Tongue-Tied: Thoughts Visualized

Decided to post a bunch of sketches I did- crappy snapshots hence the ill lighting and shadows that do no justice to all my work. Lucky for me I did these sketches (these are about half of the ones I did over the course of the past month) because this was all I had to show for at my interview. The ones I did not feature here are essentially fashion drawings and personal illustrated text- but those will go up another day.
The following selection tend to be single focal points in a specific style with a lot of details in the manner of dress- dress being the representation of the meaning derived from self expression. I think my style at the moment has developed into a merge of Audrey Kawasaki and fashion illustration. All in all, I think I really focused on illustrating hands- I like the expression hands can give and they look beautiful if the anatomy is done correctly.
I don't see myself like my cousin, as an illustrator; my sketches are basically a physical embodiment of my verbal thoughts and my blog. Art has always been the language that I spoke best- it transcends all rules of grammar, verb tenses and sentence structure although oddly enough, writing became a source of inspiration in creating and designing for me. In my sketchbook both writing and drawing exist side by side- those small moments of realization accompanied by a quick sketch. Oddly enough, though I am not a writer (personal expression being my only claim as one), I find it easier to write than to draw. So in a way, drawing does not come naturally to this artist, she just perceives it as another outlet since she's so tongue-tied in the many spoken languages that are known to Man:



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A week into my HK trip, I got a little depressed because all I could see around me was the constant consumption of material goods with little output on the consumer's behalf. So I felt a need to have to start sketching in my sketchbook and ended up doing a lot of 'work' killing time during lunches and downtime at home. This is one of the first I did- random surrealist 'perfume bottle'- doesn't really have a meaning; just wanted to draw glass from my head therefore if the light does not make sense, it's because I didn't have an object to draw from.




I think I saw some Gucci dress with a bamboo print at Pacific Place and started sketching this which ended up being some random play on freedom and enslavement with the handcuffs, birdcage earrings and feathers as hair. All that she is is a (sorry to have to use this word) juxtaposition of being free and being enslaved: feathers as hair, the bamboo print reminiscent of the bars of a cell to her 'choice' of letting the birds go free while she never will be. Initially I was going to illustrate her hair in the stylized fashion of mizu that you often see on washi paper but decided against it since feathers seem to tie back into the birdcage idea better.
I love how I did her hands- a little bit of foreshortening, graceful, long and delicate. It's hard to make it look effortless but yeah, a lot of erasing and resketching was done to make it look natural.




Goal: Draw someone 'upside down' and to practice my foreshortening. I think it came out quite well..




Bored at dinner and started drawing in a rather 2d decorative style reminiscent of one of my favourite artists, Gustav Klimt with the contorted twisting bodies, nature abstracted and richly detailed finishes. I remember feverishly drawing this one and was exhausted after its completion because I got so into it (and that doesn't happen too often...)



I did this one today out of my misery. Whatver, you can call it 'emo' but what is art without feeling?