The mighty pomelo!

I first discovered this fruit on the streets of Cyrildene (China town in Johannesburg). Their massive size intrigued me, so I bought one even though the man tasked to sell it wouldn't tell me what they were. After describing it to my parents over the phone I have a name! We call it "you zi".

More recently I have seen pomelos (thanks for the name shop signage!) popping up in all my local grocery shops - I like them, though I can only eat about a quarter at one time. It's wonderfully aromatic, a good balance between refreshingly tart and sweet citrus flavours! You can use them in salads and savory dishes too (kind of like your pomegranates, mangoes and peaches - hooray fruit!).

Tentacle hand...

...and the eye of terror!
Been awhile since I posted...
Work has been/is still/will be till the end of my life crazy... (really should be getting ready for work now instead of doing this blog thing)

It took me SO long to get those goddamned sucker things to look right, I became a bit mad (obsessively painting every minute detail in every single sucker - which you can't see unless you're zoomed in like 300%) Hai... I really struggled colouring this drawing... I kind of had this new stylized vision in my head, but when I started painting it all became mush and I fell back into my old style...

New blog header!

The blog is getting a make over! I've realized its become quite messy looking with different drawing styles and weirdly shaped links... So slowly going through and standardizing everything to some form of theme/colour scheme...

I found quite a helpful website for editing your HTML for customizing you blog (specifically on Blogger). It helped me make my header bigger! Though now it's not going to display properly on smaller screens - strictly speaking, your blog should be only 800 pixels wide, to accommodate the older screens with 800 x 600 aspect ratio - but 800 pixels is tiny! Its a bit of a headache, I'll probably fiddle with it more later... 

Blobby #3

For Gab Collab!

Lazy Sunday...

New veggies!

I'm on a mission to incorporate new (and hopefully exciting!) veggies into my recipe arsenal! I very rarely eat beetroot, and have never had parsnip or brussel sprouts before (it's what I'd like to call "white people food" ^_^). I found some recipes online to try - they look delicious! The recipes are as follows: Beetroot, Brussel sprouts, Parsnip).

This drawing also happily coincides with this week's Illustration Friday theme! Man did I fall off that band wagon...But it's ok! I'm participating again!

New blog!

I have given in to my guinea pig obsession and have made a separate blog where now all guinea pig related ramblings will go. This picture makes me smile :D

Kawaii Bunny

I have a fascination with Japanese fashion and their kawaii ("cute") culture. Observe this example of kawaiidom:

And

now

here's

my

take

on

it.

Here's a work progression thingy, but this drawing took super long! Well, it felt super long but probably not so with an hour slotted in here and there when I don't feel drained creatively. Anyways, there's still parts of it bothering me (like too over worked or something bleh), but I'm now sick of it - I pronouce you done bunny thing!

Anatha one!

These scribbles takes me about 30mins, I hope to get better.

A doodle

Urh, I guess I've been tooting on about drawing/sketching often, but it didn't actually happen all that much last year...oops...so it's now more important than ever to make a habit of sketching!

I also felt embarrassed by my rusty figure drawing skills (as in I had problems with the positioning of elbows!) recently while drawing up a very basic story board for work...

Weekend drawing

I decided to not do any of the work (take home work from the office) I was supposed to do this weekend and did some drawing instead - weee! I haven't drawn is so long!

 First, a giant shedding monster who stalks you in the night...

Then some kawaii girls from egg magazine (I'm not sure where I got the March issue from, but you can look here - you get the idea, its Japanese kawaii culture on acid). I liked their poses.

doodles for charity

These are my submissions for the 1000 drawings fund raising thingy - the event is going to be next week (10 Nov). If I can get my budget in order perhaps I can go and score me some cheap art! I want to do more of those patterned paintings - the first pic is my first attempt - I didn't get the silhouette quite right, its a bit funny in places, but I like the effect ^_^

Illustration Friday : Scattered/1000 drawings entry

I thought I would fall off the IF wagon again this week, but this week's word happily coincided with something I was working on for Night of 1000 Drawings (an arty charity initiative). So a bit of a cheat this week. You may recognize my owl from a previous journal doodle and I've been itching to make a more refined version. I was very inspired by Alberto Cerriteno's illustration style.

So expect strong likelihood of scattered strawberry showers this afternoon ^_^

Illustration Friday : Contraption

I have been strangely not busy but very preoccupied for the past week. Here is my Illustration Friday offering, I tried to really focus on lighting and atmosphere, I usually struggle with backgrounds and environments, so its something I want to consider more.

For this week's word "contraption" - I imagined these woolly forest creatures investigating a lamp that some camper left behind, maybe it'll change their lives forever, because they'll no longer be creepy eyes in the dark anymore ^_^

Illustration Friday : Mysterious

Yay I made it this week! Coloured pencils with some help from photoshop :)