Before I got in to digital design, I used to be quite heavy with traditional art. To be more precise, towards traditional calligraphy, simple sketch cartooning, silkscreen printing (I did design some t-shirts as part of my final project in silkscreen printing class, but supplies are so expensive), and (what was considered back then) “illegal” art (graffiti art (on paper) and even tagging (like you see those messy “tag” art on the walls). I also used to draw “street”/”hip-hop” style art back in high school simply because a group of my friends were in to it and somehow gave me some inspiration. No, I didn’t violate any school roots by doing some crazy graffiti typography on one of those Hello, My name is… tag stickers that people use on meetings to identify themselves. As an open-minded artist I always thought that those “dirty graffiti” seen on walls of buildings and structures looked creatively and vividly beautiful. Today, it’s become an official integral part of general traditional art. All you need are pencils, colored pencils, markers, and if you decided to do murals on the wall, you’ll need paint— lots of paint— from airbrush painting to… airbrush printing.

I kind of lost my knack for random sketching and traditional art. I could still feel my knack for traditional calligraphy but I don’t have the right materials for me to start creating calligraphy art again. I still have my pen kits, rulers, ink, and guidebooks but all I need is parchment paper and some practice paper so I can warm up my strokes. I thought of getting in to Japanese calligraphy again as I did learn some basics back in college in our university’s Japanese culture club. It was pretty difficult than I thought, not because of the characters that we have to learn the proper stroke order, but simply just controlling the brush and holding the brush the proper way was kind of hard to get used to. I tried to do sumi-e brush painting as well, but I also had a hard time trying to get used to handling the brush.

At the moment I’m going to try getting back in to traditional calligraphy. My current portfolio that is still outdated up to now still lacks new material and I seriously need to update everything (not just the content but also the layout itself). I kept telling myself to start getting my lazy ass up and build a design fit for portfolios. I may probably install Wordpress on this site as well since that software has helped me wonders with my past sites as of late.

I’m heading out to lunch now. Then stop by my local art shop to see if they sell any particular art supplies for cheap. I doubt it though, but right now I need the proper paper material for traditional calligraphy. Maybe buy paper for sumi-e or shoji (Japanese calligraphy) too. We’ll see.

• Currently Drinking: Green Tea Kombucha Milk Tea (so fruity!)
• Mood: relaxed

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