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This is what I call a badly-designed graphic. The spacing at the top and bottom of the words could be a bit more even. Ah well…

My Magical Space is… a book.

Some time last year, I received an email from Wrkshy about an art/photography project she’s taking part. The project was called ‘Magical Spaces‘.

To participate, you fill up a page in a notebook that’s passed around — scribble something, write, draw…

I told Wrkshy that I was interested. She passed me the notebook.

I happened to be the first contributor.

Here’s what I drew:

The submission deadline for completing the notebooks was 31 August 2006. I learned from the Magical Spaces website that there was an exhibition of the notebooks in December last year.

Aiyah… I wasn’t informed (guess I have myself to blame for not checking the blog).

I have no idea who filled the pages after me. I doubt if any of them would find their way here.

Anyway, here’s are the photos from the exhibition. I tried to spot my contribution but it wasn’t featured.

Vampire & Werewolf

I did this illustration for the “Horror” Genre Guide, for the public library services (National Library Board). Well, my colleagues couldn’t hire a graphic artist in time, so I was called to create the illustrations.

“Vampire/ Werewolf”. 31 Jan 2006.
Edited using Photoshop Elements, from a composite of illustrations from my earlier works.

I asked my colleague, Wai Ling, what she had in mind. And she wrote:

“maybe something like your Sherba specimen, but can refine a bit coz the current sample looks a bit gangly and aged like those who’ve drawn the full sum of their CPF…maybe something like your Elf Warrior not bad, i.e., accentuate distinct features that are instantly recognizable - but ur elf looks more like werewolf, tho…Or, you can draw a really sinister but gorgeous specimen - in art, either be very gorgeous or extremely ugly to make it outstanding…”

So here’s how I did it (I’m assuming that you have some basic knowledge of how Photoshop works):

Layer #1 was the vampire’s face. Image was cropped from “1994 (Dec) Battle of Pelenor“, with Brightness/ Contrast adjustment. I needed a face with an open mouth and remembered my ‘Pelenor’ illustration. Outline was refined with Eraser tool (same setting as point 2 but with smaller brush size). Fangs were added, eye shadow painted more prominently, and overall image was stretched to make longer vertical profile.

Layer #2 - Werewolf was from “1989 (Aug) Sherba - Arakian Trakker Hound“. Brightness and Contrast enhanced (Enhance-> Adjust Lighting-> Brightness/ Contrast). Outline was removed with Erase tool with Dry Media Brush, set at 65% opacity. Width was also stretched (original image had narrower profile).

Layer #3 - Background was cropped from, again, the “1994 (Dec) Battle of Pelenor” image. Took part of the chain mail from the arm part, and superimposed with another selected layer (using Selection Brush Tool). Then merged down image as one layer. Initially set layer at 99% opacity but look a bit dull. Decided to stretch and crop the background image and retain 100% opacity.

Battle of Pelenor (Dec 1994)

“Battle of Pelenor”. Dec 1994.
Poster paints, airbrushed on drawing paper.

I remember drawing and painting this in one sitting. It was during my school vacation back then. I must have been reading Fantasy novels about warrior kings.

Schloss Schonbrunn (Vienna)

“Schloss Schonbrunn“. Nov 2007.
Freehand sketch. Pigment ink (pens) on sketch paper.

Originally posted at RamblingLibrarian.blogspot.com (Vienna Vacation Part 3)

1991 (Dec) Civil War

Civil War. 1991 (December).
Watercolour on paper.

I was a student when I drew this. A friend was humming the words and opening melody of what he said was a Guns N’ Roses song of the same title. I’d not heard the GnR song at that time. I listened to the words my friend was humming: “Look at the young men dying, Life was never this before”. They later inspired me to paint that picture.

The scene is supposed to capture a moment of grief, where a young man lays dying in the arms of his comrades. There’s a rose at the bottom right. I added it there to encapsulate this story in my mind as I painted the picture — while on patrol with his comrades, the soldier (just a boy, really) saw a rose lying on the floor. He wanted to pick it up for his mother. He was shot by a sniper. His comrades rush to his aid, but it’s too late. All the rest of the child-soldiers weep for their fallen comrade, and perhaps as well as for themselves.

1995 (Aug) Scene adapted from “Record of Lodoss War”

Scene adapted from the Japanese Anime “Record of Lodoss War“
1995 (August). Acrylics on paper.

I had this scanned picture for sometime now. Haven’t been disciplined enough in posting them online. But tonight, I heard a song that reminded me of it.

Walter and I had the privilege being invited, quite unplanned, to Vanessa’s home studio. She played a few of her compositions for us. Mostly jazz pieces. But there was one song that sounded very baroque and New Age to me. Vanessa called it “Minstrel”. I suggested she title it “Ballad of the Fallen” because it reminded me of something heroic, noble and sad at the same time. When I reached home, I suddenly recalled I had this painting that just might fit her song (she might not agree that it’ll match her song though, heh). Wish she’d post the song online.

Alternate Worlds - Fantasy Genre Guide illustration

This was done last year (9 Feb 2006) for the library’s “Alternate Worlds - Fantasy Genre Guide”. Composed, drawn and illustrated entirely with Photoshop Elements on a Windows PC.

My colleague, Wai Ling, suggested that I think along these lines for the illustration:

” Alternate Fantasy - stories featuring alternate & parallel worlds, for e.g. being 2 places at one time…Or 2 very contrasting landscapes within 1 sphere… Or some thing/person making the jump/cross between 2 worlds via some portal…”

I ran out of ideas for this illustration — or rather, I couldn’t think of anything that could fit into 800 x 800 space without being too elaborate. I’d originally pictured a man jumping through a time portal, or walking through a time portal into settings with differences (e.g. jungle instead of buildings). In the end, I used some website references sourced by my colleague, which showed a man in a spacesuit standing at the mouth of a cave, staring out into a vast space with stars. Unfortunately, I don’t know where’s the source of the photo, so I don’t know who to credit.

Anyway, I adapted the “Suited-man at mouth of cave” idea by sketching, cropped a cloud-burst photo from my stock collection (of a cloud burst) as the background.

For the cave, I used various brush settings (Dry brush, Wet) and Opacity settings to add highlights to the cave entrance. Then I used the Spot Healing Brush (”Create Texture” settings) to blend in the colours, using the traditional pastel technique of starting with dark colours and gradually working towards lighter tones.

For the suited-man, it was also pretty much using the same pastel technique.

Then I added in the three coloured-spheres in the sky, with a Wet Brush and Opacity setting.

For final touches, I used the Lens Flare filter (Filter-> Render-> Lens Flare) on the sky image. Also used the flared lens filter on the suited-man layer, to make it blend better into the overall picture (or else it would’ve looked like a cut-out).

Photoshop demo: Illustration of John Locke of LOST

Thanks to Siva for alerting this to me:

More videos from the artist, macpulenta.

Watercolour pencil demo: Flickr post from Graphicartepsi

Here’s a Flickr post from Graphicartepsi, who wrote: “A watercolor pencil demo originally done for my North Light book, Watercolor Pencil Magic.”

Click on the image to view the picture in Flickr, where there are notes to explain how parts of the painting is done with the watercolour pencils.