Monday 31 August 2015

Derwent Art Bars, Aquatone, and Inktense

  Last night, I had a bout of creativity at around midnight... And I decided to play around with some Derwent loot. Before you ask, Derwent Art Bars, Aquatone, and Inktense (both the blocks and the pencils) can be bought from Art Friend.

  I wanted to do background washes with the products so that I could tangle on them. I used Fabriano postcards as my support (the paper). It's 300gsm, cold-pressed paper; and it takes watercolours and ink beautifully. I also love these postcard papers because they marry the awesome quality of Fabriano paper with just the right size of a postcard. Plus they even print a few lines and a space to stick your stamps on the back of each postcard. How cute. ^-^

  First up was the Art Bars. Basically, Art Bars are triangular bars of solid, highly pigmented wax-based colours. Their entire Art Bar line is split into four categories- Brights, Pales, Earths, and Darks.  I only have the set of 12, which contained; 

Brights:
Process Yellow, Tertiary Orange, Primary Red, Process Magenta, Tertiary Purple, Primary Blue, Process Cyan, and Tertiary Green

Earths:
Raw Umber

Darks: Paynes Grey, Black, and Opaque White

  I'm actually quite intrigued by what the "Mixing Bar" would be like. I imagine it to be like a colourless blender for coloured pencils.  But anyways, I laid on some colour onto the paper. The sticks did stain my hand and fingers, so I had to be careful of where I placed my hand in order to not get transfers of colours onto places I didn't want them to be. The colours washed off my hand with soap and water, though.

You can see the tooth of the paper really clearly.

The Art Bars felt almost like oil pastels. Really creamy. Beautiful vivid colour, even when dry.
And then I added water.

Gorgeous bright colours. The red looked warmer in real life. In the picture it almost looks orange...

  Whilst I let that dry, I did another, this time using the Aquatone. Aquatones are pure sticks of watercolour. (Think "watercolour pencils minus the wood casing on the outside".) I don't have a "before adding water" picture for this piece... But what I can tell you is that the Aquatones felt almost like pastel pencils on the paper- a sort of scratchy, really dry feel to them. The colours they put out are also no where near as vivid as the Art Bars. However, I can imagine building up colour with multiple washes, or making sure that your paper is saturated with colour before adding water to ensure a more solid fill.

This is how the Aquatone looks like with just one layer of colour.
The yellow looks really delicate and beautiful. However, I wanted the purples to look darker.

  I was, however, too lazy to build-up the colours. So instead, I switched to my Derwent Inktense blocks. I have the 72 sets of both pencils and blocks from the Inktense range, so you can tell that I really REALLY love them. The Inktense blocks look like pastels. They're drier than the Art Bars but produce equally vivid colours and they're permanent once dry. 

  I liked the softness of the yellow, so I left it alone. Added purple and pink tones, and...
Ahhh~ So so much better. Look at that contrast!I might do a side-by-side comparison of Art Bars and Inktense blocks some time in the future, maybe.

Note to self: Don't use Inktense blocks on your white study table without laying some newspaper/scrap paper on the table first.. Otherwise you get ink stains that don't wash off afterwards. *sighs lightly* 


  So that's about it for this post. I'll show you how the final art works look like when I'm done. And if I do more of such projects, you'll be sure to see them on here at everythingis-art.com. :)

Friday 28 August 2015

Regarding the Winner of My July Giveaway...

  ... I picked a winner, but it has been 48 hours and they haven't replied. So I've been forced to pick another winner.

  I'll be announcing the winner as soon as they reply to my e-mail. Till' then~

Update:
  It's really sad when the winners don't reply~ I'm onto my third pick already! Hopefully this winner will reply to my e-mail. Participants of the giveaway; please check your inbox and spam! I've titled the e-mail "RE: Tote Bag from Visualtroop" and you should receive it from stephanie@everythingis-art.com

Second Update:
  The winner has replied! Congratulations Junji. ^-^

Tuesday 25 August 2015

One fifth of a century... Wow.

Look at the amount of people that came for the event~

There was wine, baguette, sausage slices, and pâté. It was lovely.  

And our team won this quiz that was held during the event. Woohoo! \•.•/

  Also, on the 23rd, my mum had her birthday. I made her a card:
A bunny cause she was born within the Chinese zodiac year of the rabbit. And a rainbow background cause that's what her Chinese name means. 

Blue watercolour background with salt to make pretty patterns.
My mum liked the cute carrots and the cabbage.
I added words in after taking these photos, but they're meant for her to see only. :x

  And today, is my birthday~ I'm one fifth of a century- twenty years old... I didn't feel like an adult when I turned eighteen. This year is no different. I still don't feel like an adult. I don't really think there's a particular birthday that one suddenly feels like an adult, is there? Half of the time, everyone is just fumbling around in life and seeing how things turn out.

  I'm just glad of the happy memories I've made in the past year.. The things I've learnt... The amazing opportunities I've been given.. How I'm chasing my dreams and doing what I love for a living.
  Go see me at Alliance Francaise to wish me a happy birthday. That's where my exhibition is being held. I'll give *you* a gift if you mention my birthday (cause' I'd know you're a reader, and it'd make me really happy to meet a reader of my blog).   Click ( here ) for more info about the exhibition, how to get there, timing that the gallery is open, etc.

  It's almost the end of August already! Can you believe it? Time flies by so fast....


  My mum and I already starting to plan for our next exhibition...... I'm excited.



Thursday 20 August 2015

I've fallen in love...

  Whew. Setting up an exhibition is a lot of work... We've now just passed the first week of "Building Bridges". I've been busy meeting people, hanging out at the gallery, and also taking time out to do new personal art projects.

  I've updated my website and my mum's website. So even if you don't have the time to visit my exhibition, you can still view all the art works online.
  Click (here) for my website and (here) from my mum's website.

  I've also begun a new sketchbook. My previous one was a black Daler Rowney Ebony sketchbook from Art Friend. I loved it so much I bought a similar one- just that this new one is from their "Luxury Cover Sketchbooks" line and has a shiny purple cover.

  Here are a few drawings that I've made recently: 
"Heartstrings" in a line and "Voga" for the background.

"Bunzo" without the filling in.

And finally, this is my third Zendala and the first that I've actually liked.
I've fallen in love with Zendalas (that's literally why this post is titled how it is. hahaha)
I've grown to like the circle shape of the paper and have become more comfortable with filling in the sections of a Zendala. It's very different from Zentangle tiles, but pushing yourself out of your comfort zone once in a while is good. It helps with growth.

  Also! Last three days to join my Visualtroop giveaway!

Wednesday 12 August 2015

"Undu" Zendala Tile

"Undu" is a really fun pattern to do.
Plus, it looks really eye-catching if you fill in every alternating space.

  At the time of writing, it's 12:21am in Singapore... I'm quite tired and have to get up at 8:30am for an early start to set-up my exhibition, "Building Bridges". By the time you read this, I'll probably already be at the gallery space, starting to set things up... My anxiety has been doing alright. On a scale of 1-10, it's currently at a healthy 4. There's a voice at the back of my head reminding me of Murphy's law, though... "Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong." Well, let's hope that as little as possible can/will go wrong.


  I've done quite a number of Zentangle® tiles in the last couple of days, but I haven't found the time to show you lovelies. I'll get around to that as soon as I get some down-time.

  For now, though, I shall head to bed. Good night~

Saturday 8 August 2015

SG50 Tribute Art Work

  Here's what I drew to celebrate Singapore's 50th birthday:
Zentangle® patterns on Zendala tile.
Done with 0.1 Sakura Micron pen. (The silver thing in the picture is my pencil.)
  To everyone living in Singapore; I hope you enjoy your long weekend. Happy National Day!


  I'm so so close to the grand opening of my exhibition. Another reminder that the exhibition will be open from the 13th of August to the 3rd of August. Entry is free and open to the public. I will not be present every single day of the exhibition, so if you want to meet me, do send me an e-mail via stephanie@everythingis-art.com.

  More info. about the exhibition, via this link.


  Also, another reminder about my ongoing giveaway! I'm giving a tote bag of any design from Visualtroop.com to one lucky reader. You can view my review of Visualtroop and for the widget to join the giveaway via this link.


Thursday 6 August 2015

Joey's Zentangle Challenge: Inapod Monotangle

  This is my submission for Joey's Zentangle challenge:

I drew a string and then made the "Inapod" pattern follow the shape of the string. Then I layered more Inapods under that.  Finally, I extended the little beads to the outside of the enclosing box.

Then I noticed that I had completely forgotten the shading...
So I added that. And I thought, "Well, why not fill in the outside of the box in black"... And this is what the tile looks like now.

  It can be difficult to make monotangles look visually interesting and/or unique. But I love the challenge that provides, while at the same time not having to worry about what other tangles I will put in the tile because it's just one pattern for the entire tile.

  I can't wait to see next week's challenge. ^-^

Saturday 1 August 2015

Joey's Zentangle Challenge: Hollibaugh

  It was difficult to create an interesting tile with just Hollibaugh... Some of the other submissions for the challenge were really interesting. Like, layering Hollibaugh within itself- I thought that was a neat idea. This is my submission for the challenge:

"h" is for "Hollibaugh".
  More challenges? Click something you like: