Things in London are different

1. The tap water stains turn milky white.

2. My cup of tea has flaky light brown stuff after a night.

3. The dust is visible.

4. Steaming hot water on one tap and freezing cold on the other. (turning both on doesn't give you warm water. It gives a jet of water that's half hot and half cold so you'll burn your left hand while your right hand gets frostbites.)

5. They love warm orange lighting for everything.

6. Wolfberries are called Goji Berries. And they don't come in packs for chinese desserts. They come in pills for men.

7. Salami and cheese are a lot cheaper here.

8. Make eye contact and say 'Sorry' or 'Thanks'. You are not to withdraw into your own cacoon or hide behind your shadowing bangs.

9. Most people don't wear heels. That is until they go clubbing and they suddenly add pilings.

10. Can you spell M-I-L-O? (Ovaltine and Horlicks are favourites though.)

11. Plenty of clay animation advertisments on TV.

12. "'You alright?"

13. 'Cheers' can be used for anything. Anything. Cheers!

14. Can you say 'crips-ss-ps'?

15. Umbrellas are ridiculously expensive for a rainy country (no 100Yen stolen umbrellas stands?). Wear a hoodie. Or look cool (i.e. stupid) and walk in the rain.

16. They either love cold food or have something against selling hot food... which to them means rice and curry, potato and curry, or sausage rolls.

more to come!

Of Gunshots, Fireworks and Pegion Poop

Graphite and brown pencil (acrylic for the poop)

Ugly is such a lazy thing - Project on the River Thames

"When you are disinterested in something you lose control of your mind and fail to see beauty. Ugly is such a lazy thing!" clara.

I finally heard gunshots today! Not like that's a particular occasion to celebrate but at least now I know how to distinguish between gunshots and firecrackers. Firecrackers goes "pop-pop pop" quite rapidly and the more obvious ones crackle and whistle at the end. Gunshots goes a quite deep "pop" pause.... and "pop" and is usually followed 10 minutes later by police sirens.

Not too big a concern unless you start to hear people screaming which fortunately hasn't happened. I just need to know how they sound like so I don't pop out happily for milk and eggs at Tesco thinking they're celebrating Halloween with firecrackers. 

The majority of Singaporeans would never have encountered a gun and so am relatively clueless what in the world you'd do with one. My classmate told me gangs usually fire it into the air to mark locations, threaten (I'm thinking howling at the moon doesn't go down well with macho-looking hoodie man) or celebrate birthdays. Woah, they sure know how to celebrate in London! And here I am thinking only Countries and the Queen gets gunfire salutes on their birthdays.

Of Autumn and Black Fur

It's winter but only starting to finally look like autumn. A quick sketch of a guy who's originally staring at the paparazzi chasing an unknown British star (at least unknown to me). But hey, that doesn't fit in the romantic surroundings!

The dust here is strange strains of short blackish thread or fur like things. I thought they descended from my coat but realise there's no way threads from my coat could magically float into my bathroom and settle on the basin or get stuck up my nose when I'm not wearing it. But that's too much information.

I'm sleepy, but I need to work harder.

Illustrators play with the synapse

Oskar Fischinger - work 1920s to 1940s 
http://www.tudou.com/v/PvmbCzO1q48

Brick Lane

Found this lady along Brick Lane waiting for people to exchange portrait drawings with. It's really interesting! We have to hide the sketchpad under the table and stare at each other across the table while drawing a portrait of each other. Not sure if you can see it well but on the left is my portrait of her, and vice versa.

What's strange is that we're complete strangers but drawing requires such intensive focusing on the details that it would've been really awkward if we weren't both preoccupied. Can you imagine staring at a stranger's lips for a prolonged period of time? Anyway we must have looked pretty funny to others since what they see is two people frowning at each other over an empty table. If I remember correctly, her idea was to use this project as a way of getting strangers to know each other. I hope it goes well!

Which reminds me of my lesson today! My animation lecturer, Katerina said people are born to draw yet as they grow older and gain oral and written skills that somehow eliminates drawing and for some people, it stops forever. Strange isn't it? How we ignore an inert ability and re-categorize it as a skill only certain groups of people have.

Did anyone read Children's Britannica when they were younger? I loved it! I read the entire encyclopedia set back to back several times over. One of the stories under 'D' was a poem about a girl who dreamt of all the dolls in the world but was awoken by her own doll which got jealous. Okay, it sounds freakishly like Freddie Kludger when I put it this way. But I deviate. Saw this ancient Roman doll at the British Museum and it's the exact same doll illustrated in the Britannica! It's not exactly surprising since the Britannica was published in London but the exciting bit is seeing something from your childhood come alive!

Paper Pulp People

Working with RJ Paper was a dream! The people were so lovely and I get to spend hours and hours, day after day painting alone on a huge canvas. Not to mention the joy of having huge bottles of acrylic paint by my side. Ah, Bliss! Can't wait to see the paper catalog project out of the oven too!

River Thames

watercolour

Mile End

watercolour and ink

めrci beaucorp!

My door finally has something pretty! And my third wisdom tooth is growing. I hope it doesn't give me any trouble.


I found a plastic bag floating by the hedge of my hostel last night. It looked like it was stuck in a air current well, spinning and fluttering in mid-air. Apparently that's bad Feng Sui (anyone watched My Lucky Star?). Or maybe it's a zone of zero gravity and the plastic bag got caught in a constant eternal orbit in the tiny space. Or maybe it's ghostly...


When I woke up this morning it was still floating there and I very excitedly pointed it out to my flatmate. She took one look and said, "It's caught in a spider web." 

So much for adventure. Back to my breakfast then. For a mould update, 4 slices of bread I meant to have for lunch has gone half white with bluish grey crust. I didn't even keep it for that long! One week perhaps?

Nothing is Original.


Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows, select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is non-existent, and don't bother concealing your thievery - celevrate it if you feel like it.


In any case always remember what Jon Luc Goddard said:


"It's not where you take things from - it's where you take them to."

Jim Jarmusch

Of Mashed Potatoes and Farewells

3rd week in London and my sister and brother-in-law just left for home today after 10 days holidaying around the region. To distract myself I made a huge jar of mashed potatoes with butter and cheese, a box of sautéed mushrooms with onions and packed lunch for the next 2 days!

Unfortunately my apple juice kind of coagulated and grew blackish fur...  I thought it could last for ages. Hopefully my food posts in the future will be more exciting even if they lack any presentation (note the desperate use of ribbon!)