Self-portrait

This is a visual arts assignment my teacher assigned to us. We had just learnt a new drawing technique: cross-hatching. Basically, instead of shading in just one direction with your pencil, you shade one direction and then do it in the opposite direction. For different values, space the lines more apart and leave more space in between them, which means leaving more white. When you look at the whole picture from afar, (see right for example) the light areas look light and the dark areas look dark.

So here are the steps for drawing your self-portrait.

1) Take a nice photo of yourself. It can be smiling, crying, bored, excited... Whatever you like! Be creative! You can even make a funny face.

2) Print your photo out. You can enlarge it so it's the exact size you want. I recommend this method if your spacial skills aren't perfect. You won't need to resize it when you are drawing. Some people like to use mirrors, but personally, I think drawing while looking at yourself in a mirror is a bit hard.

3) Start by drawing the outline of your face in 3H pencil. Then draw the outline of your hair (if you have hair).

4) Add facial features, also in 3H pencil. Remember the eyes have to be far apart enough, and the mouth has two lips! You don't have to shade anything yet, just draw the general outline.

5) Add shading by cross-hatching. Start with light colours first, then dark colours. So that means first shading with H pencils, then B pencils.

6) Add hair in the direction it flows in.

7) Refine the outline using a 2B pencil. Add shadows around the edges of your face.

Ta-da! You're done! Have fun drawing.

5)

Wall Art

I got my inspiration from painting in a Starbucks cafe.

So, since my apartment is going to be renovated, I've decided to have a little fun before those hammers knock down those wonderful, white walls.

So here I've used my wall as a canvas, and a friend of mine gave me a huge tub of black acrylic to draw on the wall with. Mind you, acrylic dries really quickly, so don't make mistakes because it can be rather frustratin

g to have a huge splotch on your wall. You can draw on your wall even if your home is not being renovated, but make sure you do your outlines in pencil first, or you will spend the rest of your life staring your mistake in the face.

Okay, so here's my design. It says "Pure Joy" because that was what I was feeling at the moment. On the top, hearts dangle from the sky; and at the bottom, which you can see here,

features a huge stalk with a wiggly stem and huge leaves. Exotic flowers grow from the ground, and a bird hovers above it all. As you, my brilliant readers can see, the bird is my profile picture as well. I liked it so much that I've begun to use it all over my blogs.

Words of warning: make sure you put newspaper on the floor because the paint may drip. I also had a hard time doing the bird details (i.e. the tail, wings, legs) as I was using a rather thick brush. So bear that in mind.

Other suggestions for wall art:
1. Use spray paint instead of acrylic and a brush. (REALLY make sure you cover the floor first.)

2. Stick pieces of coloured/ patterned paper onto the wall to create a collage effect. (note: don't use newspaper, it doesn't stick well and the ink runs.)

3. Get your interior designer to paint the wall a different background colour first, to create a different mood, instead of plain white. But white is fine if you like it that way. Simple. I like simple.

Other than that, make sure the paint you use is not toxic. You'll be breathing it all day. And you would be seriously destroying the environment.

Have fun wall-arting!

Good Reads

"Where you find your next book."

This is a great place to look for new and interesting reads that you probably don't know. You can add me as a friend. My usename is Isadore Monique Engrie.

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Book Reviews

Does anyone want to recommend a book or a story for me to review? You can post it in a comment here, with the book title, author and illustrator. I get angry (engrie) when people forget to mention the illustrator. They are as important as authors: books would not have that spark of life within them if it weren't for the faithful illustrators. So thanks to everyone who draws for readers to understand the book content more fully. Shall we give a shout of praise to the illustrators? Here we go: Hip! Hip! Hooray!

Detective Dialogue

D: So, Miss Esme Mok, my research tells me that your father is your ex-husband’s neighbour, Mr. Mok, no?

E: Yes you’re right.

D: Do you like your ex-husband? And do you like parrots?

E: I never liked him – I mean I have loved him for my whole life. I like parrots too.

D: Why did you divorce?

E: Um...... I hate – I mean he hates me.

D: My research also tells me that you are dating his chauffeur, Mr. Kwan.

E: Yeah, so what? He is loads better than the old parrot-face who didn’t leave me any money. I mean –

D: A witness of the scene told me that you and Mr. Kwan entered your father’s house two days ago, right?

E: Yeah, so?

D: The witness also said that you three entered your ex-husband’s garage carrying a coil of rope, no?

E: We were going to fix his car.

D: With rope? The witness said she heard a squawk, a slam of some kind of door, running water and three beeps. Do you have any explanation for these sounds?

E: Er......

D: I have. You entered the garage, and Mr. Kwan opened the door to the house with his key. The banker’s parrot squawked to warn him, and you strangled it. The parrot cage is dirty, so it explains the dirty fingerprints on the keyboard of the computer. Your ex-husband came running down the stairs, accidentally tripped, and the photos he were holding scattered across the floor. Your dad tied the rope around him, put him in your kitchen cupboard and slammed the door. Mr. Kwan poured wine to celebrate while you tried to erase the security camera videos on the computer. Is this all true?

E: This is exactly what happened.

D: It’s handcuffs for you, lady.

E: (Sprints away) I won’t be seeing you again!

D: Wait!

E: (Cackles and disappears around the corner.)

I Remember...

I Remember...

It was the 24th of December, 2006, a cold, bitter night. Icicles froze on my nose as soon as I got out of the car. We walked with our heads bowed low, me and my family, to the Christmas Party at my grandparents’ apartment.

The warnmth and happy atmosphere greeted us as we stepped inside the door. The glitter banners hung over our heads, the golden candles lit up the house. The towering Christmas tree with its green needles dressed in shiny, shimmering, sparkling, spiral, shooting-star shaped silver baubles of glass. And if you peeped, you could see the piles of presents hiding underneath, all wrapped up in their coats of red, gold and green.

Everyone was smiling, chattering, laughing. My aunts asked, “Hello. How are you? How is school?” My uncles boomed, “Hi there, niece. How’s it going? Played the piano lately?” And my grandparents fussed, “Wear your woolly or you’ll catch the cold!”

Dinner was fantastic. The square table with the checkered tablecloth couldn’t support all the food: the huge brown roasted turkey larger than a football, the salad with the lettuce and tomatoes, the chicken wings, the spaghetti with white cream sauce, the salmon sushi, the ham and egg omelet, the noodles in soup, and of course, the big tub of rice.

Glasses and cutlery tinkled and sang as everyone tucked in. Wafts of food travelled around the house, and everyone had a second helping. Grannie said, “Don’t waste the food, dearie.” And everyone had a third and fourth helping!

Dessert was even better. A wobbling mountain of jelly, a skyscraper of ice-cream and a pool of fruit was put on the table. The jelly was sweet in your mouth, and the ice-cream simply melted on the tip of your tongue. The fruits of different colours: red, orange, yellow, green and white, were a spectacle to one’s eyes and mouth.

After stuffing ourselves on the table of food, we played games such as “hide-and-seek”, “What’s this?”, and “guess the presents”. Grannie and Gramp made sure everyone left their house jolly, sweaty and of course, bloated as a balloon.

“I will never forget that Christmas party night, on which we celebrated at my grandparents’ house.” I say, lost in my dream. Sis, who is standing next to me, stamps her feet and comments on the weather, “Brrrrrrrrr! It’s getting cold and Christmas is just around the corner. I wonder if Grannie will host a Christmas party this year…”

My Favourite Room

Dear Crystal,

I hope you are looking forward to coming to my house for the sleepover. We will be sleeping with the cat this time in the bathroom, as my room is being renovated at the moment.

The bathroom is my favourite room in the house. It’s cosy and sweet-scented. It has a door but no windows, and exhaust fan, a sink, a pink bubble bath tub and a shelf on which I put my soap and kelp. The bathroom is also where my cat sleeps, eats and drinks. The floor is made of peach square tiles, and it is suitable for our sleeping bags on which we will sleep on.

I recall one time when I was inventing potions in the bathroom. I mixed together some blueberry bubble bath and perfume, then added butter and melted sugar. The result was perfect! Even my kelp swayed to the scent of the potion ……Suddenly, my cat came in and slurped all of my precious potion! I didn’t mind but was more worried about the cat. Luckily, my cat didn’t die, and the potion even made my cat grow larger!

I love the bathroom and I hope it can always stay as my laboratory. Sadly, it will be renovated next year, so I will have to keep it in my memories. I look forward to meeting you next Friday, so I can show you my newly-invented Sparkling Sizzling Shimmering Spiral Shooting Stars Strawberry-scented Soap.

Love, Isadore

P.S. Attached is a picture of my favourite room.