something sweet to reward ourselves... haha. =)

 Frozen yogurt always makes for a great happy ending.

=)