Archive | Art RSS feed for this section

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

Tags: , , ,

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.

Tags: , , , , ,

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

Tags: , , , ,

The X-acto Knife

29 Jun

One of my favorite design tool is not the Mac computer but the X-acto knife. I could be called old school but tools like the T-square and triangle rulers are still used by me, more so now because of the carving.

Recently I bought a new blade, an X-acto #16 to replace the #11 and to supplement my other carving tools and I must say, I love it!

The angle and its size is just perfect to etch the tight spots of the balsa wood. Carving just got more fun! Whee….

Carving-1

Tags: , , , , , , ,

Twelve Hours Later

26 Jun

Last week, we intended to leave town on Friday morning but there was a hitch. A big hitch. I had mention we will arrive when we arrive but little did I know it would be 12 hours later that we began our journey…

It all started from that last minute publication design project that I was working on. The original deadline of Monday set by the client was not met (not because of me but them). Then it got pushed to Wednesday but the client still could not finalize the editorial. What happened thereafter was just a designer’s nightmare. It’s been a long time since I have been subjected to such a situation.

After being informed that Wednesday night’s handover to me was good to be worked on, a Friday deadline was given and it couldn’t budge. Not even an inch. So I basically had only a day (Thursday) to work on the new stuff. One day to redesign what I had done earlier because there’s so much more information! The design ended up being revamped and expanded from the initial 60-pager to 80-pages. My team helped wherever possible.

And as if the situation wasn’t stressful enough, things were still under edits that Friday morning and more new materials to include came after the redesign was done! Can you believe it? Leaving town that morning was not an option because I don’t think I can leave with a peace of mind if this wasn’t completed properly. Thank goodness we were driving instead of flying.

To cut a long story short, after a flurry of phone calls on Friday morning, the client came over, at 3.00pm and not earlier unfortunately. They sat with me and together, we finalized all the details of the publication. It was 6.00pm when we eventually completed the task in hand. What a day Friday turned out to be!

Twelve hours later (9.00pm) from our intended time of departure, we started our journey. Traffic was heavy at certain stretches but thankfully not bumper to bumper due to the holiday break and took the usual time because of the distance. It was 2.40am when we finally arrived at the grandparents’ home up north.

Today we head back home and hopefully traffic will be kind. All in all, it was a good break despite the unexpected circumstances to the start of it.

Tags: , ,

Green Fingers, Part 2

20 Jun

A few weeks ago, hubby had a huge and colorful air plant hanging on the frangipani tree in the garden. From that big fella, he harvested many little ones to create interesting displays on driftwood pieces or simply by themselves with just wires that he would bend with a plier. Like me with an activity interspersing painting with carving, he’s into cactus and air plant creations.

I ventured into the garden upon his insistence and lo and behold, a whole lot of them are hanging on the tree! The green fingers in him certainly makes the garden more interesting. And the tiny air plants sitting on wires are just as appealing indoors.

Air plant-1
Air plant-4

Tags: , , , , ,

Full House

16 Jun

It’s been a busy and stressful week for me. I have been working late the past few nights on a super duper urgent design project. As the deadline looms without negotiation for an extension, it doesn’t help when the client gives the material to me late. I have a responsibility then to do my part.

Because of this, the carving has stop for the time being but last night, I managed to squeeze one in as a stress reliever. The new balsa wood was extremely soft and it was easy to carve.

Citizen #23 was born and now Gigglesville is just so crowded! Pretty soon, the ‘O’mobile cannot be parked in there anymore. When the house is full (I have space for one more), maybe there will be a migration. Some citizens of Gigglesville will leave for adoption and spread their giggles elsewhere on earth.

As for me, working on this project, I draw the giggles and positiveness from the citizens of Gigglesville to stay sane and cool. I can do it.

Tags: , , ,

At a Crossroad, Part 2

8 Jun

The thought of getting another tattoo cropped up last year and again, right around my birthday in April. It is both exciting and worrying. Exciting because it’s something new, akin to a new toy. Worrying because I may not like it. At a crossroad…

What should I get?

Seeing that I am a dinosaur nowadays, maybe a tattoo of one would be good…

Hmm…

Tags:

Gigglesville Has a Mayor!

2 Jun

I am so in the thick of carving, I bought a new piece of balsa to carve besides some new canvases as I have promised a few pieces for friends. A promise is a promise regardless of the tennis elbow. I just need to find the inspiration to get that going.

In the meantime, I have given much thought to the township of Gigglesville. But before the town blooms, I think it needs a mayor, hence this character.

Now in my world, mayors in general are usually short and stout, so naturally the mayor of Gigglesville is shorter and wider than the usual citizens. But he has to also be different, therefore the cool shades instead of big round eyes.

Tags: , , , , ,

Nemesis of Gigglesville

29 May

It’s inevitable for every storyline that has happy giggling citizens living harmoniously and superheroes maintaining peace to have a nemesis who does nothing but wreck havoc and create fear. Hence, Gigglesville has EB to content with. EB as in Evil Buster.

So who is EB? He’s obviously an evil one with a name as such and he brings glum to the citizens, taking away their giggles and happiness.

Now all I need is to create the whole township! Carving has never been this fun!

Don’t be fooled by the color!
Pink can be evil.

Tags: , , ,

← Older Entries
Newer Entries →