Polar World

Illustration Friday is a weekly creative outlet/participatory art exhibit for illustrators and artists of all skill levels. It was designed to challenge participants creatively. Illustration Friday just gives a no-pressure, fun excuse to use it. No clients looking for a particular thing. No one judging the outcome of the work. It’s a chance to experiment and explore and play with visual art.

This is an old pencil drawing from a long time ago. It was meant to be part of series about some children and their pet pig called Peggy Sue. But I never got around to completing it and only this and another drawing exist. I planned to colour them but I never did. Guess I’m subconsciously afraid of spoiling the picture as colouring is not my strong point.

Then Illustration Friday came along and I thought this drawing fits the theme. So I took out the pencil drawing and inked and coloured it.

I’m satisfied with the colouring but I felt the coloured picture seemed to lose some of the charm of the pencil drawing. I also liked the expression on the pig more on the pencil drawing than on the coloured picture.

Bell and I had dinner at Saizeriya Italian Restaurant which was located at B2 of City Square Mall. Bell had eaten at the Saizeriya outlet at Liang Court and said the food is cheap and good.

We ordered 4 dishes to share. We had escargots, pizza, seafood gratin and sausages. The food was quite decent. Although the servings were rather small, each dish was pretty cheap and in total dinner cost $30 after taxes.

Saizeriya Italian Restaurant
B2 City Square Mall
Tel: 68344878

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I have a friend who is a die-hard Apply fanboy. This person irritated me very much by going “Buy Apple!” each time I mentioned that I am thinking of buying a new computer. Just the mere mention of the word “pc” seemed to set this fanboy off. Today I once again got irritated when this fanboy immediately shouted “Buy Apple!” when we were admiring a friend’s new sleek non-Apple laptop. I’m beginning to feel that this friend is not only a parrot but a pretty brainless one too.

This picture was for the Illustration Friday theme – Focused. It is a cool site where a one word theme will be announced every week and people can create a picture based on the theme.

When I saw this week’s theme, I thought I had to skip it again. I had no idea what to draw. I played around with a few ideas in my mind but they seemed rather boring. Eventually I decided to do a light-hearted approached to the theme. Nothing earth-shattering but maybe a different interpretation of the theme.

This picture was done in 3 layers in photoshop; 1 for needle and thread, 1 for fingers and 1 for the face. I didn’t do a rough sketch like I did for What a big carrot! I roughly knew what I wanted and also didn’t want to spend too much time on the picture. So I just coloured in straight. I did the needle first, then the thread, fingers and finally the face. Then I blurred face so there would be some depth to the picture. I also darkened it a little so it won’t steal the spotlight from the needle and thread.

I feel that I am finally getting the hang of working with colours. I encountered less frustrations while working on this picture. This drawing style seems to suit me quite well and it is something that seems to come more naturally than other methods. What remains is to hone and perfect the craft.

Mao Mao and I met Keropi at Orchard for lunch. We also showed her some of the shopping malls that opened while she was overseas.

We went to Ion and had lunch at Aoba Ramen. We had the lunch set which was a main course (ramen) and extra $0.90 to add on a side dish. We ordered different ramen and different side dish. Keropi and I found the soup salty and somewhat oily. When we told Mao Mao, she said, “If you find this salty, then you should try the one at Gallery Hotel.”

Shoyu Negi Ramen ($11.80)

There doesn’t seem to be any porkless ramen in the restaurant so Mao Mao ordered the shoyu negi ramen and gave Keropi and I all the pork.
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I saw a tea stall at B2 of City Square Mall. It was called Gong Cha. It was a brand from Taiwan but I’ve not heard of it before. I decided to give it a try.

I bought the signature drink called 奶盖红茶 which cost $2.40. It’s also available in green tea and oolong tea flavours. You can also choose your level of sweetness, from 100% (normal) to 0%. Above is what the tea looks like, capped with a layer of thick, frothy milk that tasted a bit like carnation milk but looks much whiter.

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It started with an innocent remark from Pooh Bear who told to give her 5 mins to powder her nose before meeting for lunch.

So Mao Mao asked, “How does Pooh Bear powder her nose?” And she answered her own question, “By running into the wall!”

Then she was so tickled by her own wittiness that she told everybody else. Here’s the string of related jokes that the gang came up with:

Q: How does Pooh Bear powder her nose?
A: By running into the wall!
Created by Mao Mao

Q: How does Tong Xiang powder his nose?
A: He can’t; his lips would block the way!
Created by Blackhole

Q: How does Blackhole powder her nose?
A: She can’t; the powder would get into her eyes!
Created by Tong Xiang

Q: How does Mao Mao powder her nose?
A: She can’t; the powder would get into her mouth!
Created by Pooh Bear

Bought a burger from Burger King for dinner. Decided to try their latest promotion – cheesy bacon spicy tendercrisp burger. Lettuce, tomato, crispy bacon, cheese, spicy chicken thigh cutlet, mayonnaise served on a bun sprinkled with cornmeal. It was quite nice. The chicken was mildly spicy and crispy. I could taste the mayonnaise and sometimes also the cheese but I think the bacon doesn’t make much difference.