back in the warmth

well after a lot of flights I've manage to stay on the ground... well water actually.. see, I live on a rented yatch here in singapore... and it is heaven... the warm balmy night... the smell of my home brewed beer... I bottled it before hitting the sack... (and ok I did sample some)... the gentle sea breeze... I slept for almost 20 hours... totally refreshing... i strongly recommend oversleeping

Now to catch up on that scanning backlog

a great blog & group

I like to wander round... in this cyber space, as well as the real world... sometimes I find despicably bad places(smut overload)... sometimes great spots... one such place worth a visit is JNESS_BLOG & her ScarletBBWArt Gallery... her work is really something special...

from there I went onto find a great group, dedicated to all things BBWs in Art... its a wonderfull site (no smuttiness welcome)

an old friend (revisited)

Pencils sketch of an amazing cleavage


there seems to have been a big shift in the on-line community... has something terrible happen in the force (luke)... my favourite chat rooms are impossible to get into... many familiar faces are gone ( & unfortunately replaced by an every increasing army of boring bots)... but all is not lost...I did manage to catch up with a couple of old friends that I hadn't seen for ages... Sad Panda, a great lady and artrist herself, even went so far as scolding me for not including her sketches.... well here they are

the watercolour sketch takes shape

this may well be my first webcam watercolour... i still love the richness of the skin tones... but I must admit I got very muddy puddles in the shadows

a colourful & happy (sad) panda in pencil and watercolour


thanks again my gorgeous friend... you started me on a great, some times difficult but certainly uplifting road

the high life

well I'm actually about to head for london after all... it been one of those on again off again trips... in the new british airways sleeper, no less... then onto bishkek, it is nice this time of year... and I doubt i'll be blogging from there

mermaids indeed, what a disgrace

I guess most expats in singapore know that if you want to find aussies after work ( & behaving badly) you can first try Carnegies.... which is interesting as it a direct clone of its name sake in hong kong, it is on place in which I have never seen an aussie...

anyway that's not what my concern is about... it is about another favorite haunt for expats.... Batam island, unfortunately it attracts the dirty old man variety of expat... and shamefully a few of whom may be aussies...

well I got invited over there to a barbie... and even I was shocked... we went to a private beach and "club" where larger girls had been force feed on nasi putih, udang & sambal manis.. presumable to get them even larger and they were made to swim nude, in what are essentially small pens off a makeshift jetty... I was told this was to make their skin wrinkled and white... they can only leave their watery pens when picked to entertain one of the paying customers... firstly they must perform a very unusual tongue flicking ritual in full view of everyone... if they giggle or dont show enough interest in the tonguing they are splashed with green paint and thrown back into the water... if a customer is satisfied he can tie one or more coloured ribbons around her arms or legs... considerable money changes hands in bets on which girls will get painted and weather the paying customer gets his money's worth... there is much shouting of "mukan malam" and "mukan dading""...

the girls are called the "mermaids of malaca" and are supposedly a rare delicacy... but they look quiet miserable despite their exotic titles and intended status... the girl with the most ribbons becomes the center piece for dinner and has the various dipping sauces poured over her naked body

don't worry I just enjoyed my barbecued pawns with sweet chili sauce an a little rice... and a great sunset... at a different function, the one I had actually been invited to, further along the beach

这个故事是4月傻瓜天笑话

if you like this blog site why not review it

I'm still quite amazed at the traffic being reported by my site counter... its a little humbling... but I'd rather just settle back and do something original and not worry about the ins and outs of techncal stuff like "hits" and weather they really are hits... or technically misses... or spider... or bots... or whatevers

i'd prefere human assesment... so i've recently registered this blog with the singapore blog directory under their art and photo blogs listings... but it is based on user review... so if you have a spare moment why not become a reviewer (and please give an honest opinion)

a different aspect

Super Goddess in profile (& 4B pencil)


i like this portrait in profile... and should do more of these... still i must not take any credit for the pose it is really an consequence of where laura has her screen relative to her camera, rather than any artistic endeavours on my behalf... and i hope she was preoccupied about the going on the the chat room not wooried about my sketching...

I don't have snazzy headphones like laura's so I probably missed something... well to be honest i don't have any headphones so I'm sure I am missing a lot

look no net...

my experiment with yahoo connection via SMS turned out to be one
way... mainly because I couldn't figure out how to reply... more
instruction to read I guess... but read from where?

Special thanks for all the well wishers, my friend how was involved in
a nasty accident before easter, is still in hospital but on the road
to recovery... with a seriously large helping of choccies and other
easter treats...

unfortunately for me its back to the grind stone... infact two super
urgent ones... :( more long distance flights

PS: this is an email blog submission so I hipe it gets through

pretty as a picture... more of lotta

lotta in pencil with a painted pout


lotta is another of my favourites and I sketched these a while ago... i could resist adding red lips to my pencil skech of her pout.. i do like her as a redhead, trust you do also...


red har, red gloves & feather boa (in watercolour)


you can click on any images in this blog to see them larger

political correct or not

I notice my old counter is still chunging along... and I wondered why... so while waiting in yet another airport lounge and chatting with a nice young lady, that knows things about the web... i've learned how to traced back some fo those that link to this humble blog...

shock horror... i'm mentioned in the Political Correctness Watch... Not that í'm worried political correctness just styfles originality and freedom of expression...

not big mystry why i'm there... the PC watch is a memeber of the australian bloggers alliance and if you hurry you'll see i'm the featured blog of the week... (was joking you don't have to hurry I've been featured blog of the week since last october) but i do still feel humble

Another Bell Sitting.....

bell in "rough work" 4B pencil


bell is a favourite model and a lot of fun to sketch.... the composition in the watercolour below is good and powerful, it was a very special sitting for her very special friend... but it wasn't always like that... the original washes dried very pale and i was dissapointed... so I added the stronger darker blue in the background to let the flesh tones become highlights... I also used my newly aquired set of derwent artist pencils (the portrait set) to liven up the flesh tone shadows... i think this is now a striking work

watercolor washes with coloured pencil over-working


do you like the result..? please leave your comments.. I welcome lots of feedback

Guess Who? is a red head now

A more colourful lotta


this was actually an abandoned sketch... I was concentrating on getting the hand right... and the persepctive is wrong.. but I love lotta's expression... that very characteristic "love of life" that she usually has... all just in pink and lilac shadows... and her smile...

watch out for another lotta series in here... very soon

dark, darker, darkest

I've been using my old trusty 4B graphite pencils a lot lately... especially for quick sketches... they can create very stong darks even when rubbed in... I loved truely's delicate & pretty face framed in her hair and top so I just went for it... hatching in shadow... getting it very dark compared with her facial features... i didn't have much time to do the sketch, so the line work in the darks is still rough but i don't think that matters...'

by the way... i'd love to see more feedback in the form of comments again... tell me what you like (or don't like)

ruby red is truey very pretty


LATE NEWS... one of my friends down in australia has a bad accident today... so once again I'm packing my bag and boarding a plane... i'm starting to have difficulty keeping up with myself actually

what percent of sketches do I publish?

someone asked me the other day what percentage of sketches I publish... I didn't know... but i thought to myself "most"... well I was wrong... I've just counted over 300 sketches (not all I've done just the ones I still have).. when i put aside the ones I know I've posted there where around 100... not a very good success rate...

but i do have some excuses... I throw away bad sketches... I've misplaced quiet a few... I don't publish anything without permisssion and not every one likes my work... also i've lost track of a few models, (I have to admit I'm not well organised in that regard)... a few are more private... some are just not worthy of publishing...

so the answer is around 30% and you can safely asume they are the best ones

warmth in watercolour

This sketch of bowtie is quiet old, it got caught up in my unscanned backlog.... but i love the warmth of the colours... notice there is hardly any skin tone in this one.. i had become pre occupied with the light, the shadows and her she but glowing personaility... so i let the colours of the shadows & highlights take over... watercolour is quiet an amazing medium
a watercolour with purple shadows & yellow highlights

good medicine

a good friend has been very sick... so my sletch book and pencils have been packed away.... the truth is I do miss a daily sketch or two... it is somehow good for the soul... b i'd rather make sure they get better

to cut a long story short we went down the coast to the inverlock jazz festival and it was good medicine (for both of us)... a reallt good long weekend in the best australian way.... we did nothing but relax, eat, drink &... relax some more, I guess you know how it goes.

so I can see i'll be ready to enjoy my break just as it finishes

a delicate starr

I've been reduced to more conventional pencil sketching while I've been darting back and forth... normally i'm pretty gungho with soft pencils and go for really rich dark blacks, early in the sketch... i've been experimenting with a lighter touch and lots of smudging...

(low key) soft pencil (4B)

i think this one is particularly magical, with just the facial detail darkish and the rest largely unfinished.

back on track....

well all the distractions are attended to... and the scanning of my massive backlog of sketches has begun... wow there are a lot... so watch your emails ladies

there are however a few sketchs i cant remember the model, sogirls if you are expecting a sketch drop me an email or a message (Yahoo or MSn)... and maybe remind me of your ID and your email addy... otherwise watch out for the next cinderella posts

yet another email blog test

Not sure why I'm even trying this again.... but miracles happen sometimes

well the spamming incident seems to be over...

I've got quiet a scanning backlog... sorry for those waiting... I will get onto it as soon as I can... my friend is out of hospital... and I think TLC is required.... so don't panic I haven't stopped sketching or anything drastic like that