dusty wilderness

FYI

2008-12-31T12:00:00.003+08:00

DEAR ALL. THIS BOG WILL BE DOWN PERMANENTLY. PLS GO TO MY PORTFOLIO BLOG FOR REGULARS. THANK YOU ! :)

BEEP

2008-12-30T19:28:00.000+08:00

BE BACK... END 2008 OR ?? PORTFOLIOO BLOG

SKETCH JOURNAL

2008-03-23T20:59:00.005+08:00

MISS WOOLS

2008-03-22T15:30:00.007+08:00

TIME OUT SINGAPORE FEB 2008

2008-03-10T23:49:00.004+08:00

Thanks Mindflyer!

NEPALESE FOLK ART CALENDAR

2008-02-12T01:22:00.001+08:00

Nepalese folk art silk screened on handmade lokta paper. The Lokta plant is found at the altitude of 6500 feet to 9500 feet from the sea level in Nepal. The bark of the Lokta plant is harvested by cutting its stem at ground level without destroying the main root. The fragile ecology of Nepal is thus preserved. Lokta regenerates naturally and normally takes 2 to 3 years. The papers made from Lokta are non-perishable in water and highly resistant to insects like silverfish and paper crawlers.

Love the simple and bold lines used in the illustrations featured in this calendar given by my kind sister on her recent trip to Nepal. Am not a fan of calendars usually, but for once I don't mind this earth friendly hand made one as compared to the mass produced and boring variety in the shops.

CHARACTER DESIGN

2007-12-11T21:30:00.001+08:00

Character design for cafe in the making. Thanks a million to Mindflyer and Flee for the job offer, technical advises and relentless patience which I am so grateful for. :)

DOODLES VS DOODLEZ

2007-11-30T16:47:00.000+08:00

Discovered a bunch of doodles amongst my mess of stuff which my 6 year old niece left for me while I was away from home. Big and illustrations of epic proportions aside, they exude the innocence that us illustrators have lost along the way. We tend to go for perfection, sleek and visually enhanced images, rather than the old skool pen and paper drawings. Kids draw what comes to mind, usually things which affect them most at that moment in time. Us adults tend to put too much logic and feelings into what we draw, and by the time a piece of work is completed, it might be only a remote ressemblance of the initial idea we had.

HAPPY 4TH NINJA

2007-09-17T01:45:00.000+08:00

WERK!

2007-08-28T03:42:00.000+08:00

Work I did for an assignment using Illustrator recently. I must say that sometimes mistakes at random can actually lead to interesting compositions.

IDN FASHION GRAPHICS ISSUE 2007

2007-08-21T16:40:00.002+08:00

Some rather old but new press. Honoured to be featured in this issue of IdN for the collaboration of Moleskine Asia along with Fleecircus. This issue also features other designers who are up and coming in the world of fashion.

NINJA

2007-07-28T03:39:00.000+08:00

The source of my happiness...the reason why I allow my lap to go numb and asleep when you feel like it. Monosyllabic favouring,rubberband crazy furball. Your aloofness, cowardice..hmm i must say you are so much better in front of unexpected guest now, not doing what your name suggest.

AN APPLE A DAY

2007-07-26T22:52:00.000+08:00

Alright, I haven't been very productive lately. Piles of sketches hiding in my sketchbooks waiting to be coloured, rendered, to be released from their flat mundane world. :)

WATERCOLOUR FUN

2007-07-15T00:09:00.000+08:00

Here's something i did during some free time with watercolour. I just love the versatility of watercolour as compared to other mediums, its transparency which no other medium can replace. :)

TWISSTII IS BACK

2007-04-26T17:56:00.000+08:00

MY FAVOURITE MOLESKINE TOUR IN SINGAPORE

2006-12-13T22:20:00.000+08:00

My Favourite Moleskine exhibition is back, after their kick start in Hong Kong. This time, it will begin its second leg of the exhibition in Singapore in Page One in Vivo City from 5th January til 28th Feburary. My moleskine will be featured in the exhibition *blush* . Hope to see you guys there!

RAIN!!!

2006-11-28T20:50:00.000+08:00

Long time no post, due to distraction from various awe inspiring books. Thanks Flee, Im enlightened! Heavy rains threaten to flood our pea sized island, driving me indoors with no excuses to go out but to sketch lots at home. Drowsy pets in dreamland are really nice subjects to start, filling page after page of my sketchbook. Hope this makes up for my lack of blog activity :D

Cat Sketch

2006-11-05T01:32:00.000+08:00

Cat sketch done in the earlier part of this year, forgotten until now. Done during a boring work day in the workplace :)

MR JUMBO, EARL AND MISS PORKY

2006-10-30T18:16:00.000+08:00

Sketched on Paper
Vectors in Freehand
Textures in Photoshop CS

More updates on character designs, all experimenting with using textures. More to come in the pipeline, as I get the hang of it.

Bananas

2006-10-27T14:25:00.000+08:00

Sketched pencil on paper
Vectors in Freehand
Texturized in Photoshop CS

Itchy Update

2006-10-25T14:10:00.000+08:00

Photoshop CS

Itchy Sketchy

2006-10-20T15:54:00.000+08:00

Sketching is great, especially if there are no themes to follow and especially fun in the dead of the night. I can't seem to concentrate in the day, what with the distraction from everywhere. A cup of tea to accompany would be nice too......

Tuxedo Lion

2006-10-12T10:20:00.000+08:00

Sketched on paper
Vectors in Freehand,
Textured in Photoshop CS

Been dabbling with the idea of textures recently, after seeing how the use of them can create so many possibilities. Whimsical drawings are a good way to start I figured.

I LOVE CATS!

2006-10-11T15:42:00.000+08:00

Canon Powershot A620

I love cats of all shapes and sizes, be it tabby, tri-coloured, blue, black, calico, fat, skinny, furry, strays or domesticated ones. I really can't resist nor explain the invisible magnetic force that draws me to these aloof and tempermental creatures, which domesticated, tend to cause alot of fuss and irritation erasing all the reasons of why they ever look so appealling in the first place. But nonetheless, I love them all.

MY FAVOURITE MOLESKINE MILK MAGAZINE COVERAGE

2006-10-04T11:49:00.000+08:00

Twisstii is honoured to be part of MY FAVOURITE MOLSKINE exhibition in Hong Kong. This is part of the much anticipated media coverage in Milk magazine issue no. 269. Featured are various artists from all over Asia, many whom are virtually newbies in the design scene. The exhibition is still on going, stopping at places like Times Square, Harbour City and New Town Plaza. Do drop by if any of you are lucky enough to be there!

Its Raining... Snakes!

2006-09-14T10:09:00.000+08:00

Cats these days...they all seem to be outdoing each other with the quality of "gifts" they place on our doorsteps each day. After Pelican complained of having found 2 fat and juicy lizards in her bags from her cats the other day, I got the shock of my life when my cat Twistee came home with a tree snake of some kind in her mouth! She had insisted several times to place it in my Father's room which needless to say her plans were thoroughly ruined!

As they seem to even weirder,my other cat Twiggy insisted on attaching herself like glue to me during an inspirationless sunny afternoon sketch in the garden, thinking that its good to get a tan at the same time. (*0*II)

Room With a View

2006-09-06T14:46:00.000+08:00

My room is not as neat as this though...

UPDATES PART 3

2006-08-30T12:31:00.000+08:00

Sketchbook Updates Part 2

2006-08-28T18:23:00.000+08:00

UPDATES!!!

2006-08-21T16:15:00.000+08:00

Its been awhile since I update this space. Here's a sneek peek at what goes on in my sketch book.

New Doodles

2006-07-12T10:42:00.000+08:00

Doodles from recently.. I wanted to achieve a whimsical and all so simple look to my illustration away from complicated vectors. Its quite fun to do these actually, once the kick starts ideas begin to surface very quickly. How do they look?

The Cement Garden

2006-07-11T14:34:00.001+08:00

For readers into black comedy and coming of age novels, The Cement Garden by Ian McEwan could probably satisfy your tastebuds. Published in 1978 by award winning writer of books such as Amsterdam, which won the Booker Prize in 1998, The Comfort of Strangers, The Daydreamer, Saturday, amongst the many. The Cement Garden was also made into a movie, which premiered in 1993 directed by Andrew Birkin. Revolving around the events of four children whose parents died unexpectedly one summer, they were thrown into a world of isolation and darkness to fend for themselves. The decision to keep mum about their mother's death from the outside world so as to keep the family together leads to a chain of events, narrated through the thoughts of Jack, second of four children. It depicts the yearn for adulthood which they now finally have as well as the bittersweet longing for what they can't have. It's easy to finish the book in a single sitting, leaving you with a longing for more.

Random

2006-07-07T12:32:00.000+08:00

To vectorise or not vectorise? That was the thought that was going through my mind whenever I create a piece of work. To vectorize meant having crisp and clean lines but all the raw touches in the sketches will be lost. What gives?

Pontiki Fun!

2006-06-30T10:25:00.000+08:00

Who would have thought these little humble plastic toy could provide hours of fun on a boring day off from work. Just mindless combinations of silly parts was so much fun. Pontikis are plastics of geometrical shapes with various mini parts that serve as features that one can express creativity that does not even need to make sense. Trading your pontiki parts with friends brings more crazy possibilities! Fun!

My Family & Other Animals

2006-06-24T23:58:00.000+08:00

Before we knew it, we had our family extended to more two and four legged members. Waking up to barks, meows, chirps are noises we have accustomed ourselves to recently. Strangely these animals seem to tolerate each other's existence with some even becoming the best of friends. It's strange world.

Hong Kong!

2006-06-21T21:52:00.000+08:00

It was off to a gloomy start when we arrived in Hong Kong. With the heavy mist and rain that shrouded the entire surroundings, making our first ever purchase on the pearl of the orient an indispensible brolly. We were almost never leaving the hotel for the next three days without it, and I must say I was almost annoyed by the constant transition from wet to dry and dry to wet again. Photo opportunities were scarce due to constant rainfall, shopping areas were limited to indoors only. Food wasn't fantastic, not forgetting to mention the fact that were cheated right under our noses. People were always rushing constantly there was hardly any "laid backness" anywhere. Streets were filled with citizens walking in every direction possible, oblivious to the crowds they had to squeeze through. Overall though, shopping was a winner, with tons of things to rumage through in buildings that hardly had a tinge of glamour on the exterior. The most interesting places to shop probably look the least interesting. I wouldn't mind having another go in Hong Kong but not with the rain again.

Just For Fun

2006-06-02T16:48:00.000+08:00

Accomplished nothing other than this image created for fun's sake today. Who's up for a plushie?

Attempt numero 1

2006-05-30T15:02:00.000+08:00

They never said its was easy, creating graphics in vector. Now I do know how hard and brain draining it sure was. Back breaking, eyes straining and a few hours totally devoted to the screen trying not to be side tracked by the internet and TV has paid off slightly. Not the best yet, but I did, I did not try.

Most Recommended- Tohato Harvest

2006-05-29T10:54:00.000+08:00

For biscuit fans, I present to you -Tohato Harvest Sesame Biscuits! Recommended recently by Pelican, a walking tidbit storage colleague of mine, these tasty and addictive biscuit wonderland comes in both Sesame and Cacao flavoured. Each biscuit boasts a thickness of only 3mm each and is lightly dusted with adequate amounts of sugar and sesame. Most suitable for cravings during tea time (yes, only tea compliments) and late night hungers. Individually wrapped in thin biscuits of five, they are light and not too rich for a fussy tastebud. If all fails, theres always Cacao flavoured ones on standby. And last I checked, they have come up with a green tea version of these most excellent biscuits. Plus, with packaging that promotes smiles and peace, its no wonder it has won over hearts of the japanese. To check other products go to http://tohato.jp/products/harvest/

The Accidental - Ali Smith

2006-05-28T21:11:00.000+08:00

Another book review this time, very much in a different genre from the books I usually pick up. Who could resist the bizzare cover photograph by William Eggleston of a woman with a brownie camera? Her latest full length novel, Ali Smith is also the critically acclaimed author of Like (1997), Hotel World (2001) and The Whole Story and Other Stories (2003) amongst the many. A Family in Norfolk has their world upturned when a total stranger named Amber appears at their doorstep. A closet dysfunctional family, each of them is affected by this uninvited guest in strange ways. Amber crosses personal borders, while each member of the family unties the knot that they have been struggling to juggle with. A tale spurned in sequence, Ali Smith's sharp and humourous style of writing keeps one glued to the pages. Satire is her style of writing, engaging the reader page after page. Long after the book is finished, it still casts a magical spell on the reader.

Yebypawka- Plea for information

2006-05-18T23:28:00.000+08:00

Not a big fan of soft toys, I wasn't sure initially when I received this Yebypawka toy. I must say its big doe eyes won me over. With its enormous ears and tiny bob tail, Yebypawka began as a stop-motion created by E.N Uspenskiy under the animation studio named Soyumultifilm. I did a search on the internet, unfortunately there wasn't alot of information on how this little fella came about. There seems to be a craze in Japan over it, but most websites do not offer much there is to know. Please forgive me if the information provided is incorrect. Do enlighten me if anyone has information on him. Thanx!

Illustration Friday - Under the Sea

2006-04-30T00:51:00.000+08:00

Character design also cross posted in www.mojizu.com. Its a really fun character design community that lets others rate and even adopt your characters. Please do vote for me there as well! Cheers!

Gumball Madness

2006-04-28T22:09:00.000+08:00

Fresh out of its protective gumball is our hero of the gaming world, Link from The Legend of Zelda! Here's a very well made animated version of our favourite hero from Hyrule. I had fun posing him amongst the moss growing in the backyard. Check out the latest version of him in GBA: The Legend of Zelda - the Minish Cap.

Series 2

2006-04-22T18:08:00.000+08:00

Character 2 of a series of girls I'm currently doing. I do admit I'm still not very productive enough. Juggling work and doing this at the same time has been kinda tiring. But no complains... @_@

The Highest Tide

2006-04-22T15:46:00.000+08:00

Miles O'Malley is a thirteen year old boy living in Puget Sound. He has the knowledge of the sea and its creatures like the back of his hand. By collecting marine specimens in exchange for cash Miles life was thrown into the spotlight one day when he discovered a giant squid. Instantly, he becomes a local celebrity with the media hot on his heels for his two cents worth of the phenomenon. Everyone seems to be interested all of a sudden of the wonders of the sea as well as anything mildly associated. As the ocean continues to churn out mysteries, Miles's once pyschic and elderly friend Florence predicts of more unexpected changes in the bay, like the highest tide in 50 years.

As Miles continued to try make sense of the sudden phenomenon, fears of Florence being sent to a home and his love for his teenage problematic babysitter Angie will go unanswered. Meanwhile, more problems surface as his parents are at the verge of divorce. This story of humour and obsession is definitely worth a read. This is a first novel by Jim Lynch.

Kittens For Adoption

2006-04-20T18:19:00.000+08:00

It's been raining cats out there in my neighbourhood recently. Cat lovers out there, if you are interested in providing these lovely kittens with a loving home, or if you know someone who can provide one please do not hesitate to drop me an e-mail. They are estimated to be 2 weeks old ,domestic short hair cats. I'm not sure of their gender as they are a little hard to tell at the moment. 3 of them are tabby coloured, 1 black. Mummy cat is a lovely sugar coated character, loves to have company. Very tolerant and very suitable for a lap cat.. She loves you right back. Please help to spread the love..Thanks a bunch.

New Furniture

2006-04-20T17:38:00.000+08:00

Been putting away the errand of getting a new table for far too long and finally mission is completed when I finally bothered to drag myself down to get one. It wasn't too hard, it was an instant decision and we were out of the shop in 40 minutes wheeling my spanking new furniture toward the taxi stand. Surprising how they never "looked" so heavy in the showroom until you had to drag it home. Off with the old, useless and awful hand-me-down cabinet and up with goes the new! Look who can't wait to try out......*Meow*

4th April 2006

2006-04-11T10:53:00.000+08:00

After starting the week with the demise of a pet, life became the same old bleak and grey routine. All the anger that welled up during the period of it's illness suddenly didn't matter anymore. After all what matters is we gave our best although the outcome is right there staring into our faces and that we might not be appreciated to make him well. He's in a better place now for sure. Special thanks to everyone that helped during this period. The entire day after this was filled with frustration with everyone and everything and to make myself feel better, I made myself a little pet owl fashioned out of Kinder Brueno plastic gumball and recycled labels. It was a quick attempt and the result is this weird citrus looking plump owl I named Oliver. Stay tuned to a better version..

Illustration Friday - Spring

2006-04-06T10:36:00.000+08:00

Spring..the season of blooming flowers. Time to relax, bring on the sketchbooks....Although there is no different seasons in where i live. haha

Illustration Friday - Monster

2006-03-28T18:00:00.000+08:00

Been a long time since i last posted. No excuses for laziness this time round. I present my....blue monster!!

Oven Fresh

2006-03-24T23:55:00.000+08:00

These are actually done for the portfolio. After much thinking, I've decided to leave my current non-design related job. I must admit that I do not have as much enthusiasm for the job as I used to 2 years ago.Fortunately, I've learnt alot of valuable experiences that will come in handy throughout life. I thank all the ppl who have looked after me for the duration... *Bows*

New Sketch!

2006-03-10T22:48:00.000+08:00

An amazing gift I received recently, the exclusive Fleecircus sketchbook! (Thanks Flee!) It triggered my itch to draw again after weeks of absence from the world of illustration. Who could resist the perfectly crispy and flawless pages of paper? Once I started I couldn't stop, and these are some of the sketches I have come up with. Comments are most welcome!!

Illustration Friday - Cats

2006-01-26T03:29:00.000+08:00

Am having problems entering my link to illustration friday (due to overwhelming response?) but decided to post the topic here anyways..

Backyard Adventures

2006-01-21T13:22:00.000+08:00

Embarked on a trip into nature today. Equipped with my newly acquired digital camera, I decided find out whether it was really worth quarter of my fortune by putting it to the test. With only a cup of coffee for breakfast and shouting enthusiastically in my head "Here I come!", I proceeded to snap every insect that was not bothered with me poking my lens in front of their beady eyes. After a few minutes of mindless focusing and swatting at those annoying mosquitoes buzzing everywhere, I couldn't decide whether it were my hands that was shaking or it were the leaves that my ever patient subjects were on that was swaying too hard (damn that camera shake icon). As a result, some of the pictures were not really sharp, muahaha....Anyways, here is my feeble attempt at backyard photography..Enjoy!

Blythe Salutes to Veterinary Service

2006-01-19T14:44:00.000+08:00

Ambitious Blythe takes on a new adventure this time, as a volunteer for a day at a veterinary clinic. Inexperienced as she was, she took on the brave role of assisting the vet in saving the lives of animals she very much enjoys the company of. Cats, dogs, hamsters, chinchillas were all seen in a day's work! Although the hours were long and exhausting, she was really impressed! It was an unforgettable experience and she looks forward to another chance of offering help at the clinic again. *Salutes*

P/S: Click on image to read the adventures of Blythe!

Illustration Friday -Sea

2006-01-13T06:58:00.000+08:00

A quick illustration for Illustration Friday for the topic Sea. I'm not a swimmer myself but i would really like to pick it up one day..not with cats with me of course.

Iliiustration Friday - Flavor

2006-01-06T15:21:00.000+08:00

Finally got off my butt and created something..or rather its from the archives..I've been lazy. :)

Catnaps....

2005-12-10T15:43:00.000+08:00

Its amazing how cats are able to twist and contort themselves when they are sleeping. They take naps in the most unbelieveable places, oblivious to their surroundings. They sleep up to 16 hours a day my goodness! How I wished life was that easy.....

Illustration Friday - Blue

2005-12-07T05:43:00.000+08:00

The Quarrelling Book

2005-11-18T09:38:00.000+08:00

Prized find from the neighbourhood book shop, I found The Quarrelling Book in the sale corner ready to be banished from the shelves forever. Written by Charlotte Zolotow and illustrated by Arnold Lobel I was really delighted to finally possess this book which I have been looking for quite awhile. Not in the best condtion and needless to say very much flipped through but I guess I could'nt be too greedy here. This book reminds me of how children books should really be and that you don't really need overly exaggerated characters to come up with a timeless story.

doodles

2005-11-13T17:34:00.000+08:00

A quick doodle I did awhile ago. Too lazy to complete the details and I'm already starting on another drawing. This is terrible I know, I got to be more disciplined instead of being distracted by the TV all the time. Thank god for TV.

Illustration Friday - Night

2005-11-07T13:05:00.000+08:00

Entry number 2 for Illustration Friday - Night. I love nights...

Illustration Friday - broken

2005-11-03T19:40:00.000+08:00

My first and rather late entry to this week's illustration friday theme- broken. Inspired by my cats.
done completely in watercolour. Im sure they will break more than a teacup if they are all piled on top of each other :)

old doodles

2005-11-02T02:22:00.000+08:00

An old doodle from my old sketchbooks. It was originally intended to be developed into an animation really, but i lacked time. Was nearly 2 years ago. Hopefully i might have time to finish it sometime.

BOOK OF THE MONTH

2005-10-25T22:47:00.000+08:00

Caught the reading bug recently. After not reading for quite a while, i swept 3 books off the shelves. I'm currently on Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, a novel by Susanna Clarke publised by Bloomsbury. What caught my eye initially was the simple but stylised cover really. This 1000 odd page fantasy novel revolves around magic set in the 18th century when the practices of magic have faded into the past. The character of Mr Norrell then comes into the picture displaying magic that sends an uproar in the city. Sculptures talking, woman rising form the dead, ships are sent to rival the French. Another magician Joanthan Strange appears and his experiments with the dark arts challenges the practices of Mr Norrell causing more trouble than what they both imagine. This being Susanna Clarke's first full length novel, she has a fantastic way with words that grabs the reader into wanting to read the book from start till end but at the same time not wanting it to end as well. It lives up to the reviews and definitely a writer to look out for again.

HELLO MY NAME IS

2005-10-21T22:19:00.000+08:00

Never thought that i would start a blog
but here i am..
Thought of having a picture that best describes :
my lovely cat Mimi
Enjoy!