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Now, this is an interesting piece. You may think, who on earth is this ‘weird’ looking man, what made me paint him?

Well well, this funny looking man is my DAD!! People who look at me, then him, will go “Are you sure?” We get that remarks, always!! Let me just tell you something about him.

He is half chinese(father’s side) and mom side is eurasian. There’s where the surname ‘Kow’ came from (Kow in mandarin means tall). His mom side is ‘Fidelis’, a mix of dutch and something else…(lost in generation) LOL….. And there’s where he got his tanned complexion.

Ok, let’s cut the story short.

He is very supportive of my art work and always tell me to paint a potrait of old wrinkly people. I was quite reluctant to because I don’t think I could handle wrinkle well. So one fine day, when

This is a piece that I put on hold for quite some time. I took this photo in a restaurant in Kuala Lumpur. The whole atmosphere of the restaurant was warm and cozy. I saw this huge pot of orchid beside the entrance and can’t help liking the lighting that gave the orchids an enthralling overall. I captured this on my mobile and it turned out just as I like it.

As you can see, I enlarged the reference picture  to A4 for clearer definitions. I started off with free hand sketch. No grid this time as this is quite a free flow kind of piece with plenty of whites.

Now, this is the toughest part of all, the almost silhouette, transparent petals on the right. That’s the main reason I chose a black surfaced paper. Eventhough it’s supposed to

What can I say, I did a commissioned work!! Which I never intended to do any at the first place. WHY??

First of all, I find it tedious to do commissioned work as it’s very difficult to please everyone. I may like something which someone may not. One man’s meat another man’s poison.

I was approached by Wendy, the owner of Leo books located in Island Plaza where I rent all my books. She is the one that really got me started on my art work. She inspired me to paint a picture, which I posted ealier, ‘Water for Life’ for water.org. And also, she also suggested that I put some of my work at her shop for sale, what a nice lady, so how could I not do a favour back?

I got her email one fine day sending me this reference photo of Leo, the

This is a challenge from Color Pencil Magazine on FaceBook.

They have monthly art challenge and winner gets to win lots of goodies. I did this because of the colours. These are colours which I hardly, some never, use unless its for blending to add depth to primary colours.

Since I’ve done it, might as well submit but of course, don’t expect to win anything. Should see other artist work, just awesome.

It’s quite a breeze working on this, especially using the Faber-Castell polychromos, since they are oil based, the colours just glide on and no wax bloom like those wax based. But still be using other wax based colour pencils because they have their own distinctive outcome.

I’ve stopped painting for almost 2 days now. taking a break before I start my commissioned work, fingers crossed!

This is my 1st ever portrait. PHEW!!! It’s tough, everything about it, the skin tone, the expression etc..

This is a portrait of my nephew, Gabriel, from my 2nd youngest brother, Julian and Nicole, who are residing in Shanghai currently. Gabby is now almost 6 years old. I came about this photo of his on Facebook, posted by his mom. It immediately caught my attention. The composition of the whole image is just too good to not paint it, especially with the franggipanni flowers on each ear, too cute!

This is how I started on the sketch. I used the grid system. I used a tracing paper and draw out a 1″x 1″ grid and put it against the reference photo, which I enlarged it to A4 size. Then proceed to draw the grind very lightly with a ‘H’ graphite pencil on the drawing paper, the grind size on

This is a tedious painting because it’s painted on drafting linen,

a type of paper that architects use to print out plans. I got this from my husband, who is an architect (lucky me!)

Why linen paper? Well, I’m being ambitious, wanna try coloured pencil on canvas, how about that? So dear hubby said, why not practice on linen paper first? (So sweet of him) So here goes my “experimental” piece. Not too bad, I say!

Instead of using Derwent cp, this time I used solely Faber-Castell polychromos. Their cp colours are super vibrant and are oil based. The texture is creamier and  have a slight gloss finish look. And another thing that I like about FC is that they don’t easily break.

I used measuring cups to draw the circle, yup! the measuring cup for baking (another hobby of mine) as they have different sizes.

 Ms. Pearly, what a befitting name for this horse.

I took the picture of her in her stable before she was groomed.  What captured my fancy is her playful character, she looks so adorable in a mess.

This is how I start my work.

It will usually takes me around 2 days to sit in front of a chosen blank drawing paper. Why 2 days? That is because I am at lost as to where to begin. I will just sit in front of my work desk and stare at the reference picture and imagine the sketches in my head. Once I got tired of staring, I start sketching the outline, always a lot of erasing, re-sketch and so forth.

Now, for cp painting on black paper, I have to use the negative effect. Means that I have to layer the whites before I actually use the intended colours. So you see, I have

Finally, my teddy bear is complete! I thought  drawing the main subject (teddy-bear, cushion and the rattan) is tough, but it’s the background that stumped me!Why this background? Looks pretty sad, isn’t it? Well, the subject is ‘Forgotten’. This bear belongs to my daughter who is now 17. So you guess it, it’s no longer her cuddly toy. ‘He’ was chuck away, left on the sofa in her room, which she hardly gives a glance. I have given away most of her toys, barbies for example. Except for this, me, the mom, just could not bear to give ‘him’ away.  To me, it’s sentimental value is too great. It holds lots of sweet memories of my daughter when she was a sweet innocent child. It also reminds me of how time flies.

I will keep it, perhaps, one day, pass it down to her kids. She may

What define an artist?

I really can’t give a definite answer. I believe every artist sees things/objects differently.

My ultimate dream is to have my very own exhibition. Especially colour pencils media, since I’ve never seen a  art, solely on cp, in Malaysia. I want to show that this media is at par with those of the norm such as water colour, acrylic etc. I’ve seen deviant art using cp, on a very huge scale, of course, it is done by a professional artist. So it’s not impossible to do deviant, abstract, modern art using cp, but one definitely needs tonnes of cp!!

We had an artist friend, who is also a freelance curator, who came over for a drink one night and I asked his opinion on me holding a exhibition. He said I need at least 15- 20 pieces of complete work and better still

I love how my paintings look in print,

was afraid the print will show all my defects or mistakes but it turned out good. All thanks to hubby and his associate who scanned it on high resolutions.

Hope to one day combine it all and turn it into my own personal collection in print.