Revealing the beauty of God's creatures in art

This is the latest pet commission I completed. 

 

For some reason, I really struggled with this one. Halfway through and still unable to get the fur to look right (I’d never actually drawn a short-haired dog), I was seriously thinking I might need to issue a refund.After lots of panicky prayers and many hours of reworking later, it miraculously came together and now it’s one of my favourites. 

 

When people see my art, they like to tell me it’s a gift, which makes me a little uncomfortable and here’s why: often, I feel like I don’t really know what I’m doing. I don’t have a secret formula or a special technique. Sure, I watch a lot of YouTube videos but it’s not like you can become an artist from watching YouTube. It’s not paint-by-numbers. Every drawing is different with different considerations. Even if they’re similar, I often don’t remember how I achieved a certain effect. So when I tell people I’m not sure if I can draw something, I’m not trying to being modest. I really have no idea if I can.

 

Part of this uncertainty is because I’ve only been drawing for three months (animals for two). Sure, I didn't start from ground zero, but it still sounds pretty improbable, even to me. I wouldn’t blame you if you suspect that I’ve been secretly drawing for years. (I haven’t). So how did I do it? Short answer: It’s not me.

 

When I embarked on this art project to raise funds for charity, I told God I really wanted to do this to benefit others and could he please help me. That’s when I found my skills improving exponentially. When I started drawing animals two months ago, I was just experimenting. I wasn’t even that keen on realism. So many times, I felt hopelessly stuck and asked God for help. Inexplicably, I would find myself trying something that to my amazement, ended up looking great. (Sometimes, I’m so mystified I actually ask my kids to confirm if it looks as good as it does to me).

 

I remember drawing a golden retriever and telling God, “God, I’ve never drawn tongue or teeth, that looks impossible.” I just copied the reference photo as best as I could, stepped back and was shocked to discover that it looked realistic. No one was more excited than I was! I’m convinced God’s hand was guiding mine.

 

After successfully drawing ONE dog and ONE cat, I audaciously decided to offer pet portrait services to fund-raise. That’s pretty reckless, if you think about it – I guess I kinda assumed God would come through for me. “God, I offer my service, you bring the customers, k?”

 

I got my first commission almost right away, from a complete stranger. She didn’t want a cat or a dog. She wanted two rabbits. “God, I’ve never drawn rabbits!” I prayed. “Someone’s paying good money for this. You gotta help me.” Yes, me trying to emotionally blackmail God. And he was gracious enough to acquiesce as the drawing turned out well. 

 

Next commission was a hibiscus. A hibiscus!! I’ve never been good with plants (both artistically and in real life). I sweat a bit over this one, yet it also turned out ok and the customer was so pleased she commissioned another piece. And then another first – a poodle with curly fur. Which also turned out fine.

 

You might think this means I’m very confident. On the contrary, whenever I start a drawing a commissioned piece, I get a little nervous because I really have no idea how it will turn out. In EVERY single drawing, there’s a moment when I think I’ve ruined it. So when it turns out well later, I’m always grateful (and relieved). It’s teaching me how to trust and surrender.

 

Sometimes I watch Youtube videos of fantastic artists who say, “I’ve been painting for 20 years”. I would squirm and think, shouldn’t I need to put in my 20 years? Then last week, I suddenly remembered that the speaker at our 2018 church camp, Pastor Tsukahira from Israel, had spoken about using our gifts for God. I was so inspired then that I had told God I wanted to dedicate my gifts to him (and promptly forgotten). I went back to read my notes, and this was what he said, verbatim: “When God sees you using your gift for Him, it pleases God so much He reaches out and every now and then, touches it with supernatural power. You dedicate yourself to using your gift and find that someone gets touched or inspired by your gift, that you know didn’t come from you. That’s the anointing and the pleasure of heaven.”

 

So this long post is a testimony and explanation of sorts for my art ability. People tell me it’s a gift and I agree, but not in the way they think. It’s a gift not as in a talent, but a present. I’m finding this art journey incredibly fulfilling, and I believe that because I dedicated the gift to God to bless others, he’s blessing me in ways that I cannot fathom. As another famous pastor, Edmund Chan, once said, “You can’t outgive God.”

 

This latest pet portrait is a gentle reminder that it’s not by my strength but his. Incidentally, drawing animals has given me new appreciation of the sheer beauty of God’s creatures. I can see their souls through their eyes, which I try to capture in my drawings. “I know all the birds of the hills, and all that moves in the field is mine.” – Psalm 50:11

 

Afternote: The funny thing is I always thought the “gift” I was dedicating would be writing. I never imagined it would be art! 

If you wish to follow my art journey of faith, please go to my new blog and follow me there. You may also commission a pet portrait or buy art pieces to support charitable causes.

Pet Portrait Services

In what has been a daily surprise in my art adventure, I have since discovered that I love drawing animals and they're not half bad (I think lah!) Hence, I have decided to go out on a limb and offer pet portrait services.

I know it sounds somewhat audacious but since I've been asking God to open up channels for me to bless others, things have been developing in such a crazy way and speed. I'm just going with the flow and seeing what happens.

Here are a couple of animal drawings I did in the past few days. 

80% of proceeds go to charity, so here's a great way to have a pic of your pet and support a good cause! If you're interested, please check out details here.

I also write reviews on my new blog, and the latest post is on the difference between $4 and $400 coloured pencils.

 

 

New art site

It's been almost three months since I accidentally launched headlong into art, and it's turned out to be a meaningful venture for me. So I decided to create a new blog for the purpose of chronicling my art journey, and also as a platform for me to sell my artworks to benefit migrant workers, the poor and the marginalised.

I'm no professional artist with no art training, so please don't expect super high standards! I'm improving with each drawing though, and I'm doing this because I believe in the cause and feel blessed to be able to contribute in this manner.

If you feel led or like the idea of buying art to support charitable causes, please do head over to my new blog, the Art Pandemic, to have a look. There, you can read the posts on how I progressed, as well as the background behind how this project came about and the artworks for sale.

Thank you and do support if you can!

Raising funds for charity through art

My Spain art project received a lot of positive responses among friends on FB. As much as that was fun and gratifying, I felt that to continue just amassing drawings was a little self-indulgent. Not that drawing for yourself is wrong, but I had this urge to do something more with it, if I could.

During this pandemic, people have stepped up. Some serve on the frontline, some volunteer their services, others give blood, etc. I’ve done none of these. All I’ve done is donate to charities but that felt inadequate. Then I had this idea: what if I were to sell my art for charity? That would raise more funds than what I can give as an individual.

So over the past month, I put up 5 lots of drawings for sale, each with a minimum donation sum.  All proceeds went to one of 4 charities, of the buyer's choice:
1) TWC2
2) HealthServe
3) Willing Hearts
4) YWAM

In all, I drew 31 pictures, sold 22 and raised almost $2,600 for charity.

The outcome was way more than I expected. When I first came up with the idea to do this, I was filled with self-doubt. Was I being overly ambitious? How many pictures would I be able to draw in a month? What if they’re crap? What if nobody buys? Or worse, what if people buy only out of pity??
But as I prayed about it, I realised the questions were all wrong because they were focused on me. Surely if I want to help the poor and the marginalised, the focus should be on them. I believe that if the heart is right, God will make all things possible.

So I told God, “Ok, I’ll draw whatever I feel led to, with no targets, no strings attached. You bring the buyers. Let each of the drawings speak to someone special.”

And so I drew. Every day, I would surf the internet looking for photos that inspired me or got me excited about drawing. It sounds odd but my feelings changed daily. Sometimes, I see a nice photo and set it aside, only to feel cold about it the next day. I don’t know why. Many of the drawings were experimental – the Eiffel Tower came about because I was curious if I could pull off the architectural lines and proportions. I played around with different types of paper, style and subjects (animals are hard, gosh).

31 pictures in under a month sounds like a frenetic pace even to me. I can be a tad obsessive (ok a lot) but honestly, it wasn’t like I rushed to churn out as many drawings as possible for the sake of sales. I looked forward to drawing every day, so I just did. And because I only drew what I felt like, it was FUN. Some drawings turned out more successful than others, but you know the strange thing? Some of the drawings I liked didn’t sell, while others that I didn’t think would sell, did. A few buyers told me a specific drawing called out to them which I thought was pretty amazing.

In the beginning, the hardest part about this project was not the work, but parting with the drawings. Especially since I don’t think I can ever replicate some of the drawings, so I did feel a pang letting go of them. I asked God, “Remove my attachment to the drawings and let my heart for the needy be bigger.” And remarkably, he did. Now when I finish a drawing that I think turned out well, I no longer feel the urge to keep it for myself. I’m honestly happy to give it away. (Well, except for one which I loved so much I actually did another so I could keep the original.)

It’s such a cliché to say it’s more blessed to give than to receive, but I really did feel happy every time I sold a drawing and donated to a charity. And the payoff that I hadn’t counted on was that my skills improved. I was most aware of this when redoing a picture I did 2 months ago – I’m more confident about what works and what doesn’t, and shading, which I used to struggle with, comes much more intuitively now.

I'm posting this to record and share the project with blog readers, even though I know hardly anyone comes here now is 😆 Here are some of the drawings I sold:

Covid art project

Back in the day, I used to sketch quite a lot, especially during my undergraduate years. But with less time, I haven't done so for oh, maybe 2 decades. Then last year, I attempted to draw a simple cartoon hedgehog and failed dismally. It was very demoralising and I chucked the pen aside. It's true that what you don't use, you lose.

Then a month ago when the Circuit Breaker hit, I thought perhaps it's an opportunity to try and hone the skill again since I had time. I aimed to draw building sketches using markers of places I visited in Spain last year and hoped to see some improvement.

My first drawing on Alhambra was done on 17 May and it was quite crappy especially when I added the colour, since my limited number of markers were mostly in gaudy hues and older than Lesley-Anne :P BUT let's not blame the tools, it's totally the workman's fault here.

Pic 1: Alhambra, Granada

I posted my drawings on FB so that my FB community would keep me acocuntable and  force me to keep at it. Anyway, I figured if the first one was terok, the only way I can go was up 😆

Well, it's now been exactly a month and I've drawn 16 pictures in total. For the final picture on my Spain holiday, I decided to redraw the very first picture I did to see how far I’ve come. The visual results don't lie.
When I first started, I thought I would draw a few pictures and then leave it at that. I honestly did not expect it to take a life of its own. Not only did I improve way quicker than I thought I would, it’s FUN. So fun that I can’t stop drawing. Seeing a creation take shape on paper is incredibly satisfying. If any of you are considering picking up art, hope this serves as an encouragement.

Pic 2: Plaza de toros, Seville

Pic 3: City of Girona, watercolour pencils

Pic 4: Cafe scene, Madrid

Pic 5: Takos al Pastor, Madrid

Pic 6: Sagrada Familia (ordered new markers!)

Pic 7: Sagrada Familia, cartoon style

Pic 8: My church's stained glass

Pic 9: Dali Theatre-Museum, Figueres

Pic 10: Plaza Mayor, Madrid

Pic 11: Coffee counter

Pic 12: Spice rack

Pic 13: Parque de Maria Luisa, Seville

Pic 14: Sagrada Familia (interior)

Pic 15: Park Guell, Barcelona

Pic 16: Alhambra

Win a Danger Dan book!

The good folks at Epigram Books have initiated a contest for Danger Dan fans - draw your favourite character and stand a chance to win a book!

The contest is on Facebook, the link is here. For the benefit of readers here though, I'm reproducing the details here.

Calling out to all Danger Dan and Gadget Girl fans! We want to know who your favourite character from the series is through your own hand-drawn version of him/her/it.

The best 3 entries will win any book of choice from the Danger Dan or Danger Dan and Gadget Girl series!

Your favourite character can be from any book from the 2 series. It need not be a main character; if your favourite character happens to be a snail that appears in one of the books, so be it!

Here is what you have to do:

1. Draw your favourite character and write 1 or 2 sentences
a) about the character and
b) why this character is your favourite.

Psst!: Colouring your character will definitely increase your chances of winning!

2. Sign off with your Name and Age.
Eg: Nicole, 10

3. Post on your FB page (if you don't have one, you can use your parents')
a) a picture of you holding the book your favourite character is from
b) a close-up picture of your drawing with the sentences

4. Tag “Epigram Books” and “Danger Dan” in your post.

You can post your pictures anytime from now till the deadline.
Deadline: 24 July 2017



And here's added incentive: the latest Danger Dan and Gadget Girl adventure, #4 The Zany Zombie-fest has just hit bookstores. If you win the contest, you can request for this book as your winning prize! So get your kids to put pen/crayon/marker/coloured pencil to paper and send in their entries 😃

Art, science (and math) in full glory

Every year-end school hols, we try to make an excursion to either a museum or an attraction of interest. This year, we made a trip down to the Art Science Museum at Marina Bay Sands for three ongoing exhibitions - Journey to Infinity: Escher's World of Wonder, NASA - A Human Adventure, and Future World.

The Escher exhibition was the one we were really keen on. In case you don't know, M.C. Escher was an artist who combined mathematical concepts in his art, playing with perspective and architecture. One of his most well-known contributions was the artistic interpretation of tessellations to a completely new level. In Singapore, primary school kids still learn about tessellations today.

This was one of his earlier works on tessellations...

Sky and Water 1

which gradually became more complex.

Reptiles

Angels or demons?

Circle Limit IV

From 1954, Escher began working on optical illusions and concepts of infinity, which resulted in some pretty captivating and today, iconic artworks. 

Relativity

Ascending and Descending

All four of us loved the Escher exhibition, which probably says something about how OCD we are as a family 😆

As an undergraduate, I chanced upon a book of Escher's artworks and was immediately hooked. The geometry and poetry of his lines spoke to me so much that I attempted to recreate a colour version of one of his works. This was one of his early woodcuts during the period when he was consumed by the architecture of buildings:

Inside St Peter's

My not-quite-exact replica in coloured pencil.

 
Our main purpose was to visit the Escher exhibition but since there was a special all-access ticket to all three ongoing exhibitions, we decided to cover 'em all.

The NASA exhibition is good for kids and adults interested in all-things space. You get to see models of different space shuttles...

Saturn V

and gawk at space food...

 and space toilets.

You can also pay $6 to get a ride on G-Force - Astronaut Trainer Ride. It's a contraption that tilts you back and forth and spins you around. We watched for a bit to see if anyone came out of the ride walking sideways or throwing up. Nope, nobody did!

Finally, there's the Future World exhibition. In my opinion, this exhibition is great but more for younger kids (primary school and below). It takes interactive art and play to a whole new level. For example, you can draw your own a sea creature, scan it in a machine and see it swim on the digital wall. What's amazing is that the picture doesn't come out static - it moves and squirms like real sea creatures.

Something around every corner to enthrall the little ones.

The Crystal Universe with 4D technology and a heckuva lot of LED lights was quite spectacular.

I know this post might come a little late since it's nearing the end of the school hols (parents say "yay!" kids say "boo!"). However, the exhibitions are still on so you might want to book one of the upcoming weekends to take your kids.

Future World is on till 8 Jan, Escher exhibition till 26 Feb and NASA exhibition till 19 March. Special all-access pass to all three exhibitions available.