Teo Hong Road, Bukit Pasoh Conservation Area

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The sketch I did this evening I managed to fill in some colors while I was packing for our US trip. See you guys in a weeks time. I will try to pack a bunch of sketches back.

As for the story behind this location, the road links Bukit Pasoh Road to New Bridge Road, and is lined with a row of conserved shophouses, built during colonial times. The conservation area is part of the Bukit Pasoh Conservation Area. Before this shophouses were turned into boutique hotels, pubs, and cafes, they used to house meeting places and homes to clans, and during the 80s, a popular red light district.

Daily Sketches:: Sunset @ Vivo City

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We are usually too busy to watch a sunset these days. I gave myself an excuse to do just that, by sitting along the bay of Vivo City / Harbor Front Centre and sketching what’s in front of me – the giant cranes which are the cradle of Singapore’s economy, the course way leading to Sentosa island, and the monorail transporting tourists and sightseers to and fro Sentosa. I simply love those towering cranes. I wonder how is it like to operate one. Anyway here’s the sketch. Muji fountain pen and Derwent Colorsoft color pencils. 20cm X 20cm Nude Book. And if you notice, I changed my style of sketching too.

Paris Travel Comics

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Did some sketches and cartoons from the trip we made to Paris. Here are some cartoons I did when we were resting in the hotel room, while reflecting on our visits to the various touristic locations in the city.

Our first bad experience in Paris was while we were trying to buy sausages and fries from a hot dog stand under the Eiffel Tower. I have a feeling they were taking advantage of tourists. Their attitudes left a bad taste in our visit to this “romantic” city.

Hot Dog Stand

The available channels in English are so limited in the hotel we ended up watching the Japanese NHK World Channel every night. It was funny because we also ended up learning to speak Japanese from the programs.

The above was the latest exhibit at the Louvre. It was a restored painting by Leonardo da Vinci named Saint Mary Anne. I have to pay a little more apart from paying the entrance fee to see this exhibit. It was amazing to see the original sketches made by Leonardo before he painted the final painting, which was left uncompleted.

The highlight of my visit to Paris was to visit Crumb’s show at the Museum of Modern Art which was just 8 mins walk from the hotel where I stayed. Looking at the original drawings and published work, and the documentary allowed me to take a closer glimpse to Crumb’s life and his obsession for cross hatchings.


In another museum, Petit Musee, I got to see Monet’s setup while he was painting outdoors, or Plein Air.

35th Sketchcrawl Day: Charles de Gaulle airport

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35th Sketchcrawl Day @ Charles-de-Gaulle-Paris

On 35th Sketchcrawl day I happened to be not in Singapore, but was waiting for my flight back to Singapore at Charles de Gaulle airport after about an eight day stay in Paris. My wife was at a healthcare conference where her research poster was displayed, while I roamed the streets of Paris on my own for about 4 days. This would be my second trip to Paris. The first was about 10 years ago in one hot summer. Visiting Paris this period wasn’t ideal but when the sun was up, Paris was beautiful. I would visit Paris again if I have the chance to do so again. I did managed to sketch some scenes and brought back some supplies too. Sennelier yes! This sketch was done with a Pentel brush pen bought from the shop, simply my kind of tool besides the Hero. :D

Wacom Intuos 5 Touch: Product Review Part 2

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Intuos 5 Touch Review


Plug and Play
Setting up the tablet is easy and straight forward. Usually I place it behind the keyboard so it is right in front of me as I work. I am quite used to having my left hand place over the keyboard and the other hand using the pen. Next plug the cable to the tablet and attach the other end to the computer. I wouldn’t run the CD to install the driver. If you have internet connection, it is always advised to pay Wacom’s website a visit to download the latest driver and updates. That doesn’t mean that the driver found in the CD is not working. Another thing, it is also advised that the previous Tablet driver be uninstalled first before you installed the latest one. However I skipped that step and the new unit still runs as normal. Just a precaution though. Having said that, I even have Intuos 4 still connected to my computer while I am using the Intuos 5.

The current tablet cable comes with an addition feature that allows you to tidy up your trailing cable if you are plugging it on the right hand side. To me this feature is a bonus but it doesn’t really matter whether it’s there or not. As much as I wanted to keep my workspace tidy, there are already many other cables running back and forth on my desk. The best solution to not have any wire by utilizing the wireless kit.

Note: I set up the Intuos 5 Touch on an Intel 27″ iMac running OS 10.6.8 with 8 GB ram. It would definitely run on a PC running Microsoft Windows XP.

Wireless Kit
It took me just a little while to figure out the installation for the wireless kit. On the back side of the tablet, there are two panels that can be removed by sliding the covers horizontally sideway to reveal the wells for the battery and the wireless transmitter – the latter consists of a power switch and a LED indicator light. Beside the transmitter slot there is an additional well to house the wireless receiver while you are going mobile (see below), so you can simply stash the packaging box away. You may have to allow the battery to charge for about 4 hours. When it is fully charged, the LED light turns green. Try not to loose the wireless transmitter cover too.

 

When the battery is fully charged you may remove the cable from the tablet. Turn it on by pressing the ON button located on the wireless transmitter. The LED light on the tablet surface will light up showing the corner indications and another LED light beside the Touch Ring.

Stylus Pen
Wacom has allowed Intuos 4 Stylus pen to be used on Intuos 5.

Wacom Intuos 5 Touch Setup

 
The new preference pane allows the pen tip’s sensitivity to be customized with a Curve Setting. In this way I could customize the pen to get a more natural result and feel from the device. The curve above shows my preference. I love to ink with the tablet and I am always trying to get it to work like my G nib. Thin lines at the starting and ending points and thicker lines in the center. A greater sensitivity coupled with the curve would take my mind off from physical pen control and focus on delivering the lines that I like digitally.

Multi-Touch & Express View
The new multitouch gesture support in Intuos 5, and “Express View” head-up display or HUD software, alongside a rather pleasing soft-touch feel gives the product the special edge over its predecessors . The entire tablet surface is a touch-sensitive input device allowing not only the use of the pen, but also enabling the use of our hand to do other functions and commands using Gesures. For example a light touch over the surface where the express keys are would show an overlay on the screen what functions you have assigned to the express keys. See screen capture below:

This would therefore enhances the user experience by allowing the user to spend more time with the tablet in his workflow and less time reaching for the tablet, keyboard or mouse! Besides, the express keys on the Intuos 5 are now indentations on the tablet surface rather than buttons. To me these provide a better recognition of the express keys as your finger runs over the surface.


Left: Intuos 4. Right: Intuos 5.

  
The above screen captures show the screen overlay when the express keys are “touched”. As you run your fingers along a specific key, the overlay shows it in orange. However the screen overlay would come on whenever your hand brushes against the keys whether deliberate or accidental. Sometimes I have to run my fingers over the keys a few times before the screen overlay would appear. This inconsistency in its function irks me though, though it doesn’t really affect the work flow at all.

I will talk about the gestures next.

Painting Figure with Watercolor

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This is painted on a China-made sketch paper I bought from a friend. Surprisingly it takes in watercolor very well without loosing the quality of transparency, tearing or color fading when the paints dried. I painted the first coat of transparent watercolor with the paper mounted vertically on the easel, so the paint dripped across the paper. Then as I added the shadows and the dark areas, I painted with the paper lying flat and slightly elevated. Throughout the one hour and a half, Peer (the model) sat at the desk playing with this laptop without changing his pose much. I test the paper with different techniques, dry on wet, and wet on wet. The latter did not work too well as the absorbency of the paper is not not comparable to that of the watercolor paper. So when the water or paint puddles dried, they leave a water stain marks like what you see at the back of the painted chair. Overall, its a cheap paper to practice on – SGD7 for the entire ream.

Unboxing Intuos 5 Touch (Wireless)

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When I received a mail from Wacom inviting me to test run and review the newly released Intuos 5 Touch, I was elated because I have already heard raving news about it. 2 days ago I got my set and eagerly “unbox” it. The package consists of a tablet (digitized pad) that can be plugged to the USB port of the computer and a Stylus (digital pen) that works with the tablet in tandem. It also comes with an optional RF add-on or the Wireless Accessory Kit that could make the tablet wireless, so you could work without the hassle of cluttering your working table top with too many wires, or glued to your work desk.

For anyone who is new to the product, the tablet is a pressure sensitive device that could detect how much pressure is translated to it via the pen as you draw or write with it. It works very well with applications like Photoshop and Painter. As you apply more or less pressure, the result is a variation of thickness of your pen or brush strokes, or more or less paint as you draw and paint in these application. Therefore you have more control over your work as compared to using a mouse. For any aspiring digital artist, a tablet is a must.

I have been using a tablet since the Intuos 2, so that was about 10 years ago. I bought for myself a 12″ X 12″ Blue then but found it too big later. Then I got a used Intuos 2 6X8 (Silver Grey) which was pretty nifty to use with my MacBook. When I upgraded to an 24″ LCD screen, I bought a Intuos 3 to go with it just for the Screen-Tablet ratio. Through these, I see the change in the design of the tablet. The latest release, like the 4, has a sleek, black but matted surface, yet soft to the touch. It looks contemporary. When you plug it in, the work area lighted up on the tablet surface. Its show 4 small corner light indications, so if you are always working in the dark, these show you where your tablet working area is. In addition, the stylus now delivers 2048 levels of pressure. I was excited to test this out because I do draw and ink with the stylus pen a lot. The increase in the sensitivity would allow me to work more intuitively, at the same time delivering a more realistic stroke result with less effort.

I will be testing the tablet and showing the outcome here for the next few days while I still have it. So stay tune.