Month: July 2023

What the heck is folk art?

What kind of style is that? I’ve seen stuff by indigenous tribes and all, but depending on which culture… It’s all really different… So I when I saw the folk art that Mira Byler did, it was completely new to me. It’s definitely not usual style… But hey, it looks fun and is easy to do… And I wanted to try out my holbien acrylic gouache so…

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s start with the oldest stuff I did that’s unposted, and then get to the gouache later.

Remember I said that I got the Uni Emott fineliners? Well, I happened to watch this video by Shibasaki and hence the reason why I doodled a fish. I really like that rough layer style he did… Yes I do now have that coupy-pen ordered… I think I did have some of those as a kid, but it wasn’t a staple for sure. Yeah I could do the same with color pencils and all, and ya all know I already have a ton of colors pencils (ok, or maybe you don’t since I haven’t been updating here…). But… :X

Anyway, I want to bust out my art supplies a lot more and use them, try new styles, new supplies etc…

So yeah, the Emott comes with this cool plastic stand… And the pens have this little nub on the end that sticks right in there tight, so you can invert the whole thing and it won’t fall off. The bad thing though, is that it’s hard to take the pens out! I often end up ripping just the cap off. Especially if you only want the pen in the middle… Or if you are actively switching between colors… In the end I have to rip out all of them… So it’s good for storage and looks neat for display, but practical usage? Not so much.

The pencils have come with the stand too, the same one in fact. But there’s four pencils in a set and the fifth slot is for the refill. I did buy extra refills from Tokyu Hands – the ones that were in stock anyway… And it isn’t cheap. A pack of 8 leads – that’s two per color – for 3 SGD. That’s like 37.5 cents per lead. Compared to regular graphite leads… That’s extorbidant isn’t it?

Another downside I realised with trying to do entire drawings with these mechanical pencils is that… They are slippery and hard to hold a bunch of them at once… They just slip off… And fall off the table (I have very little desk space available so…). And then after finishing you have to retract the mechanism one by one. And of course, looking at the photo now, the colors aren’t as vibrant as proper color pencils… These look more like something drawn with really cheap color pencils… Or just, not burnished in and all. I did layer it up quite a lot, and in some ares it feels as if the pencil won’t layer anymore. But I guess it’s more meant for like… Sketch lines rather than a whole colored drawing. Oh wells. I had to give it a go though, and it was fun! It also does look better in person.

Finally! The acrylic gouache. I did spend a while trying to find them yesterday afternoon… After my two meetings which I attended online. No surprise I guess, the bag of goodies from overjoyed was buried under stuff….

I was also so sleepy… I decided to bust out my ceremonial matcha and made some matcha latter. I need to learn how to make it properly though… So that I don’t get that crap ton of matcha ‘beads’. I did end up ordering two of the bamboo whisks online lol. Hope they come soon…

So I finally got to try the acrylic gouche. I was pleasantly surprised that there was no additional seal in each tube… Which was good I guess. Because it’s such a chore to have to open every single tube and you end up with paint on the foil that you don’t want to waste etc…

Also busted out this cool ceramic palette. The only problem is that… I don’t have something to cover it and keep the pain moist… I ended up using some cling film so we’ll see how that goes in a bit. I did squeeze out a bit too much brown by accident so as a result I decided to use a very limited color palette – just brown, yellow, white and black, and I was very pleased with how the painting turned out. Also nearly finished all the paint in the process.

I didn’t bother with washi taping up the sides so the frame is all wonky. Yeah being lazy is one thing, but I feel that the wonky background frame adds to the appeal of the piece. It fits the whole folk art vibe IMO.

It was fun to do this painting, and it was really easy to do too. Very simple shapes… Didn’t use a reference even… I did see Mira do something like that in a video, but I can’t remember which video so I just went in without a clear idea in mind. The dots were a bit tedious and I did have some issues with some of my brushes but after I got that sorted and used a different brush, it went a lot more smoothly. It was really fun. Despite how tedious the dots seem… It only took me like an hour and a half to do the piece, and that’s including the time I took to look for brushes, and find cling wrap to wrap up the palette (I was just estimating by the photo time stamps!).

It was kinda crazy though, starting a painting at 11:43pm. Well by the time I found the paints and made the matcha it was past 6pm… Which means dinner time… And then I wanted to go for a walk… Which I did for about 90 mins… (Walked over 6km, yay me, and also went to check out the night bazaar in the market for national day.) And by the time I cooled off, showered… It was really late. So yup, I painted till like 1:30 am, after which I decided to just leave the paint be and if it dries out… Well I get to use a different color palette for the next one.. (And it’s really just thin layers of paint left, not at all that much.)

Last bit, some miscellaneous photos. 1st one is the red and while lighting of the pasar malam (night market) from afar. Very eye catching, and I decided to check it out on the way back then. 2nd photo is from the side of the night market. I haven’t been to a night market in ages… Ok, there’s been food stalls on the empty space in front of West Mall and I’ve walked by those, even bought myself a snack or two. But that’s like… Half a night market? Not a fully formed one? With just two rows of food stalls. Ok this one isn’t that big either, and it was missing some of the more iconic night market food stalls… But it did have stalls selling non-food items, like mobile accessories, clothes… Even a stall selling potted plants! Oh and there’s that row of crane games. Didn’t use to be a thing in night markets of the past, and it all but disappeared from everywhere but the game arcades like say, 10 years ago. But now they are back with a vengeance, and there are even crane game shops in malls.

Finally the last pic there is for an ergonomic pencil grip. I got two sets of these from Artfriend… Because I got those FC black edition color pencils that have a triangular barrel and it made my hand cramp after using them for a bit. Might be better now that my wrists and forearm are more rested and ‘stronger’. But thought I’d give these a try as well… It’ll be troublesome to use though, but… Oh wells.

This post would have ended right here but this literally JUST arrived at my doorstep. Literally just! Pokemon go plus+! Whee. I haven’t been active in pokemon go for maybe like a year now… But I did feel like maybe playing it a bit casually again… And then pokemon sleep came out and when I saw that this guy could double as a sleep tracker, I understood why ppl were buying these in the Changi Jewel pokemon center a while back and yes, I was sold. I just ordered one off the internet though. Didn’t realise it came with a cute pikachu themed strap. The strap ingeniously hooks to the clip via magnets. But alas, the magnet is so weak, it’s not gonna hold the weight of the device I’m sure… So I’m not sure what the clip is for actually? I don’t know. I haven’t even put the strap on, or link it to my games yet. I just decided to pause there and finish up this post before getting back into it.

So there, I’ll end the post there, got a new toy to play with after all!

The magic keyboard for my iPad Pro that is.

Pros:

• Good typing experience
• Has a trackpad
• I can charge the iPad from the left side as well via the bypass charging port

Cons:

• Expensive!!!
• Heavy
• Currently the keyboard folio has no trackpad, and I’m using it just fine. Might not actually use the trackpad that much/might take a while to get used to the idea of there being a trackpad.
• Not sure when the new keyboard will be out… But sources seem to indicate it’ll be next year rather than this year

Hmm… Not that many points I can think of really? Hmm… My greatest worry I guess is that if a brand new keyboard comes out in Oct then I’ll be like, well fuck me. Other than that… I’m just so tempted to get one…

It came. The last set of Uni Emott pencils that I was missing, as well as the set of Uni Emott pens. 5 pens in a set. Unfortunately I have yet to try those pens…

It arrived last night I was just busy typing up my dream (like literally had a strange dream the night before, and I have a ‘dream blog’ to record my strange dreams)… As well as typing up about the Disney 100 rubik’s cube that arrived a while back.

By the time I was done it was past 1am and I decided that I should not type this up as well because I shouldn’t sleep that late…

But well guess what? I’m still so exhausted now. So much so for thinking that I’d mostly recovered… Not quite… Ok maybe I should try to sleep earlier at night, since regardless I just wake up at 7-ish am anyway… Though that in itself is also an improvement to the 6+am I was waking up at a while back. Gah. I’m just so tired now, I don’t really know what to say.

Got a few stuff for the trip done today… Paid for travel insurance, and signed up for YouTrip and Revolut… So that’s the currency part covered… Well sort of. I think I do need to change some $$$ for the trip. Like a few hundred in USD and Euros combined. Not too much… I’m expecting most places to accept credit card, and I’m wary of pickpockets in Paris… And that would be our first stop in Europe… So I don’t want to bring too much cash around… And gotta keep that wallet and credit card safe! Yeah…

I did talk about my upcoming trip in this blog right? I think so… I can’t remember anymore… My mind is in a mess and right now I’m just sooo tired… I could use some caffeine but I’m also a little wary of that, because my stomach isn’t in the best condition and coffee or tea makes it worse… Ok, made myself some pu’er, it’s a fermented tea with a lot less caffeine and just less ‘cold’ and more stomach friendly… Just gotta wait for it to cool… My tongue can’t take hot stuff well.

Oh what was I talking about again? My upcoming conference trip. Go read my last few blog posts if you don’t know what I’m talking about… And while you are at it, you could check out my other Twisty blog too.

Hmm… Nothing much else I was intending to write about actually… I haven’t even taken those new pencils and pens out of the box yet, so unfortunately I can’t say much else about them… I hope to do more… ‘Free’ sort of drawings, because I find it too time consuming to do nice, detailed drawings where I draft and erase over and over with the pencil… But I guess without adequate drawing skills, you can’t just expect a beautiful drawing to appear freehand and all… Oh wells. Whatever. Either way it’s more practice needed, and I just want to pick up the pencil and sketch something… Or just a random pen and do some sketch…

Speaking of which… I had a really cool metal (I can’t remember aluminium or titanium) marker with like a knock mechanism or something… Like a really thick marker that is great for graphical sketches and stuff… And I have no freaking clue where it is! Been just looking for it for a while now and I just can’t find it. Just. No idea where it went. And being a little… OCD or whatever… It just distresses me so much. Oh same with the tiny cross for the miniature that I’ve been painting. I freaking lost a piece! I have no ida where on my very messy table (or heck, even the floor!) it might have dropped to. Yeah. Of course it’s my fault for not keeping the pieces properly. But damn! It’s almost done too… Damn! Now I can’t finish up the last bit of painting for the environment and I can’t put it all together because I’m missing a piece! Like… arghs. I’ll show photos of the completed project someday… But I did take a photo of part of it…. Nope. I swear I took a photo, but I can’t find it now. Oh wells. I’ll just show you readers another time. Bleargh. So sleepy.

I guess I’ll just call it a day here… Till next time.

I scooted off early from work the other day… Wednesday I think? And went shopping in Orchard road. Mainly for the sake of visiting Overjoyed… And well I also dropped in on Tokyu Hands, Donki, and several places along the way.

Tokyu Hands! Ahhh I do miss that shop. I wish the one at Westgate was still around… We need a new outlet in the west, open one please! I was pleasantly surprised to see them selling both the Sailor and the Pilot dip pens. It’s the first time seeing the Pilot dip pens sold in stores here for me. Not that they weren’t sold here until now, don’t get me wrong, but I just haven’t been shopping in ages. It’s been a long time since I last visited Think or Fook Hing…. Because work has just been quite crazy. The good thing is that I haven’t been that crazy in terms of buying FP stuff, because neither of those two shops sells stuff online. I still did make some online purchases from OVJ and cityluxe though… :X And I did buy A LOT of art supplies… Like all my miniature painting stuff recently. Lots of acrylic paints for miniatures, and lots of teeny tiny brushes. The space constraints are getting ever more severe… Opps.

The ‘I work on computers’ sticker is absolutely adorable. But alas, the quality didn’t feel that good, like I wasn’t sure if it could take a beating… So I ended up not getting it. I was looking around to see if there were any nice B-side label stickers but the ones they had in stock were pretty generic. I did buy a colorful merlion one though. Might stick it on my luggage bag for the trip…?

Also got taken in by the Uni Emott pencils and bought two sets. Ended up ordering the last set on Amazon (free shipping whee) to complete the collection. I’ve given them a whirl… They are ok. Nice, smooth barrel, very light… But might be a bit slippery. Not like the most ‘high class’ of mechanical pencils, but they function alright. It comes with a stand too so that’s pretty neat, if you want to display it on your desk and all. The lead itself is on the harder side, and the colors seems to be a little light. Still, I thought it might be fun to sketch and doodle with those… I’m treating it more like erasable color pencils maybe? I don’t know. But overall they are very pretty. Not the cheapest, but very pretty stuff.

Overjoyed! What can I say? I’m finally here. And seeing all the products in person rather than online. The last time I went there has to be in Nov last year, when twoset did their 4mil subscriber concert. I got tickets for the rehearsal and went shopping in Orchard road afterwards, before ending up at Cathay to do a quick shop at Ovj… As well as switching out the ‘liquid pencil’ supply on a drawing box I got online, only to find out that it’s really more like a paste than ‘liquid’. Yeah. They have since moved to Cineleisure and I finally visited their new shopping last week. It’s nice to see Mathu there, but she was so busy she only got LUNCH at like… 7pm. Didn’t realise/remember it till much later, but the Taiwan night market food street thing just had their soft launch, so I guess that brought a ton of ppl to their shop too. She asked if I was there for that – nope, I was there solely for Ovj. The entire shop was pretty big, but still I think it’s smaller than the Cathay outlet. It had more of an industrial and less polished feel, more reminiscent of their Rocher outlet. I was delighted to see all the Holbien paints and just couldn’t resist picking up a bunch of Holbien watercolor tubes. I ordered a bunch of their arcyla gouache previously, but have not tried them yet! Mira Byler likes them a lot and I was tempted by her! Also delightful to me was to see all the open stock color pencils. Well previously I already saw they had Holbien open stock… And I did buy myself a set, plus some open stock in my latest online buying spree… But I have yet to test those lol. And ahhh the irojiten color pencils! I saw someone posting about those sets on the Sarah Renae Clark’s facebook group, and my interest was pipped. There are sets available on the Ovj website, but I didn’t see them in person in the shop… So I picked out some pretty pastel colors as open stock instead… I did spend less money then I would have if I’d gotten a set, so I felt that I made the right choice. They have other colors that are more vibrant, but they seem to do a lot more pastel colors so… I thought I’d go with it, and can use them for more cute doodles with no shading.

I did like that the barcode stickers on the irojiten were the high quality, metallic foil stickers, so I had no trouble peeling them off, unlike cheap and aged paper stickers. I still had a few pencils that had sticky residue that needed cleaning off though. But at least I didn’t have to dig my fingernails into sticky paper stickers, trying to get every last bit of paper off. And it’s not because I’m that OCD about this… But rather, the additional thickness of the sticker makes it too thick to fit into my automated pencil sharpener. And in the case of these metal foil stickers… I’m not sure if the sharpener will handle it well at all.

Took a photo of the back of the Emott pencils, where the numbers and colors are listed… I bought refills as well and that’s for the purpose of identifying the refill lead. It just comes in a box of 8 leads, all mixed in a tube… And it’s kinda hard to identify which pencil is for which lead box… Especially since some of the colors (like the two reds) are rather similar. I’m debating whether to just load up the leads into the pencil… But it will jiggle and be noisy in the pencil so… Maybe not.

Also got the Koh-i-noor calligraphy pens. They are cheap, something like just $4.50, and there’s 4 sizes. The lines are nice a crisps, and makes me want to pick up black lettering again.

Ahh the pencils and color pencils. The Emott is less soft than I’d expected… So the leads won’t run out too fast. It’s also a thicker 0.9 width size, so the run out of the mill 0.5 and 0.7 mechanical pencils won’t work with this lead – if you’re thinking of just getting the lead refills. This makes me want to try out othered pencil leads though, and I swear I have some hidden somewhere in my stash. Cheap ones from Aliexpress. I think pilot also has made some colored leads? I do like having the whole range of colors all ‘inked up’ (borrowing some fountain pen terminology!) though, and the design of the Emott pencils are nice and clean. I did also grab a set of 4 (? The small set) Emott fine liners. They have huge sets, like 50 fine liners and stuff. I was tempted, but I really don’t use fine liners *that* often so. I held myself back successfully. Phew.

As for the irojiten pencils. I don’t know what type they are – wax or oil based. Didn’t read up about them. But they aren’t as soft as prismacolors, and don’t seem to blend as well. Not as hard as the polychromos though… Like an in between. Haven’t actually properly done anything with them though, so I won’t venture to say more. The core is definitely way stronger than the prismacolors, or even the faber castell black editions. I can sharpen them to a much longer point and use them without the point breaking. They are nice and smooth too.

Finally… Did another little drawing with my pentel arts fluorescent oil pastels. My comfort go to drawing of a scientist in a lab coat… Only that it’s a lot less detailed than my usual drawings. This would be the first time I’m drawing that colored in actually. I think? Usually I just do it as an outline/sketch. I actually draw it in the farewell gift book that we will be giving to the PhD student in our lab… It’s a useful thing to know how to draw lol!

Alright. That’s all for now… Till the next one I guess?

In exchange for publishing a journal paper. That’s what my life has been pretty much the last half a year. As well as through Aug – say Nov last year. So really… Not much of a break at all…

And honestly, I don’t know if it’s really worth it. It’s been going on for way too long, and it’s been wayyy too much work. I swear, working 80 hour (or more) weeks is NOT normal for a research officer. You pretty much only hear that sort of numbers for doctors…? Not that it’s right for anyone to have to put in that sort of hours, regardless of pay… But I’m only making a tiny fraction of what those folks are earning. Maybe something in the realm of a quarter or a 1/5? It’s rapidly becoming a life exchange. Exchanging my physical and mental health for… Nothing. No freaking clue if it’s even worth anything at all.

Yeah.

Only in the past few weeks, after a lot of shit and health scares in the family… That I forced myself to slow down… On the weekends that is. Tried to do a bit of art besides catching up on my sleep. Yeah, there’s just too much shit to be done. I just could not avoid working till like 11 pm or 12 am on weekdays… The last two weeks were exceptionally bad, Like I’d be jumping into the lab at 11 pm to start imaging a sample… I’m exhausted. Physically and mentally.

Finally have a bit of a breather now as we wait for the editor to respond…

I haven’t been writing letters to pen pals in almost a year… But I did get back to journaling recently… Or what I call ‘scrapbooking’. Basically, printing photos on my Canon selphy photo printer and then sticking it on a notebook and writing some text to go with it.

Speaking of the photo printer… Geez… It gave me quite a scare as it just refused to recognise the ink cartridge and photo paper. Dug around the web for a bit, tried cleaning it out to no avail… In the end I almost dissembled the whole thing, till I could dissemble it no more, then put it back, and it miraculously works again. Has been working for a few weeks now (well I printed two other times besides the first) and so I take it as it being fixed now.

So what artsy stuff have I been up to? I did a few drawings… I didn’t take photos of everything I did… But some drawings, and also painted some miniatures… That was pretty fun.

Yeah that’s some of the stuff I’ve been up to… Got two of the miniverse make it mini food and guess what? They were IDENTICAL. Color and all. Geez. Talk about luck/dupes. It was also way less exciting than I thought it might be to put it togethers… Maybe if I’d gotten something else it would be more fun… But yeah… I gave the dupe to my sis and whenever I feel tempted to buy another, I think of how I’d gotten doubles and didn’t quite have much fun with it, and all that temptation would be gone. Yeah partly because I wasn’t quite in the mood for it maybe. And partly because I’d already known what to expect because I watched Nerdecrafter doing it… so the element of surprise wasn’t there… I think I’d have way more fun doing ‘freestyle’ resin crafts… I did make my first item with the sophie and toffee kits and that was pretty fun. Deciding on what color to put in and all, making a mess etc… Way messier but wat more fun than the make it miniverse kit so yup. Have yet to make another resin craft, sure would like to though!

Well that’s it for now I guess. It’s dinner time so see ya later!