A bowl of Curry Mee

Curry Mee is the hawker food that are unique to Malaysia, it is made up of thin yellow noodles and thin mee-hoon(rice vermicelli) with spicy curry soup, mixture of old coconut milk (squished out from old coconut flesh), and a choice of dried tofu, prawns, cuttlefish, oyster edible pig's blood, chili sambal (extra hot spice) and mint leaves.

Some of the Curry Mee stall will encourage you to add curry chicken, not all hawker stall have that preference.

Mee Goreng

I enjoy eating, especially local hawker food. They are inexpensive but delicious. Malaysia is a country with cultural mixed, we have Indian food, Chinese food and Malay food.

This is my first sketch of the Malaysian Hawker Food, Mee Goreng.



Mee Goreng is fried noodles, very famous in Indonesia and Malaysia. Malaysia Mee Goreng are usually fried by Indians, therefore they are also known as Indian fried noodles.

It is made of thin yellow noodles fried with onion, fried tofu, chili, Indian sweet gravy, vegetables, bean sprout and egg.

Lady Portrait

I always scared of doing portrait, I find myself failed to capture it accurately. If you asked me to sketch a girl, I will end up sketching her sister.



The final sketch and the initial sketch doesn't looks the same.



Doing portrait is really hard.

St George's Anglican Church at Farquhar Street, Penang

This Anglican Church was build in 1816 using convict labour, when Colonel J.A. Bannerman was the Governor of Penang. The church was designed in the Georgian Palladian style - that's a combination of the Georgian style, named after the reigns of King George I and IV, 1714-1830; and the Palladian style, named after the Grecian architecture of a Roman called Palladius.

The first significant event to take place at the St George's Church was the marriage of Janet, daughter of Governor Bannerman, to William Edward Philips, in 1818. Services are still held at the St George's Church twice every Sunday, at 8.30am and 10.30am.

Some extracted paragraphs from HERE.

I had done a dozen of sketch theme as "Penang Building". This will be the last one, but who knows may be I will be sketching all of them again in future.

Backyard

Does your house backyard looks like this? This is the backyard of old houses at Georgetown, Penang.

Queen Victoria Memorial Clock Tower

Sketch by using Faber-Castell and Cray-Pas expressionist Oil Pastel.

Old Post Office

This is the NOVEMBER 2008 Monthly OIL PASTEL CHALLENGE posted in Wetcanvas forum. It took me sometimes to decided whether to take up the challenge. Here is my initial sketch.



I work on the scenery outside the door first. Refers to the reference photo, I observed that scenery outside the door is brighter compared to scenery inside the building.



Well, I told myself, I gonna improve the contrast between inside and outside later.



This is final, I layered a tint of light yellow for the outside scenery for the contrast. The challenge thread is here. Thanks for looking at it.

KOMTAR and Penang Ferry

KOMTAR tower is the tallest building in Penang. It was the tallest building in Asia when the time it was constructed, but lately it is been surpassed by Seoul's Korean Life Insurance Building. Anyway, It is still a very important landmark for Penang Island.

Penang Ferry is a transporter that can carry vehicle and people from Butterworth to Penang Island. It was the only way to cross the sea, but now it becomes second option to cross the sea, because we already have Penang bridge.

If you aware of the smoothly feel of mountain, it was blended by using tortillons. This is the view before blending was applied.



Which one do you prefer?

Green Apple

I always enjoy Yusuke's OP sketch, it is so real and lively. This is my first attempt on realism, it does helps me to train up my observation on colors, accuracy on sketching objects. I think I gonna do more realism sketch on still life.

Armenian Street in Georgetown, Penang

Armenian Street is one of the historical street in Penang, where it was preserved with various famous heritage buildings. Cheah Kongsi is one of the building located at Armenian Street. If you are interested in knowing the history of Armenian Street, check out this page.


Armenian Street, Buncho Oil Pastel on white drawing paper

I remember I bought some print Penang building sketch postcard for my friend as a birthday gift. The sketch was done by charcoal for the buildings outline and with watercolor for foreground and background. I love those building sketch, which it inspire me to try this sketch.

First, I sketch the building with gray OP, but I purposely paint the flag, the round signboard and the streetlight with brighter color for the contrast to the old building because they are all newly added in recent years. Then, I apply pearl color on foreground for the buildings and background for the sky and clouds. With some marking done in gray for the darker parts of the clouds.

At last, I work out the outline with black, as well as adding gray and pear orange for the blends and shades. This is consider experimental, because I uses pale color for foreground and background but I express the buildings with dark outline. And I use less than 10 colors for the entire sketch.

Acheen Street and the Malay Mosque

The Acheen St. Mosque in Georgetown, Penang, is also known as Masjid Melayu Lebuh Acheh (Malay Mosque) was founded by Tengku Syed Hussain Al-Aidid in 1808. The entire complex is historically and architecturally important as it reflects the earliest Muslim urban community in Penang comprising of the Malays, Indian Muslims, Arabs and the Achehnese.
Quote from http://www.hbp.usm.my/townplg/heritage/acheen.htm.

The Mosque is located at the place near to Khoo Kongsi, which is walking distance.

The composition of buildings and the street is a challenge for me, I have no confident to sketch it directly with OP. With the help of colour pencil, I have done my initial sketch. It is easy to correct the mistakes on colour pencil compared to oil pastel.


My focus is to express the historical view on entire street, which I do not concentrate on the details in very fine manner.


Finally, I had completed the sketch.

Hai Kee Chan, Penang

Hai Kee Chan (海记栈）is a traditional mansion which located in Georgetown, Penang. Not like others Chinese traditional building which likes to paint in red, this building painted in green. If you are interested for visiting it, feel free to get further information at here.

I am using cray-pas expressionist OP, and painted on drawing block's cover that have coarse surface. Not like others Penang building painting that I usually sketch the details using color pencil before applying the Oil Pastel. But this time, I sketch it directly with OP.

I started with the door, lamp and the signboard.


Then I outline the rest of the objects such as windows and lanterns.


Next, I finished off the green wall.


Final!

Stylish Rapper

I made a study on portrait, I did a fast sketch directly with oil pastel.



It is really challenging for me to sketch portrait, because a minor mistakes may cause a very obvious difference. Look at the lady with the sunglasses, initially there are no sunglasses. I had made a mistakes on the pupil, therefore I decided to give her a treatment by painting her a sunglasses.

I had this sketch posted on wetcanvas and mention about my cheat on covering the eyes, it does welcomes some comments from the people over there, check it out, I find them interesting.

Kek Lok Si

I sketched this Pagoda before, one of the ACEO I had made for the exchange. I still find it hard to sketch this octagon buildings. This is A4 size textured surface, mainly by Faber-Castell Oil Pastel with some cray-pas expressionist for the blending and layering.



I am not very satisfied with this one, I think I will plan for the next attempt in future.

Paint from Nature: Outward

This is the first time I paint from nature, without the need of referring to the photo, I can choose what to paint, it is so flexible. I do not even use my color pencil to sketch. I feel so good about it!

This is my house's outward, my house is at level 4. I sit at the door, staring out from the corridor, I can see only the roof of the opposite house, which is 3 stories house.



I am using Buncho oil pastel on drawing paper, thanks for looking at it.

Resting

I sketch a resting man with buncho oil pastel on drawing paper.



Its been awhile I didn't use my buncho OP after I bought cray-pas expressionist and Faber-Castell OP. Although Buncho OP the lower grade OP, but it does provides a set of striking colors.

Leisure sketch

I usually sketch my art by using color pencil consequently applying oil pastel. Yesterday, while waiting for the visit of my friend, I feel like having a leisure sketch. Therefore, I simple grab a piece of scrap paper left over on my desk and straight away sketch it with my Buncho oil pastel.

The first sketch object is my red helmet, which it is the first object that drags my attention. With no initial color pencil sketch, with no wasting time on choosing accurate color and measuring the object size, it took me about 5 - 10 minutes to finish the entire sketch.



As I looked at it that time, wow! it is not bad at all. So I decided to do another one, this time is my bonsai.



Out of sudden, I realized a problem! Hey! those papers are actually waited to be throw, now I have turn it into an art, It is a waste if I throw it away now.

With the success of those sketch, I picked a complex object for my next sketch. It is my bed that position near the window.



I finished up my scrap paper, but still I feel like doing another one. I found a piece of laundry receipt left on my desk, ^^ hehe.



It took me little time to sketch, but the outcome is astonish. I think I will do more leisure sketch in the future.

Teo Chew Association in Penang

Teo Chew Association in Penang is also known as Han Jiang Ancestral Temple. It is a building that won the Award of Merit from the Unesco Asia-Pacific Heritage Award for Culture Heritage Conservation like Khoo Kongsi.

I have drew the outer hall of this temple. I am using mostly Faber-Castell creative studio oil pastel, as well as blending with some cray-pas expressionist OP on white drawing paper.

This is the initial sketch that I have done by using color pencil and few stroke of OP.


My focus on this building is the roof as well as the depth of the interior part. Therefore, I start my painting from the roof.


I use a lots of dark color to express the layer depth of the interior of the building, dark color consist of dark brown, dark blue, dark red as well as black.



And finally, it is done. Here I present you the Teo Chew Association in Penang. Thanks for looking at it.

Khoo Kongsi in oil pastel

Khoo Kongsi is located at Penang Georgetown, Malaysia. It is one of the famous heritage site in Penang. The outlook of this building looks like Chinese temple, it is mainly made of wood. You will find the clay statue on the top roof and Chinese lantern in the building.

I have discovered a photo at penangart.com, which is stunning! Therefore I took that photo as my reference and started a fast sketch!



I applied the paint with Faber-Castell OP, and blend it with a little bit of cray-pas expressionist OP as well. The paper I used is coarse texture light purple A4 size card.

This is the 3rd painting about Penang building I have done.

An old auberge in Penang

This is an old auberge located at Georgetown of Penang, Malaysia. Georgetown is the capital of Penang, has been added to the UNESCO World Heritage List recently. Although this tiny little auberge is not as famous as Khoo Kongsi, but this simple aging building is beautiful for me.

This is the first time I use Faber-Castell creative studio oil pastel into painting. I am using coarse surface orange card, as well as faber-castell color pencil for the initial sketching.

First, I am sketching this building in brown.


My first impression on Faber-Castell oil pastel is the price, it is expensive compared to cray-pas expressionist. Both of them provides 36 colors, Faber-Castell gives quite interesting range of colors for me, they have many light tone which is close to white, and it gives me two gray color. Well, they do not provide gold and silver.



I realized that Faber-Castell Oil pastel is quite dusty, and I prefer cray-pas white color compare to Faber-Castel one.



I am using cray-pas silver color for the gate, as well as some dark brown for the darker area of the wood window.



And finally, It is done. This is the second painting dedicated to Penang, my home neighborhood.



I have tried applying Faber-Castell white to cover the light yellow (102 cream), but it failed to cover, it seems opaque to me. Therefore, at last I choose cray-pas white.

Well, it is still too early to tell whether Faber-Castell oil pastel suits me or not. I will do more painting using Faber-Castell OP.

Bronze Age of Ancient China

Recently, I have read an article regarding Bronze Age of Ancient China（青铜时代） in the UNESCO magazine, it covers the historical stories regarding Dynasty Shang （商朝）as well as includes a lots of beautiful photo.

I picked up my cray-pas expressionist oil pastel, refers to the images on the magazine and started to paint it on ATC size black mounting board.


I got the image as reference from the cover of the magazine, I don't know what is this statue depict, it is a kind of 'dog' for me, which made of clay and bronze.


This is bronze human mask （青铜人面）which I call it Bronze Goblin Mask. Regarding to the article, this kind of mask is very rare, archaeologist believes that is how ancient chinese in Dynastic Shang looks like. The usage of the mask is still unknown.


This is one of uncommon set of bronze age objects. This bronze statue looks very different from others. Archaeologist believes this statue must be depict the King or God. I didn't know Frankenstein already exist during Dynastic Shang, it was a great discover! :P


This is a weapon for the war, Bronze Tomahawk (青铜钺).