I don’t really have a reason for drawing this

A little memory: it’s a head bobbing penguin I bought for $2 in the last summer of high school. I brought it to dorms with me in university, and the cleaning lady (yes we had a cleaning lady) broke it. I came back from classes one day and saw its head broken with all the pieces next to it. Wasn’t upset enough to do anything so I left it. Two weeks later I came back from classes again and the little penguin had its head glued back into one piece. I was more amazed that it was so nicely glued back together than the fact that it was fixed–she glued every last piece that fell. I went to thank her for fixing it and she was sorry for breaking it.

I just found it again today.

Painted on iPhone 4 with Colors! (app) and my index finger lol
Click here to see how it was painted.

When I was younger, despite being offered the chance of private art lessons, I rejected it mainly for the reason that I don’t want to be pressured to draw. I didn’t want something I liked doing to become a chore so that I end up hating it. Many many years later, I now only draw if there is a reason to or if I very rarely get inspired and I have not other things I’d rather do. Moral is: interest is important but so is discipline lol.

That said, this Steve Jobs portrait is now probably the most recognizable picture of him. There are probably tons of drawings of it out there, but I drew this because I happened to have the book in front of me. I was browsing the Colors! gallery and marveling at some really gorgeous artworks when my coworker looked over and wouldn’t believe that you can draw on a DS/iPhone. Hence I picked the nearest object (the book) and drew it to show him. (I was bored out of my mind at work, too.) I want a stylus for my phone D: drawing the details took forever. -___-

A little bit more on Steve Jobs… I’m only 60+ pages into Isaacson’s book but I’ve read other Steve biographies and all sorts of articles on him, some before he died. As an Electrical Engineering student with a vast interest in Art (and user of some Apple products), I relate to bits and pieces of Steve and his accomplishments and spirit have been an inspiration. I remember back in the days, the very first computer I ever used was a Macintosh, when it was still huge and looked like CRT monitors with multiple colours. I didn’t know that was a Mac or that the computer I later used in the library was a Windows. I just remember being profoundly confused when I got on a Windows that I didn’t know how to work it. What’s a Start button? lol. I went on to use Windows for many years after that, until 2009 when I went back to Mac OS X on this Macbook Pro I’m typing on. I was really sad about Steve’s passing that I took a few days to get over, surprisingly or not to those around me. (I dreamed about Steve a week or so after he passed away and jokingly said that now he was done causing RIM trouble he was coming after people who still haven’t upgraded to iOS5 or Lion lol cough. I still haven’t upgraded.)

Anyway…

Next piece is going to be in colour I PROMISE. Look I even brought proof:

my looooooooove has co– oh wait.

The impossible has happened — I emerge from the cyber dusts of my blog AND this drawing is finished?! Yep yep, signed sprayed and framed. (My mom insisted framing.)

At this point I really don’t know if there is anything more to be said about this drawing. I’m just glad it’s done and I can move on to something else. This is the second drawing I’ve done in charcoal, and the insanely long time it took me to finish allowed to me explore different techniques. When I started this in January 2009 it was one of those “oh okay I’m bored let’s practice charcoal”, I didn’t mean for it to take this long. Drawing on and off these years, the actual time it took is probably a few days, 3-4?

And probably no one cares but since it’s been so long, I compiled a progress picture, starting from the practice sketch in my old sketchbook.

Referenced from “Something Beautiful” by Zhang Jingna.

=D

as per mr kwan’s suggestion!

lol I don’t even know. displeased fat cat with asian eyes?