Experimenting

SMASH! Sydney Anime and Manga Show. Had fun! So good to see so many people came in their favourite characters. You can definitely feel the love in the community.

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Over the years my love for drawing has waned. I still pump out quick sketches to flesh out an idea but the days of spending hours on a piece of paper or in front of a screen are long gone. Perhaps life got in the way, or my interests and hobbies have just changed. These days I enjoy writing so much more. I can spend hours on the same paragraph and not give a fuck where my time has gone. I can even write on a small screen when I’m sitting on the porcelain throne.

I read this Stephen King book recently and one of the main points I extracted was, “To be a good writer, keep reading”. Think the wisdom rings true, as I read a shit load of articles all day (mostly about tech, life, movies, and sometimes science), and they all inspire me to write and appreciate the craft (maybe I’ll write about my writing influences soon).

My enthusiasm for writing crosses over with another hobby too, in the form of screen-writing for movies. Then there’s the graphic novels and my bookshelf of mostly non-fictional books I’ve harvested since I discovered Amazon.com. It’s all like how Quentin Tarantino is a walking movie-wikipedia, and he makes some of the most memorable and amazing films. Consume to fuel your craft.

And this is the opposite for my enthusiasm with illustration for the past few years. I can’t remember the last time I opened an illustration blog. Which is why it’s sort of been refreshing lately as I’ve picked up the pen again and just drawing whatever is on my mind. It’s like having a coffee with old friend again.

I was in Japan mid-last year for about a month and loved every minute of it. The people were so friendly and polite, the food from anywhere (even from their 7/11 equivalents) was delicious, and their railway system is world-class—even in the rickety-older parts of town. I was so used to bowing to everyone that for about a week after landing back in Sydney, I kept bowing and kept having to stop myself mid-way.

What I love most about Japan is the greenery. For a civilisation that’s so advanced with technology, it’s so lovely to see an abundance of leaves and trees amongst the sky-high buildings. Many of the population, both young and old, ride around on bicycles too. None were the hipster fixie bikes, but just plain old push bikes. So cool. Japan just has this feel to it that makes me feel so at peace.

The video
All I wanted to make was some sort of montage of the trip with a backing track—that’s it. The only part I planned was the beginning where you’ll see my feet walking in different shots. Everything else more along the lines of shoot-anything-interesting-for-5-seconds, and hope it’ll be useful in the edit later. This had to be balanced with ‘seeing’ Japan with my own eyes too, as I didn’t want most of my trip with a camera in my face. So, what we usually did was just experience the place first, then re-walk the space and record things of interest.

The reason the video is called ‘Pocket’ Japan is because everything was shot with the available camera in my pocket: an iPhone 4S. A friend of mine was carrying a pro dSLR (with stabiliser) too, so there was no way my shitty phone footage could match that. So I went with the more humble, pocket-sized take on the trip.

Lady Gaga, David Guetta, and whatever retailers play in their boutique stores blasted through the night as we celebrated Philnom’s 28th in DIY-style. Our faux models and designers wrapped their paws around chicken drumsticks and scrumptious salt and pepper squid. The home-made ‘background banner’ brought out the luvo in all of us—everyone kept taking photos in front of it non-stop! Lastly, the night was topped with a black carpet walk-off judged by a wannabe elite panel of wannabe fashion judges. Fabulous selection of photos from the blurry night below.

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Around this time last year, I was in a meeting when my boss tapped me on the shoulder and told me Steve Jobs had passed away. For a moment we sat there in front of these large windows that poured light into the office. It seemed like a typical day outside. Not hot, not cold, not rainy nor windy. Just fine. Read more

Paper by FiftyThree (free) is one of the handful of productivity apps I use on iPad. It even has its own spot in the dock! Read more

I’ve never painted on vinyl toys before, so it was quite manic during the week I had to put these cats together. They were made to be part of a small show at Gamuso Art Gallery in Asagaya, Japan.

Special thanks to Tim for the op.

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