15/60 challenge

After the Dr Sketchy's afternoon I realized how much I enjoy sketching figures. As a poor man's substitute for having a model in my living room in the middle of the afternoon I decided to quick sketch off a photo reference and see how it went. I then got n.t. to send me a photo of her choice and I tried the same thing again. Two sketches from photo reference, both done in about 15 minutes. Hence the 15/60 challenge.

(Setting myself a few too many challenges this year: 15/60, Shirt52, and I haven't even started on a New Year's resolution to write ten songs by June, and have filmed a music video for one of those...)

No Vacancy - March 2010

Tonight's creative endeavours took place at No Vacancy, where the first time I tried to get into their drop in life drawing class, they lived up to their name. Tonight I finally got in and experimented with charcoal and indian ink. Definitely more indian ink for me after this.

Quatrains of Rumi

Nicolette has been posting up poetry and so far, each piece has been perfect for me in someway. Her latest selection comes from Rumi, a 13th Century Persian poet.

Below are her selected quatrains and my attempt at translating them into Vietnamese.

A night full of talking that hurts,
my worst held-back secrets: Everything
has to do with loving and not loving.
This night will pass.
Then we have work to do.

Một đêm đầy tâm sự đau đớn,
Những bí mật xấu nhất ta đã dằn lại: Mọi chuyện
Đèo là chuyện yêu va không yêu.
Đêm nay sẽ qua.
Rồi ta có việc để làm.


After being with me one whole night,
you ask how I live when you're not here.

Badly, frantically, like a fish trying to breathe
dry sand. You weep and say,
But you choose that.

Sau một đêm suốt bên anh,
Em hỏi anh sống thế nào khi vắn em.

Bối rối cuống cuồng như cá gắn thở
cát khô. Em khóc và nói,
Nhưng anh chọn vậy.

Shirt52 project - week 3 with V Dentata @ Dr Sketchy's

Didn't think I'd be pumping out T-shirts so soon, but a unique opportunity arose at Dr Sketchy's life drawing on Sunday (see the life drawing post) and they were asking audience members to draw T-shirts inspired by the V Dentatas (the models for the afternoon). Guess who volunteered?

V Dentata @ Dr Sketchy's life drawing class

Dr Sketchy's is a great concept for a life-drawing class - they usually hire performers from burlesque or other subculture backgrounds as their models, creating interesting textures and challenging subject material. Dave and I both attended Sunday's session and you can see our results below (Dave's on the left, n.t on the right).

Dave: My style is very influenced by early 90s comic book art (thanks Jim Lee!)
n.t: I'm not sure what my style is but we're going again!

life (model) drawing

This year, I'm trying to be a bit more creative. Two things are certainly on the cards - life drawing and painting. I've been to three life/model drawing sessions now. The first session was a hen's event and featured a very young model, the second session featured a trapeze artist, and the third was true life drawing with a classically curvy and dreamy model. It's been a steep learning curve and I was exhausted by the end of today's session. Drawing is hard work.

Below is a snapshot of my progress.

Scribble dump + Shirt52 week 2

Distant Love

Although not visual, I've translated a Trinh Cong Son song.

Distant Love (Tình Xa)

What days and months have gone by whilst I've sat still
What love has gone away whilst I've remained here
Love after love has left me like little streams
O little streams, the promises were the rains

As my footsteps head home, late at night I survey the streets of
an abandoned city, as once, over an affair
How would you know that life is so sad
Sometimes I hear myself

Listening to bleak waves lap against a frozen life
To my soul: wind, sand, transient things drift back

Sometimes, on the roof of our love, I hear raindrops
Howling love, silent love
Sorrow howling after sorrow, beside the deep ravine

Tomorrow morning, what's there to see
Oh I'll still have my friends
What drink won't still burn, whilst I'm still intoxicated by you
Since the day our love became like a heavy-headed highland forest
O steadily falling sad sounds, I realise my life is already mossed over.

Trinh Cong Son
1966-1967

Koko Black Drawing Competition - Night of the Spirits

Finally, i'm done.




It's been a lot of hard but satisfying work. It's not perfect, but it's pretty close to the vision I wanted to create.

Koko Black Competition - Almost There

This is almost there. I'm not sure what to call it though - Festival of the Spirits? Night of the Spirits?

Shirt52 project - week 1

Inspired by Leanne's project 365 (one photo a day for a whole year) - Shirt52 - pop art T-shirt designs, one a week. Untitled, so far.

Emancipation - Koko Black

Koko Black art comp entry - pretty close to finished. It's called Emancipation.