Reliving girly spirit : of being lovely and sweet again

It has been a while since the last time i feel girly and dreamy. Thanks to this assignment, I got to revisit my girly spirit, which I used to fancy a lot when I was younger. Girly-ness by my personal definition and impression would be cotton pink polka dots dresses, pink ribbon hairbands, sweet pink lipstick, soft toys companion, sweet pink lipstick, girly diary, trees, gardens, cute cakes etc. My colleague came to me and wanted me to paint something girly for her 10 year old niece, who has reached an age where girls learn to be girly, loves pink and everything which is lovely, and her special love for cute soft toys called Beanie Boos.

I was really excited because I have already form something in my mind as she was describing Jasmine, a Sri Lankan girl residing in Australia and is turning 10 years old this coming 27 July 2015. As soon as I returned from work, I began brainstorming on the card and came out with a rough idea sketch on my notepad, designing The Lazy Painter's version of Jasmine (she needs to be tall, dark, and has straight hair). Most importantly, Jasmine will have to look lovely :)



I also recorded the process of making the cards.



I was really excited when I got Jasmine the way I wanted. She is sweet and girly and I love her polka dots dresses, her diary and handbag.

I don't know how others think about it but I really enjoyed this piece a lot. It's sweet, lovely, girly, light-hearted and fun. I did have a fair share of escaping the reality of this world for a while while painting this card :D

Last but not least, The Lazy Painter wishes Jasmine a lovely Happy 10th Birthday. May all your dreams comes true and may you always find happiness and fun in life!

eustoma love

According to the Greek, "Eu" means beautiful while "stoma" means mouth. It is commonly found in North America, and native in Texas and Mexico.
The single flower resembles poppies or tulips, while the double variety has the appearance of peonies or roses. It is strikingly similar to the queen of flowers - Rose.

Whatever it may be, Eustoma is beautiful in its own way.

As i worked on this artwork, it makes me feel calm and happy. I imagined myself in a floral cotton dress, picking fresh eustomas from the garden outside my french window. The sun glowed and kissed gently on my face. The lace curtain danced to the cool breeze. I slowly arranged the eustoma into a lovely Chanel Parfum vase with some water filled in. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. It's a new day again.

It's amazing how therapeutic drawing can be. It takes you to countless imagination and magical place that you wish you could be, only if you allow it to. How far and how long, you decide.

As i finished this piece, I smiled. It was a wonderful journey. It has opened a door for me to another dimension, away from the hustle and bustle of city.



Illustrating eustoma.

Farhana, a beautiful muslim name for a girl. It means happy, cheerful, joyful and glad. All the good vibes in a name :D

And a matching envelope to compliment the card.

Warming hearts through cards

Greeting cards, especially personalised greeting cards always have a special place in my heart. It is a means to send regards and love to someone we care -- friends & family, sometimes he or she might be a dear colleague/friend who is saying goodbye and moving on to a new chapter. While gifts might be a great way to send regards, greeting cards is a beautiful way to say something and it stays there forever, and the receiver could always reminisce they want in the near or far future. And the card, having standing the test of time, do have some sentimental value of that particular moment, at that time & day.

Because of this, some friends and family suggested that I should probably offer card-making services. Being always the buyer, it is indeed my first time being the seller and little did I know that it could be challenging and there are many things to learn along the way, but the reward is fulfilling. I started it small, as small as anyone who could afford a plate of Chicken Rice here in Singapore could afford a piece of personalised card.

Illustrating personalised greeting cards is a beautiful journey. It is like exchanging my cards with a story, in the process of understanding client's intention and requirement.

One morning, a client pinged me and we started with a light chat, and she told me her intention on buying a personalised cards for this coming Raya Aidilfitri (festival of breaking the fast). She told me her ideas on how she envisioned the card to be -- to have her husband and her, together with her toddler boy and a baby girl interacting with a ketupat. I gave her some suggestion, we hit it off and worked out together. It warmed my heart when she told me that she is sending this card to the United Kingdom to her husband as he could not be back for this year Raya Aidilfitri celebration here in Singapore. I gave my best effort to this card and the outcome was great. She liked it very much. The fact that I could make her happy through art made me feel happy and warm inside.

I finally tasted the first taste of accomplishment on putting a smile on someone through art and cards. It is akin to a zumba instructor who does well in making people happy when dancing, or a chef that makes good food that makes people beaming with smiles in satisfaction.

And these are the little things that keep me going.

Side note :
Ketupat is a type of dumpling made from rice packed inside a diamond-shaped container of woven palm leaf pouch, commonly found in Southeast Asia region eg. Malaysia, Indonesia, Philipine, Singapore and Brunei. Commonly served during Ramadan & Eid Mubarak (source : Wikipedia).


"Selamat Hari Raya, Ayah Halim."

simply meant "Happy Festival of Breaking Fast, Daddy Halim."

A heart warming message from the client to her husband, which I helped her to write inside the car

dream catcher

I am fascinated by dreamcatcher lately, probably because deep inside my heart I have a dream, but the dream seem so faraway and impossible. Perhaps I wanted something to keep on reminding that the dream is there, right there and no evil force could touch or stop it. And i thought of dreamcatcher, and later on read more about it. Dream catcher was thought to be formed like a web, which is in a perfect circle with a hole in the centre. It is used to help people reach goals, make good use of their ideas, dream s and vision..and if you believe the great vibes, the web will filter your good ideas and the bad ones will be trapped and will not pass.

This vision was passed on to many people and now many Indian people have dreamcatchers above their bed to sift dreams and vision. The good dreams will pass through the centre hole to the sleeping person. The evil in their dreams are captured in the web, where they will perish and evaporated in the light of the morning sun. It is believed that dreamcatcher holds the destiny of the future.

As secular as it may sound, I felt that there is something that we could learn from it. Naturally, we would very much want to protect our dreams from bad vibes. We want to believe that something that help us to fend our dreams from bad vibes that would perish in the morning sun ray. While we would sometimes create some objects to help us believe that, like in this case a dream catcher, I would like to think that God is our dreamcatcher.

We all need a childlike heart, to believe that miracles do happen and there is indeed magical moments. Current environment may strip off any possible magical moments you could ever expect or think of, but be still and and know that the Lord is in control of everything, magical moments may happen later, today, if not, maybe tomorrow. You just have to have the courage to make wise choices and the patience to wait.

Dreams is such an amazing word.
It doesn't matter how long it takes to fulfill your dream, all that matters is that you have one." - Melanie Moushigian Koulouris

Journal sketchbook from Kim

A year ago, my dear friend, Kim whom Pandamopi and i met in Perth sent me beautiful sketchbook by snail mail. The cover of the sketchbook was handpainted. When I received it in my mail box, I was very excited (because i love snail mail) and touched to received this from her, knowing my love and passion for sketching. Today I realised that it has been a year! Time flies..

Got a nice message from Kim in the sketchbook and the next page is my first entry. It was an attempt to bake a flourless chocolate orange cake but it was not as successful as it could be because i forgot to add in soda bicarbonate. Nevertheless, the flavour was nice.

Baking is nearly impossible in Singapore as I have only a small toaster oven here in my rented apartment and my cake always got burnt on top. Something interesting about change of emotion during baking : you got really excited on the idea of baking, feeling fun when shopping for ingredients, being careful and as accurate as you can be hoping that the cake would be successful, feeling like a pro as you mix the batter and pour into a baking tray and then there is a sense of anticipation and achievement as you send the baking tray filled with the batter into the oven. The process don't end there. The beautiful aroma of the cake would make you smile and you cant wait to share the cake as soon as it is ready. When you hear a crisp "ding" from the oven, the cake is ready. Crispy on top, moist in the inside. And as you run your knives around the cake in the tray and place on top of baking cooling rack, you felt happy and you are subconsciously beaming with smile. When the cake is cooler, once again you run the knive carefully, cutting the cake in beautiful grids and found the cake texture is what you desire. And as you taste the glorious taste, you cant help but feeling you have done something super!

So when I realised my cake could not rise because I totally forgot about soda bicarbonate, I was a bit disappointed because all my imagination did not come true. The cake was not successful and I felt sorry for wasting the ingredients but later on I acknowledge that as part of a learning process. Afterall, making mistakes is part of growing and learning.

Lesson learn when baking next time : not to rush things out. Keep calm, follow the steps and bake!

thank you, dad

We were I remember those good old days when my dad used to read us story books and put us to sleep when we were not so fond of darkness. Then, much later when we were around 5-6 years old, when we became much braver, he would bought cassettes with stories so that we could listen to bible stories before bed. He would pray and put blanket on us, kiss us good night and then switch off the light. Before we knew it, we were sleeping peacefully, believing that angels and God is out there at the window, watching us sleep and that darkness has no harm on us.

Bedtime stories moments is always very heart-warming. Flipping books together, read along with papa and mama, asking curious questions, bedtime lullabies…those priceless moments that we would probably revisit again when we became parents ourselves.

Celebrate the journey

Marriage is not the end of love, as some might say. Instead, it is the very beginning of an incredible journey.

Anniversary :D

what was your first impression on me ?

Trying to bring out a little mischievousness between couples who had been together by reliving some old memories of how they met and leave the first impression to each other :D

You don't need to be serious all the time, a little playful and jokes will make you feel happier and relax.

If you like my work, I could work out something special for you at a minimal charge :D

Just Keep Going

It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.

A simple card to share his/her happiness upon achieving a milestone or to simply encourage him/her to keep moving on in life. Story behind this piece art - the vintage combi keeps traveling on the road from a destination to another, discovering new things in life. The days could only get better when one keeps moving and maintain good vibes and positive state of mind. Made of high quality aquarelle water colour paper and hand painted with water colour. Comes with a bright red envelope.