The World We Never Knew Existed (Day 6)

I was on the train platform today waiting to go to a student's house to give lesson in drawing when I received a message from her mum, "can we cancel art lesson today as xxxx is still still sleeping..." It was 7.30am in the morning and the lesson starts at 8.30am. I wonder how many times have I entertained situation like this in my teaching career. Student sleeping...student not yet home...student  came when class ended...student did not inform teacher when they not coming...parent's changed schedule but forgot to inform teacher...art class in school cancelled due to "unforeseen" event...art class in school delayed and shortened because form teacher need more time to deliver their lesson. I can understand that a "change in plan" do happens once a while when either party could not make it.  Are we able to have total control of situation like this? Definitely a YES!! Perhaps it is time for us to give lesson in front of a computer screen:)

The World We Never Knew Existed (Day 5)

Carl, which is my next most drawn character, is created the same time as Emily. Carl is seen as a childhood friend of Emily, a companion of shared passion, a love interest or even as a complement to Emily's gentle personality. In most of the drawing in my diary, I depicted Carl as someone who likes freedom, value friendship, someone who cherishes enjoyment, silly in sport, poor in math but score in imagination. Carl can be easily fired up when emotion is stirred, and usually succeed in tasks only with encouragement and helps from buddies. He shared the same passion as Emily which is painting, and that is the only activity  he does not need help from anyone. Carl enjoy personating celebrity and usually ends in total embarassment. "I am who I am", and that is his belief!

The World We Never Knew Existed (day 4)

How is it feel like to be a synaesthesia seeing your surrounding with splashes of colour? These artworks are done in the year 2001. It expresses a marriage between comics and painting, showing Emily's perception of her world that only herself knew. The artworks were done using a variety of medium such as soft pastel, charcoal powder, acrylic paint, pen, ink and paper on canvas board.

The World We Never Knew Existed (day 3)

Emily herself is a synaesthesia, meaning she can see sound as colours and shapes. However what she sees are more than that and absolutely strange and weird. These comic strips (year 2004) reflect the side of her world. It begins with her checking her eyesight and colour test to seeing people turning into animals. The dialogue was omitted so that you can better imagine yourself in the shoe of a synaesthesia.

The World We Never Knew Existed (day 2)

Emily is my first cartoon character that have been created in 1997. She is one of my most drawn figure for the past 15 years and also appeared the most in my ads for my cartooning courses. Emily's trademark features are her big eyes and hair fringe which set herself apart  from the rest of the characters. Her appearance remains young and cute but have been 'matured' over these years. Perhaps this is an evolution of my drawing style, but most likely my thinking also matured when I get older. Most of my drawing was done using fountain pen with a few exception of using brush pen to fill in the dark tones in the background. These are a few of the latest drawings in my archive.

The World We Never Knew Existed (day 1)

"The World We Never Knew Existed", the idea comes from the fact that we all know is right in front of us, but did not really look closely, embrace it or believe what that existed in our mind - an imaginary world with imaginary characters that mirror the real life that we live. The question of existent, does the realistic world we are so familiar with has all the answer we want? If not, what do we really want to see, want or experience in this existed world?

Rediscover Cartoon Drawing & Colouring @ Compassvale Primary pt 3

It is important to show children how to use their oil pastel and what makes their art piece outstanding. The answer lies with the selection and the mixing of colours. They need to understand what are the PRIMARY colours and how they mixes to produce the SECONDARY colours; what are the WARM and COOL colours and how it affect the way we sees and feel; what are the HARMONIC colours for both the warm and cool range; and how to use COMPLEMENTARY colour to give the best colour contrast. It sounds a lot but achievable if the learning objectives are realistic.

Rediscover Cartoon Drawing & Colouring @ Compassvale Primary pt 2

Drawing cartoon animal is probably one of the best way to connect to children. Once you demonstrated the technique and convinced them how easy it is to use their IMAGINATION to jazz up their animal, it is like firing a rocket into the sky and there is no stopping them. However children have the tendency to use black (oil pastel) to outline or colour the eyes at the drawing stage and may regret later when they 'dirtied' the other light colours. This is where briefing them with clear instruction (Do's and Don'ts) before they start drawing becomes important. The art pieces here are drawn with light colours (yellow, orange or green) and the reasons behind it: they can correct their work if they draw wrongly by drawing/colouring over it with darker colours. The above art piece (purple cat) shows what happen when they use black to outline.

Rediscover Cartoon Drawing & Colouring @ Compassvale Primary

Young children drawing and colouring cartoon can be very natural and innocent looking too. I was teaching at Compassvale Primary for their art curriculum program and these are some of the primary 2 students art pieces.

Happy Lunar Rabbit New Year 2011

Wishing everyone a prosperous Chinese New Year !!!