TuaEe

Tua Ee (大姨) is my mother's oldest sister. She took care of me and my siblings when we were little like her own. I had always enjoyed visiting her when I had the chance during school holidays, and talking to her over the phone was always a joy. I had lots of fun taking worry-free naps in her house, and fixing broken things around her house with just my Swiss army knife. I was often rewarded with a big smile, endless of compliments, and a full stomach.
She always cooked the best meals, baked the best cookies, and I was never complaining about have to finish up so that she didn't have to worry about leftovers.
I called her every year during Chinese New Year, and wished her that she'd be blessed with good health and happiness, and often times, we would be giggling over the phone.
This coming Chinese New Year however, I will no longer be hearing her voice, nor will I be able to make her laugh. She had left us in her sleep, peacefully and quietly. I am sad that I was not able to be at her funeral to tell her goodbye for the last time, and that she has a strong and permanent place in my heart, right next to my cousin Ping See, which I will always revisit.

(Pencil on Moleskine Sketchbook 5.5x3.5")

Sorry I had not been drawing or posting. I will not promise anything, and I appreciate the thoughts and your time to read.

Guardian Angel

About a month ago, the daughter of my co-worker and friend of mine got involved in an accident. The road was dark and probably slippery too, and she crashed into a tree. People nearby managed to pull her out of the wreck. She's healing well, and doing better each day, and her injuries were mostly from lacerations, despite the front end of the vehicle was crumpled beyond recognition. She couldn't remember the whole thing, which is probably a blessing, but most of all... the car did what it was supposed to do, protect the driver. When I looked at the picture taken of the wreck, I couldn't imagine how one could have survived it. To me, "someone" was looking after her.

I was also just thinking if I was 16, and if me or my friend got in an accident like that, how would that affect me. Will I ever drive again? Will this be something I can tell my kids and grandkids one day? I don't really know. But one thing that I used to do when I was 16 is drawing greeting cards for friends(because I couldn't afford to buy them gifts, and hand drawn cards are always unique), so I did just that for her eventhough I don't know her. 

I got all the management team to sign the card and gave it to my co-worker yesterday. She happily reported to me this morning that they like the card, and found it meaningful. I'd say, mission : Successful :) 

Here is the front of the card (9x6"). And this 350Z has gone to Heaven but not forgotten :)

Hollie

I can't believe it's been a year since my last post. At first it was just moving into this new house and trying to get settled in, and then there were many other things, gaming, work, family, friends, travels... it was just hectic. I thought of it as a year of vacation from drawing anything on my Moleskine, but I do occasionally doodle here and there.

(Update: I misspelled her name, it's actually Hollie and not Holly)

Anyway, here's a quick sketch of my co-worker's granddaughter, Hollie. I thought she has the most serene smile, and she's an angel(because she absolutely loves cats), eventhough I've never met her. 

(Pencil on Moleskine Sketchbook 5.5x3.5")

Wishing everyone a belated Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Carol

In February 2009, when this art blog was still dormant, and when I was still active in a joint-blog called Rainbowbox (which is now dormant), I sketched a new friend I had made named Carol. During that time, I was not into portraits yet, and most of my drawings were rather manga style. And then in March 2009, I started experimenting with portraits and drawing faces a little more seriously. I sketched my Carol again, and it was the 3rd time I drew portraits, and they were all in larger sizes (bigger than 8 x 5").

Now in 2013, I thought it'd be fun drawing drawing her again but in miniature sizes with different expressions :)

Pencil and marker on Moleskine Sketchbook (5.5x3.5")

And I just realized that I've been doing portraits for more than 4½ years now. 

Happy New Year!

Brilee

A quick sketch of my wife's friend's baby daughter, Brilee. She just turned 2 not too long ago. I haven't got the chance to meet her yet, but from all the pictures her mom has shared, I can easily tell that she's super adorable and fun to play with ^^

(Pencil on Moleskine Sketchbook 5.5x3.5")

Thank you for visiting and taking time to leave a comment. I really appreciate it!
I hope everyone's had a fantastic Christmas and spent a lot of quality time with loved ones...next up, HAPPY NEW YEAR :)

Ann

A friend of mine asked me to do a sketch of her niece. I held it back for a while now because so much had happened I couldn't find the time to do it. But I finally did it yesterday, and it took me about 90 minutes total(not too many details).

I don't really know much about her, except that her name is Ann, and the picture my friend gave me was taken when Ann was just 4, she's 7 years old now. I did however drew her older on purpose, but I am not too sure if it worked. I guess we'll see.

Pencil on Moleskine Sketchbook (5.5 x 3.5")

Thank you all for your comments, your kind thoughts, and your compassion. It'd be my cousin's 45th birthday today, so I'm wishing my cousin an awesome birthday in heaven :)

Update : Here's the latest photo of Ann taken by my friend(unfortunately she's not smiling). I think I was pretty close, what do you think?

PingSee

I knew it would take me a while before I could post again, but I never knew that it would take me this long. Apart from moving my wife from Mississippi to Texas, re-adjusting our lifestyles or living together, purchasing and building a new house... we thought that life could not get more exciting. I was so wrong.
In between, my wife's grandma got so sick for weeks she had to be admitted to the ICU, and we have learned that UTI(Urinary Tract Infection) affects elderly very differently than younger people. It's very dangerous so here's the link where you can read more about it and understand it better.

In parallel to that, my cousin was battling acute cancer in ICU 10,000 miles away. We later found out that she had been in pain for over 10-years but didn't really go for a thorough medical check-up and just toughened herself up and dealt with the pain. Just a few months ago she finally decided to get herself treated, only to find out later that her body was failing and shutting down. She battled the disease for about a month, and passed away a month before her 45th birthday.
Until today, I still see her face when I close my eyes. I hear her voice and laughter when I think of her. She's more like a sister to me, and probably the kindest and most hardworking person I've know. She's worked for the same company for over 20 years and had lived a modest lifestyle. She's caring and loving towards people around her and loved by people she surrounded herself with. She will forever be missed, and her absence forever felt,  the gap she had left in so many hearts will be filled only memories of her and the comfort of knowing that she's no longer in pain.

This is by far the hardest tribute sketch I had to do, and tears were rolling making it hard for me to see what I was doing. This is for PingSee, my beloved cousin.

Pencil on Moleskine Sketchbook (3.5x5.5")

Tiffany 2 - SNSD

Another post on the same day? Wow! ^____^
Actually I know that I wouldn't be able to post anything next week, or maybe even the week after that, so I just drew more this weekend.

Here's Tiffany again from SNSD, another Korean pop group. I did a compilation of her earlier, but they didn't show her smile, and that wasn't right of me because she's known for her smile. So there ya go.

 Moleskine Sketchbook (5.5 x 3.5")

Moleskine Sketchbook (5.5 x 3.5")

Thought I'd like to show how the spread looks.

Thank you very much for visiting and leaving comments. I really appreciate your support ;)

4Minute - HyunA

I've watching quite a bit of Korean movie on Netflix lately, so I felt like drawing some Korean pop stars again. =)
This is HyunA from a Korean pop group 4Minute. She also appeared on PSY's Gangnam Style music video.
I must say, it didn't turn out like I wanted, and it doesn't look like her, so I apologize. But if you're interested in knowing how she looks like, here's the link about her on Wikipedia.

Moleskine Sketchbook (5.5 x 3.5")

Thanks and Happy Mother's Day!

IAH-West Palm Beach FL-Conference

I was in West Palm Beach, FL last week for a conference. No I didn't get to go to the beach(I am not exactly a salt water and sun person), but it was a great conference, with abundance of delicious food.
I had hours in the IAH(Houston International Airport) to spare, while listening to songs on my iPhone, and after watching several episodes of "How I Met Your Mother" on Netflix, I thought to myself "Hey.... I think I brought my sketchbook with me!" which I did. So here are the results.    

I also did a few doodles during the conference(yeah, I pay good attention to the speakers ^^)

I hope you enjoy these, thank you all for visiting and your comments. =)

Kratos

I was going to continue with the "green" theme, but somehow I was drawn to this one even more, especially after watching this video.
I think most people who follow my blog knew that I play video games, and God of War series on PlayStation, is by far still the best action-adventure game in my opinion. I enjoy the graphics, the gameplay, the storyline, and the soundtracks are amazing too(but bear in mind, there's a lot of violence in this game, definitely not for kids)

So here's my take on Kratos, the God of War himself.

(Pencil and Color Pencils Moleskine Sketchbook 5.5x3.5")

I appreciate all the comments and for your time as always.
Thanks and Happy April Fool's day =)

Karambit

Taking a break from drawing faces :)

Pencil on Moleskine sketchbook (5.5 x 3.5")

The karambit or kerambit is a small hand-held, curved blade from Indonesia. Called karambit in the Philippines, it is known as a kerambit in both Indonesia and Malaysia. It is found recently that the karambit to be useful for self-defense. Most of those produced in the West for use as weapons are based on the small Filipino variety, which features a short blade and index finger ring.

Thank you all for your comments and appreciate your time ^^

In memory of Guan Hin Tan

I grew up knowing that I had a grand uncle who was a famous artist. He was a teacher, and he specialized in Chinese paintings, especially tigers and bamboo trees. No, I didn't have the opportunity to meet him in person, but I only knew him through his paintings when he had passed which he left his paintings to my other grand uncle.
I started drawing even before I knew about him, and I am not sure why I like drawing, but I am glad that at least I share this same passion with my grand uncle. Every once in a while when I draw, I do feel like I am just a child playing in his shadow. This page is dedicated to him, this sketch is for him.

(Pencil on Moleskine Sketchbook 5.5 x 3.5")

I know it's unusual for me to post 2 drawings in 2 days. I guess I am in the mood to do so (and I am staying away from my PlayStation ^^). Thank you all again for dropping by and leaving comments.

For those who are interested to know a little more about my grand uncle, here are a couple of websites about him and his work.
Tan Guan Hin (Penang)
Virtual Memory of Guan Hin Tan

Kay

Doodling is fun :) I think my last post said a lot even though I didn't realize it. But I do like to draw faces, especially cute ones. So I browsed around Facebook, looking at my friends' profile pictures. (And we all know people love taking pictures of their kids and use them as their profile pictures, the kids of course haven't the slightest clue what's really going on)

This is Kay. She's one of my friends' baby girl. I haven't met her before but I am sure she's super adorable. I've also decided to show the process(plus the time I took for each process) and hopefully it'll be useful or interesting for those who are wondering how I did this. Total time : 2 hours.

(Pencil on Moleskine Sketchbook 5.5 x 3.5")

Final product. Background and details on clothing. (30 mins)

Initial drafting with light strokes, working on the right proportion. (15 mins)

Worked on her eyes. Shading from left to right (because I am right-handed). This to me is probably the most delicate step as it determined how the light falls on her. (50 mins)

Worked on her hair. (25 mins)

I hope you guys enjoyed the process. It's definitely fun for me to draw her, and perhaps I'll be lucky enough to meet this adorable girl in person when I return home to visit my family later this year. I'd like to thanks her parents for allowing me to draw her, and everyone else for dropping by and leaving comments.

Doodles

As promised, I'm posting some of the doodles on my log book at work...just a way to kill time and boredom during meetings and discussions. :)

 Boss' leather bag

 Handwritten vs Dual monitors

 Something for everyone

 What a lot of people would like to do.

 A wooden duck sculpture in Boss' office.

 Pokeball (Ball in Chinese)

 Soccerball + GP(Eye)

Padlock and Woody(Wudi = Undefeatable in Chinese)

Thanks again for visiting and leaving comments. ^^

Tiffany SNSD

I have not been drawing any celebrities for a while now. Since it's holiday today, I thought I should have enough time to do another one on my long neglected Moleskine sketchbook :)

(Pencil on Moleskine Sketchbook 5.5x3.5")

This is Tiffany. She's one of the 9 girls in SNSD or Girls Generation, a very popular Kpop group in South Korea. It's a compilation of shots taken of her(probably by some paparazzi) while she's in the airport travelling. She's known for her usual sweet smile, but I thought sometimes a person's most natural expressions can tell a lot of stories. I might do another one with her signature smile, someday :) But for now, if you want to know how she looks like when she smiles for the camera, just Google Tiffany SNSD images, you'll have an entire array of pictures with her smiling ^^

Thanks for visiting and your comments means a lot to me.

Yuna

It's the 7th day of Chinese New Year(Lunar New Year) and I haven't drawn anything that has anything to do with snake....yet(it's the year of the Snake).
Anyway, I had asked my friend's permission to draw her little daughter a while ago, and she said okay. So I did! :)

(Pencil on Moleskine Sketchbook 5.5x3.5")

Her name is Yuna, and she's half Japanese half Chinese. She looks super adorable in pictures(her eyes are so big and pretty!), and I like drawing adorables ^^ I hope her mom approves of this one.

Sorry again for not been able to post things online. It's not that I haven't been drawing, I actually have been doing a lot of drawing on DrawSomething, and doodling on my work log :). Work's been crazy, and too much video gaming. A lot of be planned for this year including moving wife and Meela to Houston, travelling to Malaysia, and house-hunting in Houston.

Thanks you all for reading and for your comments.

Black Ops 2

I thought I wanted to do something with color this weekend, and then I realized that it's already Sunday, and I just don't feel like colors anymore. But why didn't I do it on Saturday? I can answer that easily, but I have decided to draw the culprit instead :)

(Pencil on Moleskine sketchbook 5.5 x 3.5")

This is the front cover of the very popular video game from the Call of Duty franchise, Black Ops 2. It has stolen most of my time away from my sketchbooks, even since Black Ops 1 more than 2 years ago(apart from my day job of course). Yeah yeah I know, I am such a child. ^__^

Thank you all for taking your time to visit, and for your comments on my last post. I miss my family no doubt, and hopefully me and my wife will be able to visit them this year before Fall. It'd be so much fun!!

KaRyn's smile

A lot had happened since my last post, Thanksgiving, reuniting with my wife after 5 months, stomach virus, new video games, Christmas, playing with Meela, catching up with Netflix, survived Mayan's prediction of end of the world, visiting Oxford enduring sub-freezing temperatures etc. And now, New Year's eve which is pretty cool because it means that we're getting closer to my wife getting her Masters(5 months), moving her and Meela out of Oxford and to Baytown so that we won't be away from each other again, visiting my family in Malaysia, and hopefully by the end of the year, finding a perfect home in Texas for us. Yes I've already had pretty much all the main activities for 2013 planned out in my head, although we do not know what will happen the next hour or so.
Last year(2011) around November I did a couple of sketches of my baby niece KaRyn. I have not met her yet, and she's picking up words pretty fast as I heard her saying them over the phone. It's funny how you can miss a family whom you've not met or seen before, but that's how I feel right now. I miss all my family members, but because I never got the chance to even hold her close, it feels more like I am missing out. Anyway, here's another quick sketch(took me about 2 hours), perhaps this is my way of "getting to know" her, through every stroke of the pencil, and maybe this way she will be less of a stranger to me.

Pencil on Moleskine Sketchbook (5.5x3.5")

Thank you all for your comments and your time to browse my work. I really appreciate it a lot and I wish you all a fantastic year ahead and may all your hopes and dreams become reality :)

Max

This is the 3rd and final sketch of my 3-part series of Jan's grandchildren. I am still thinking about what to do next, and I could do something with a little more colors, something fun, or the same old portrait thing. I guess it depends on what I feel like doing at that time then.
Enough said, this is Max! Boy oh boy, this 3 year old is a mess. He couldn't sit still, and always looking for an adventure. It was hard for me to snap anything out of him, and the only time I got one, he gave me this crinkled nose smile :) I didn't spend too much time on this one, more or less an hour, then again, it's an easy one to draw too ^^

Pencil on Moleskine Sketchbook (5.5x3.5")

Thanks again for all your comments, and for visiting. It's really cool now that you're able to see the statistics on the traffic and view counts each day, re-routed from which search engine, which browser, and from which part of the world.