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International Owl Awareness Day

1 Aug

As I indulge in my free time by carving up a whole township of owls and creating their characters, I am also slowly discovering a lot of information about this creature.

While they may be carnivorous, mysterious and nocturnal in nature, mine are a little bit more fun – cute, giggly-looking and certainly not carnivorous. And I’d like to think my Citizens of Gigglesville do also hold a special place in the hearts of all who appreciates my efforts.

Owls are enigmatic birds and can be lovable or spooky depending on how one looks at it. As 4th of August is International Owl Awareness Day, here’s a good site: http://www.owlworlds.com (there are plenty more) to learn about this fascinating creature.

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The Making of Wanderlust Owl

28 Jul

It wasn’t easy to carve Wanderlust Owl. The sketch was ugly and amateurish but I could visualize how the character would look. And with patience and determination, it started to take shape.

At 31mm only in height, I had to include a cap, a back pack and a hiking pole, new elements that doesn’t appear on normal citizens of Gigglesville. As for the hiking pole, I actually used a toothpick because I didn’t think I could shape a hiking pole that easily without breaking.

This is the process and the end result; and to cut the nitty gritty of it, I am pretty proud of my handiwork. Wanderlust Owl is the start of a new series, the Adventurers of Gigglesville, besides the normal citizens and Superheroes. Let’s hope that there will be more under this new series!

Carving-3

Carving-4

Carving-7

Carving-8

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The Pet of Gigglesville

24 Jul

In the thick of carving, I suggested to hubby that he should try his hands at this too instead of just fiddling with his air plants. So I gave him a tiny leftover piece of balsa to try.

He was keen but wasn’t sure he could do the owls, so he opted for something else and we ended up having a baby elephant!

Tiny little fella is now deemed the official pet of Gigglesville. Ain’t he cute?

Carving-6

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Dang! She’s Good

21 Jul

I can’t help but gush about my M2’s artistic ability. Recently, I officially engaged her for one of my client’s project. The style: doodles, something she was very capable of.

The project: a doodle to depict a community of health. I paid her for the job and I think she did an excellent job. The end result speaks for itself. Dang! She’s good.

M2's art

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A Good Mess

20 Jul

Everyday I would sit at the living room and carve if time permits. Gone are the days where I would be on the iPad, being device-reliant all the time which is bad. So this is a good thing.

I wouldn’t say the place is messy because I am stationary in the middle of the spacious comfortable zone. And with everything I need within reach in an IKEA RÅSKOG trolley (which M2 helped to put together), it’s a good spot. A good mess I’d say.

Days when I don’t have time to carve, I would take out the Citizens of Gigglesville and just look at them. Simple silly act but full of satisfaction. Delight would envelop my heart whenever a citizen is completed. It’s funny how I discovered this engrossing activity, thanks (sort of) to the tennis elbow.

Carving-2

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My Poor Canvases

18 Jul

I have been so engaged with carving lately that my poor canvases are just sitting in the corner collecting dust. Even the tubes of oil paints are neglected because I use acrylic instead.

Everyday I would carve a piece, two if the mood hits and definitely more on weekends. The citizen count of Gigglesville now stands at 48, minus the superheroes series.

Sigh… I hope to go back to painting. Eventually.
Canvas

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More New Colors

17 Jul

As Gigglesville is booming, I felt I needed more new colors. I am not too particular of the brand but the color choices available. So over the weekend, I bought another two tubes of acrylic, burnt umber and red ochre, totally new from the brands that I have because I just so happen to be at a new bookstore and not my usual art haunt.

It has been very colorful so far for the citizens of Gigglesville and now with the introduction of brown (I call it mocha), the range is pretty diverse. I foresee a boom in mocha-colored citizens as they need to catch up in numbers with the rest of the red, blue, green, orange and purple citizens.

AcrylicColors

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Gigglesville is Booming

14 Jul

It must be a burst of energy or something because suddenly Gigglesville is booming! Or could it be that Citizen #30 migrated just two days ago and I have this need to replace the void. For every one departure, there should be at least two replacements.

Citizen #30 is the second one to leave the sanctuary, the first being Citizen #10 who now resides in Penang.

Gigglesville is shaping up well with a mayor, citizens and superheroes to protect them (especially from Evil Buster). Citizens even have passports issued for them if they are selected to leave to spread their giggles. Citizen #30 had its passport approved hence, its migration. This weekend another will leave… sniffle.

I have grown to be very attached to all my citizens but it is for spreading giggles and love that I am allowing them to migrate.

Gigglesville!


Citizen #10 (top) and Citizen #30 (bottom)


Citizen #30 with its passport

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Twelve Hours Later, Part 2

10 Jul

When I was working on that stressful publication design project not too long ago, the timeline and deadline was simply ridiculous. It’s every designer’s nightmare but I pulled through.

Will I subject myself to such nightmare design projects ever again? Well, when a client is of utmost importance despite no room for negotiations on the deadline, we have to be as professional as possible. (We’re talking about the government of the country here!)

The urgency to meet the deadline was very critical because the project was a very high-level publication for submission to the United Nations. And looking back, stress aside I am proud to say my team and I have done our part because our work is now uploaded to the United Nations’ website for the world to see!

I hold my breath as we will continue with the client again for the second publication, which thankfully has a more reasonable timeline, no festivity holiday ahead and we have no travel plans.

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New Colors

4 Jul

Over the weekend I decided to buy two new colors to add to my acrylic color collection. I made this decision after holding out for so long because I thought I could mix the orange and purple consistently when I needed these colors to paint the citizens of Gigglesville.

But each time I mixed, I failed. The purple has come out in many shades unfortunately but luckily, the orange fared better and not so obvious. There seems to be no consistency in my mixing ability because I forget the ratio every time.

So to avoid this for future citizens, I thought best to get the two colors in tubes like the red, blue and green that I already have.

There’s at least four different shades of purple!

The orange less obvious in shades

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