Weekend sketches

I bought a new fountain pen, as I always wanted, I finally got it, the pink Lamy :) And I did some sketches, I like the uneven ink flow of the fountain pen. Since I have to press slightly harder for the ink to come out, it gives my sketches this comic look.


I tried to paint over my sketch, didn't realise the ink is not waterproof :P so I went back to my Pigma Micron pen for the watercolours. I shall order some waterproof ink next time.

Lunch time sketch

female

This is another study I did from a photo I found on the internet. Before I dig too much into colouring I thought I should practice more with shading.

At work

This is Wayne who sits behind me at work. I did this a week or so ago. I realize even though we sit so close to each other, I rarely turn around, I would send him instant messages and hear him typing his to me, but we would not turn around, why is that?! A bad habit everyone seems to have in this industry.

woman portrait

I find it extremely hard to paint female portraits, they never look who they were supposed to be, so I'm not even gonna say who this is meant to be, assume this is just some woman portrait I paint off a picture. I still enjoy it alot, especially the colouring part, I wish there is a colouring book for adult water colour enthusiasts, like me :) So I don't have to sketch them myself in order to paint. I do enjoy sketching as well but it can be discouraging when it doesn't turn out looking so womanly.

Proms

Went to the Proms at Royal Albert Hall last night, the music was great, I had a great time :) I painted the hall while enjoying the music. I think I really enjoy painting so much more when listening to classical music, shall do that more form now on.

lunch sketch

Did this today sitting at Curzon cafe next to work. I really like their cafe, it's never too crowed even during lunch time, nice soft cushion seats, big glass windows, I like the music they play in the background too, it's always air conditioned which is very comfortable especially in this very hot, polluted soho area. Oh I know why no one comes here now, their coffee are more expensive than other places that's true, but I do like their Americano, perfect thickness, I much prefer coming here for a break than the MilkBar everyone goes to, I still not quite sure why everyone goes to MilkBar, their coffee doesn't taste very good (I only drink Americano though, the closest thing I can find to filtered coffee, not many places do drip coffee in london, strange isn't it) and they never fill the full cup, always just give you half cup, staff aren't very friendly either...

Weekend sketches

Sat we went to the Welcome Collections at Euston Square. This is the view outside their cafe. Don't really like this painting at all, didn't use the colour well, kinda lack of depth :S oh well... though I'd post it anyway,


Later in the afternoon we went to Starbucks at Carnaby street for a rest before dinner.


Did this painting of Angus at 606 club Sat evening, it was a nice Jazz club, I enjoyed the music, food was average. On Sunday, we went to Carluccio's at Canary Wharf again for the best Tiramisu :) It's really a pleasant place to hangout for the afternoon, staff were very friendly, Tiramisu is the best I've had in London.

Face studies

All of sudden I become obsessed with drawing faces, I just really want to be very good at it but I know it takes practice so I guess I'll just have to draw a lot of them, I'm getting faster though.

Varies studies of Alper, I like the first one better.




This one is drawn from a photo Justin took at the Karate Kid Premiere at Leicester Square, I hope this looks like who he supposed to be... well, if not then blame Justin, it's not a very good photo he took! :P

Inspired!

I randomly came by Wendy Macnaughton's Blog yesterday and got very inspired. So I painted this from a picture. Man... portraits are hard!


Did this in last night's video cam meeting. I sat at the back row.

The slug and Lettuce

It was very hot last Saturday. I went to Canary Wharf station, where all the restaurants are, sat across from "The slug and Lettuce". I've never been there, perhaps it is because of their name, just doesn't sound very delicious :P

at the park

I did this one sitting at Seven dials in Covent Garden the other day.



This is was in the Soho park at lunch time, some quick gestures. each of them took 30secs to a min. I like when London is sunny and warm so I can just sit outside and draw :D

Japanese Album Vol.01

Finally!!! After 2 months, my first Japanese album moleskine is done! The London Tube project is finally done

I've always been complaining not have enough time to draw, where did all my time gone? I spend average 70 minutes a day being in the tube staring at strangers, so I figured I might as well draw them. It's been hard and weird trust me, how would you feel if you know someone stares at you every 5 seconds? I donno, I've never been stared. Some of them would be very kind and nicely pose for me, many of the others would just pretend they were not aware by simply closing their eyes or starting to read, where few of them would just move away... I only draw the person right in front of me, I guess it's less obvious that I'm staring. Some of these sketches are really bad, like... REALLY BAD! Wrong proportions, extra shoulder/arm, or missing head and feet:( Oh well, I did my best, hope you guys enjoy it too. I think I'll have to do at least 10 books to be able to see the improvement, in the mean time I'll start my second book :)

Here is the link of the long scan I did of the Book, as well as these pages below:

These are some stuff I did over the past few weeks, just didn't have the chance to upload them. Not the best sketches, wish I can get out more and do more of them, but sadly here in London the weather's not been always pleasant in weekends. Now that it finally is, I'm too busy watching world cup :P


Went Sketching with Edison 2 weeks ago when he's here in London with me.


I always got caught up in details and ended up never finish the whole picture, so I timed myself on this one for 10 minutes from across the street and this is it.


Another timed sketch and somehow I managed to get the prospective totally wrong. Oh well, it's the corner pub I visit at least 3 times a week. It's just around the corner from where I work. Everyone from work goes there. We call it the "Golden usual" place.


The lazy man playing his game on Sunday.


I'm so excited that I'm almost done with the Japanese album project that I started 2 months ago. I think within a week or 2 I'll upload what's actually in it :D YAY!

Edinburgh Trip

Went up to Edinburgh for the long weekend. It was a nice break from the Soho area in London. Wish it was warmer though, can not believe it is May and it was 3C outside in the evening there. I didn't bring enough warm clothes, had to wear my PJs underneath and everything else I had on top of that. These are few of the sketches from the bunch I did.

I think the water in London are not very watercolour friendly. It's very hard to paint for some reason, the water doesn't seem to stay on the paper, it was never like that in Vancouver :(


Went to the Sandy Bells pub :) It was really an extraordinary experience. Local musicians would spend their Sunday afternoon there performing some folk music. It's like the Sketchcrawl for us people :) But what I found fascinating was somehow those local musicians sat around together with different instruments and manage to play together in perfect harmony without even knowing each other.




On the train back to London, Alper got a new phone on the last day, he could not wait to get to London to play with his stupid new toy :P

gbk Soho

Went to Gourmet Burger Kitchen today for lunch with some colleagues. These are the people sat at the table near us. I have to say... I really really love Asian food, I really do. I really can't do burgers for more than once every... 2 months probably. I think gbk is probably one of the decent burger places around but really, It's just too dry and greasy for me. It made me feel kinda sick and gross for the whole afternoon though I only just ate 1/3 of mine :( It's like McDonald's, once in a while I'll crave for it and as soon as I take my first bite I feel like I don't ever wanna eat it again.



This is the new Japanese album Moleskine I bought for a new project. I only just started 2 days ago, the unfolded page is like couple of meters long so I think it's gonna take me awhile to finish (hopefully within 2 months) And then I'll upload a video of the images :) It's gonna be fun, can't wait to get it all done!! ^_^

Sketches

Today I have arranged my desk so now I'll be able to easily scan my stuff and update them more frequently.

This is Ben, I sit next to him at work.


Went to this French Restaurant in Soho the other day with some friends. Drew this while waiting everyone to arrive. Food was brilliant!


These are some quick sketches I did on the tube. Had to do them really quickly so they don't notice that I'm staring at them like a freak :P


Went to Greenwich park with Alper yesterday. It was very sunny and warm.

Sunday

David came to stay with us for the weekend from Geneva, we had a very busy Sat with a lot of other friends so Sunday we just stayed at home for the evening.

On the bus home...


It just happens I drew them both on the same page, they are not really touching each other or anything :P