The Art of Deceit

I define an art to be a piece of work that one produce from his or her imagination or from what their eyes see. I take little credit for my work because I hardly see my work as sketching. My little trick, inspired by the great works of tattoo artists especially Kat Von D, is to trace the outline of the figure from the original picture onto my canvas. My laptop, therefore, is a handy tool for this work.



Then I select the pencils depending on the depth I want to achieve on my work.

And I do a little something I'd like to call 'fill in the blanks' or in the art world - shading. It's simple. It does not require tacit knowledge. You just copy as you see. I like to think of it as a form of image analysis where my eyes see contours on the flat image and so I place more pressure on areas with shadows and so on. And the result looks like this.

It's not perfect because I am still practicing my strokes. I still lack a crucial detail which is the subtle expression the picture protrude. I admit I can't put that down on paper yet but I hope someday I will get closer to that.

Ice Skating

My third ice skating experience was in Leeds itself with my three housemates. The temperature that night was freezing, which I think is very suitable for this activity. In fact, the day after it actually snowed!

I fell once if you must know. It was simply ridiculous because I was heading towards the hand railing and I guess I was so excited to be near the railing that I slipped and fell just as I was about to grab it. Stoopid.


Just when I thought winter is over, the snow decides to fall again. I woke up this morning to an unfamiliar alarm sound, climbed out of bed, pull the curtain and BAM! Snow was all over the place! There goes my tennis session. But in actuality I was kinda glad it snowed because the thought of waking up early is just dreadful. And I happily climbed back to bed. I didn't go back to sleep though. I spent the next few hours playing games on my phone instead. Ah, I love the weekend!

Then after a quick breakfast, I went with my mates to watch the football and netball matches our society was having at the sports hall. After a few hours, we got tired of sitting on the floor for too long so we went back home and cooked a late lunch consisting of fried rice, nuggets and a slightly too salty vegetable dish that I whipped up. Sorry guys. I'll do better next time!

Tomorrow is another weekend so I hope to spend it wisely!

Ebom

My friend's pet is a guinea pig! I think I know where the name pig came from. It must've been the noise it makes *oink oink*


That's me in absolute full concentration stroking Ebom. haha

Trip down south

Feb 3, 2011 - Feb 6, 2011

With a much needed break, I found myself going on a trip with my friend to five different places down south. The first two nights I had the luxury of having a room all to myself thanks to my friend's friend, which I'm really grateful for and can't thank her enough.

Our first visit was Guildford, a town in Surrey.

The next day, on an extremely windy condition, we headed to the city by the beach, Brighton.

It was also in Brighton that we climbed two hills to reach the Seven Sisters. It was here that my friend lost her hat to the wind. It actually flew off the cliff so fast we did not manage to outrun it so we helplessly watched it go. It must've been sad for my friend.

Day three we traveled to the south west area and reached Bristol. Our sight-seeing focus of the day was the suspension bridge. This trip somehow seems shorter than the rest. It's probably because we spent more time in trains and buses than on the actual site. We had a wonderful lunch at another friend's house and I can't thank them enough for their hospitality.

Our supposedly final stop was Bath. We planned to visit the Stonehenge but the bus was fully booked so we hang around the city for a bit.

And since we had the whole afternoon free, we decided to visit another place and chose the village of Avoncliff. I actually like this place because it reminded me of the quiet serenity of my hometown. We had an outdoor late lunch and with this kind of environment, the food was quite enjoyable.

Finally, we catch the train from Avoncliff, pass Bath, through Bristol and all the way back to Leeds.

This trip has been exciting, exhausting and adventurous. I thought I lost my keys at one point. My friend found them in her flat back in Guildford and she had them posted to me. I really owe her one! Besides losing keys and hat, my other friend also accidentally left her pair of gloves in one of the trains. But all in all, this trip is definitely a much needed one.

The day after, I sprang back to my study mode, with plenty of meetings and discussions thrown in, like I never left.

My Mates

Spenceley 2010/early 2011

I just feel the need to stamp this down in archive. We were everything, from sugar and spice to everything nice ;)

New is Good

Image credit: mango&lime

03/02/2011

I want to wish everyone who celebrates this festive season a very Happy Chinese New Year. This festival is celebrated in so many ways for different regions and cultures, and even in my home country this celebration can be diverse depending on individual households.

My family is considered to be contemporary, not too traditional yet still keeping the culture alive in some form. On New Year’s Eve, we have a typical family dinner with plenty of Chinese food to savor, but we don’t serve dumplings like what the people in China do. We do, however, serve steamed chicken, much like the Vietnamese.

The days that follow usually include family and friends visit to our house, where my mum normally call for catering. Red packets changing hands are a common sight, and the same old joke about asking for a red packet never gets old. But the more I think about it the lamer it seems. From my observation, it has become more of a tradition to deliver that joke once in a while and you can’t really escape it. So we embrace it and take it in good nature.

Perhaps my favorite part of this festive season, or least favorite depending on how you see it, is having guests coming over to our house especially those friends we haven’t seen in ages. It is indirectly an opportunity to reunite again with people we once knew or are close with.

This festival is indeed a chance to start fresh and new, what with new clothes and new hats. It’s a time for all to re-evaluate their lives, to seek the positive factors and drain the negative ones. Having said that, this year is a totally different year for me. For the first time ever, I’m not home for New Year.