Monday, September 24, 2007

Silhouette of the Peak

I delayed a little for this posting, as last week was a great time spent in "resting", a much needed indulgence for these 2-3 weeks before working again. The above sketch was done quite some time ago, but I have yet found time to sit down and coloured it, so here it is finally. A dream concept that I have been thinking on and off for the past few weeks, since I did the illustration for 2nd Sept. This concept of "Silhouette" came as a result of my "struggle" when I did that illustration, as in my heart I wanted to add in the Shepherd, however, at the same time, I wanted it to be subtle. As I was "meditating" on the execution of it, it suddenly dawn on me, this is it, "Silhouette"! These coming weeks will show me working on this concept, hope you enjoy it. Only for this week, I will post both the "perceived" and the "truth" together.

In life, many of us only "see" what we can see or know through our 5 senses, our "Sense Knowledge". Yet, many a times what actually has happened may not be perceivable with our senses. As a result, many become dishearted, as what is perceived seems to be more real than what is the truth. This is what I wanted to convey with this series of illustrations, the subtlety of this in life, and how many of us gave up halfway through the journey when we can only see the "perceived". Despite of it all, whatever the situation we may be in, we can have complete confidence in His Word that changes not, for the Word that speaks of the love our Shepherd expressed through His sacrifice, as nothing is as sure as His Word. Cheers!

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Swaying No More

I have been pretty busy since I came back from my holiday despite of the fact that I am not working, that explains the slight delay in the posting, though I have done quite a few sketches, but I have yet find time to add colours to them. So what have I been doing?

Studying with my nephew for his PSLE, and realised my English is terrible. Coaching another nephew in Maths and I became so mad with him I gave up. Selah. Patience, patience, and that the Lord will show him my heart, and give him the vision of what he can actually become, not just a living creature, but a wonderfully made gifted human being! Selah, only God can.

I have finally finished compiling my comics and printed the final draft, perhaps just a brief mention of it here. For the past few months, I finally sat down to compile all those sheep illustrations I did for the last few years, not all are used, but a great majority of them. Perhaps to many of you who read this or drop by this site know, sheep seems to be a dear topic to me in all my illustrations, indeed it is, perhaps unknown to most of my friends, but it actually has become so much of my imagination, I see sheep when I imagine, so often, and the idea of the Shepherd and the sheep, and sheep with other sheep means a great deal to me, though some of you may be bored by the same old theme and style. But if Mickey Mouse can go on for decades, I don't see why I should change the character, after all, Psalm 23 is one of my favourite.

All throughout the last few months, the above illustration explains what took place at times. There are moments I would be asking myself what I was doing, sitting in front of my laptop day after day, touching up my comics, adding text to it, compiling them into a booklet. Times I would be asking, am I sure this is going to succeed? Who would be interested in buying such thing anyway? I would start wondering if I was "crazy" to venture into this, spending months working on this, losing on precious stable income. I would start to compare my product with others, and ponder, mine does not look as outstanding, and as skillfully drawn and coloured as others. Yet every single piece tells a story, a moment in my life that I went through, it is a pictorial diary to me.
Then there will be occasional heart-warming friends who would drop by with a note saying that they loved the sheep series, or enjoyed them and gave me a little strength to continue doing. There were also times that my Shepherd seemed to assure me to just do what I want to do, move on with the dream, do not need to worry about daily living for a while, and indeed he has provided for me faithfully. Now, I can finally say I have concluded the job I set out to do, and I am going to take the next step, favour and grace, to send it out! Come on, at least I tried, at least I am one step closer to a dream, at least it is closer to reality than just continuing to remain a dream in my heart. I am excited and glad and fulfilled. Keep me in prayer! It is an exciting journey. Indeed my Shepherd will take care of it, for He who has begun a good work in my life will surely complete it, man! Cheers!

Sunday, September 02, 2007

A Trip To Learn

I am back! Despite the fact that I had my laptop with me, I did not manage to find time to blog, perhaps I was too tired, plus I did not have internet access all the time. The weather was hot, I am so dark now that I intend to stay indoor as much as I can to regain some degree of "fairness" to my skin. It was a trip to think through some things, but strange how it turns out, though I enjoyed it tremendously. I would attempt to summarise it into 2 aspects, almost like "enlightenment" to me.

On the more spiritual aspect, we went to perhaps the largest church in the world, of about 1 million members, do correct me if I am wrong. Till now, I am still very amazed at what I saw, how God can use a man, who obeys Him, and work through him, bringing to fruition what seems impossibilities to me. This church has its own newspapers that report good news (4th most widely read papers in the country), an university, its own prayer mountain that looks a bit like a resort, a training centre that imparts skills to youths, and at the same time provide accommodation to elderly people who also act as guardians for these youths, all for free. I am simply amazed, all those idealogies I have heard, or even dreamt about while doing my architectural thesis, etc, have actually been realised in real life! We indeed have a mighty Daddy God, it is just whether we dare to take Him for His word without doubting and depend on Him and just do it! Till now, I am still very amazed. Daddy God can use a yielded person to perform such unfathomable deeds, amazing, all glory to Him!
We spent 2 days on the prayer mountain, with me having the intention to sort out some thoughts. Simple as it sounds, the answer was so simple, to see Jesus in every situation, just that, spending time with Him. The problem does not seem to have disappeared in real life, but somehow, everything looks so insignificant after that, cos knowing Someone who loves me so much to give His all for me, what are all these little things. I am still amazed at it, my worries all of a sudden seem to disappear, I seem to be able to "let not my heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid", and caught a little light of how this is possible, surely if Jesus said so, it must be possible. This is only possible by seeing Jesus.
On the intellectual aspect, I had a good time looking at the art scene in Seoul and am most impressed by the Art Valley at Heyri. I enjoyed looking at the exciting architecture, definitely must go back again to finish it, guess we only managed to finish about one third of it. I loved the short simple walk along Cheong Gye Cheon Stream, it is a beautiful touch to the masterplanning of Seoul, providing a place of refuge, reminiscent of the effect of Central Park in New York. Looking at the museums and interesting buildings, I felt a sudden "reborn and zeal" for architecture again, something that I may have lost along the way during the past few years. There were times while looking at some of those buildings, I wish I can do something like that.
Many thoughts, many, too much to be written down in this journal. One that I remembered, was about a month or two ago, I was looking at a Japanese drama, when I caught a scene of a modern wind mill, and i was wondering to myself perhaps someday I will get to see one in real life, and who would know I really get to see one just 2 months down the road. My Daddy God hears my every whisper. Too many things to write... I had a good time, time spent in looking at Him, time spent in arousing a passion, time spent learning to be humble and learn from others, their art and architecture, so much I received, all thanks to Daddy God, so much!
P/S The above illustration is what the 3 of us encountered in Jeju-do when we try to climb up to Sunrise Peak. It was pretty tough, but I enjoyed it.