Yeah, powerful stuff.

And because I am such a masochist for Victorian misery, I very much enjoyed drawing up the anguished Jane here.

Tried a different technique in Photoshop here – was trying to loosen up my brushwork. What do you think? Please view in full size!

I bought the blu-ray of the movie recently. I need to get round to watching it, no interruptions (hard to manage). I also need to review Dario Marianelli’s score. So much to do!

In honour of my zodiac, I worked on an illustration for several hours in my down time last week, which eventually turned into a wallpaper. Today, I edited it from its original finish on deviantART to include freehand Chinese calligraphy, instead of the dodgy digital, and frankly lazy, rendition I tried. How can you possibly emulate the delicate stroke movement on the computer? I was daft to even try.

I’m trying to improve my illustration skills and work more frequently on CorelDraw 12, because it’s such a powerful tool, with an abundance of brush choices.

The wallpaper’s at HD quality (2260 x 1600 px, which can be scaled down if need be). Free for personal use only!

Have a great new lunar year! 恭喜发财，万事如意，身体健康，平平安安！

Some detail images:

I’ve also included some of my process work:

Funnily enough I experimented on several sheets before picking the first two characters I started with. You can never quite recapture that energy from the first try; I think my other creative counterparts can agree. I’m no pro at Western calligraphy let alone Chinese, but I like how the latter can afford me some freedom with gestural strokes.

I am perpetually in a DC Comics frame of mind it seems. When I first saw the prompt word, this just somehow meandered into my mind. I can never get enough of Bruce in a half-dressed state in the comics or indeed any medium, and this is how I see him preparing to slip into his Batman persona—as some kind of fiendish and terrifying demon.

It’s been a while since I drew the male figure (makes me want to take up life drawing class again, heh), so I had to refer to those nifty diagrams of the human form in my drawing manuals. I also have little idea on how to draw scar tissue… Heh. Think I was more interested in using different brushes than making accurate textures.

I spent about 2.5 hours working on this, which I consider very slow. And this despite working very roughly. Originally I had a sketch of Batman holding up traffic lights, one red light and one green light (go figure, Kryptonite!) which would then “ground” Superman. But in the end, I wasn’t too motivated to finish the idea, so I did something simpler with Supergirl instead! :)

First time I’ve ever drawn Kara. I had to model myself to get the reference—I rather like the Wonder Woman-inspired pose.  Also, I pretend the New 52 costume doesn’t exist. Do you like my lame Photoshopped light rays?

Again this was done entirely on Corel Painter 12, but with some colour adjustment in Photoshop. I’m practicing with the oil brushes; I really want to do more blending and glazing techniques. You can see I’ve just begun to experiment there.

You may also have noticed I’ve tweaked a few things with the current layout.

After lunch in Nanjing we immediately headed towards Suzhou, and arrived roughly before 4:30pm. For some reason the time then is still clear to me now. Of course, it being winter, it was already quite dark by then, practically night.

We first stopped by an “old Suzhou” village, that’s been completely redone by the looks of it since my last visit seven years ago. There were lovely night lights and just a more pleasant atmosphere. Little townships like this one were small and cramped, but so lively. It’s nice to see that historic buildings like these humble houses are still being maintained and more importantly lived in and used.

Our tour guide only let us stay for about half an hour which was just crap, really; I mean, what the hell can you see in half an hour? Why couldn’t we have wandered off doing our own thing and having dinner in a little shop instead of some fancy shmancy dine-in restaurant? I’m still piqued by the whole “organised” syndicate of tourist guides, shops and restaurants all cashing in on our ignorance.

We took a river cruise, and a lady played for us singing in the traditional Suzhou style, plucking away at her pipa. I think I preferred it when last visited. Dad and I were swaying precariously along the river with a local woman towing the canoe along and singing to us in her dialect. She was a lot more sincere and didn’t look bored and listless.

Can you say yuuuuuuuuum? Shanzha fruits dipped in caramelised sugar and sprinkled with sesame seeds or sultanas or nuts. But I prefer them plain. They’re found anywhere in China:

The next day we went to The Lingering Garden (留园 liuyuan), considered one of the four great gardens of China. I’ve no idea what qualifies a great garden—history, legacy, number of flowers? Who knows, needless to say China can make up any self-proclaimed title as it pleases. That said, I really liked the pebble mosaics.

Suzhou was rather disappointing, all things considered.

Wuxi’s great highlight was the Lingshan Grand Buddha which I’d actually been to 13 years ago. It’s 88 metres tall (lucky 8). We walked up to the top to touch the Buddha’s feet. Ideally you should touch the hand but you have to make do. I didn’t really want to think about how many millions of people had touched the surface where mine had been, but it was a humbling thought.

There’s this awe-inspiring fountain segment wherein a Buddha blossoms out of a lotus flower. It’s epic stuff to witness.

Here’s a video someone put on YouTube:

There were other scenic spots within the park including this incredible building with fantastic architecture.

And of course lots of stuff for rich tourists to buy… Incidentally 2012 Lunar year is Year of the Dragon (my zodiac!), the dragon being the most auspicious of creatures out of the twelve Chinese zodiacs.

The following day we spent yonks in a pearl tourist shopping centre. It really pissed me off, so I was mostly waiting outside, while everyone else got conned into buying quite possibly fake pearl products. I’d much rather have spent more time with the Grand Buddha.

The hotel lobby where I stayed in Wuxi was jaw-dropping. It was just so … SHINY.

So that pretty much sums up my tour of Jiangsu province and Hangzhou. While it was disappointing in some parts, it’ll always be memorable.

More photos from Suzhou and Wuxi on my Flickr!

Next up—I’m back in Shanghai!

So that’s 52 illustrations in one year. Surely that’s not difficult (!).

As for my interpretation of this week’s topic “highlight”: I’ve recently been on a noir bent (then again, when am I not?) – reading Darwyn Cooke’s and Ed Brubaker’s comic book stories and watching film noir. I always find the play with light contrasts fascinating.

I’m still trying to get the hang of Corel Painter 12 (maybe it’s my shitty Wacom tablet), but it’s simply practice, practice, practice isn’t  it?

Media: Corel Painter 12 and Photoshop CS5.1 for colour edits
Painting is inspired by a still from Laura (1944) starring Dana Andrews and Gene Tierney, which is a film you should watch because it is beautiful and has great suspense. ♥

I’ll be covering my trip over five posts:

Part 1: A Taste of Shanghai, Hangzhou and Nanjing (covered in this post)
Part 2: Breezing Through Suzhou and Wuxi
Part 3: Back in Shanghai
Part 4: Hilarity and High Times in Shanghai
Part 5: When West Marries East (or My Dude Cousin’s Big Fat Chinese -Western Wedding)

(Can you tell that I’m no copy writer?)

When I go to China (this is my fourth time now) I go directly to Shanghai, which is where most of my dad’s family lives. This time round, I’d booked my family on a tour for about a week around Shanghai and its neighbouring cities, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Wuxi and Suzhou.

That’s an awfully short time to really soak in so many cities, which was the frustrating part. BUT, as a non-mainland Chinese (hua qiao  华侨) we were able to join the exclusive tour for a greatly reduced cost—it’s all part of the China Central Government’s scheme to lure expats/overseas people back, to win loyalty—so not seeing so much of each city wasn’t so bad when the value is still there. I got to stay in lush, fancy five star hotels (or what were apparently five star) and had every meal in restaurants. Quite the high life!

Shanghai 上海

My first landing was still in Shanghai but we were met by the travel guides at Pudong International Airport and driven in organised groups to our hotel, also in Pudong. We stayed in the Minya Hotel which in retrospect was the most impressive hotel with very good service and conditions (Hangzhou came second, Nanjing was the worst). One thing I noticed is that the hotel’s TV included all the “banned” channels—a curious deception geared towards Western customers. Hrmm, you ain’t fooled me.

The next morning was a revelation—breakfast buffet, and it was seriously a buffet. So many food choices. Whatever you fancied they pretty much had it: Western cereal, eggs, toast, coffee, waffles, croissants, cakes to Chinese rice congee, noodles, buns, wontons, soy milk. It was just so beautiful.

We were barely out and about in Shanghai for half a day—checked out of the hotel by 8am, and headed straight for Cheng Huang Miao (城隍庙, or the City God Temple), which is quite an old temple just within the inner city, but is actually famous for its neighbouring bargain stalls, by the tens and hundreds. Call it the “two dollar shop hub”. Unfortunately given the very early time, most of the shops weren’t even open. We were called back 45 minutes later by our guide—I’ve been to Cheng Huang Miao more times than I can count so I know the score, but for newcomers, this was hardly a visit it was like a brief touchdown. This was my feeling for most of the tour, but it was useless to nurse the sentiment. I just had to make do, and be grateful that I was coming back to Shanghai after the tour ended.

Next up was the Shanghai Museum, which I was keen on seeing as I’d never been. They house a lot of great ancient artefacts and artwork, some of which I barely got a glimpse of—I was so conscious of the limited time allocated to us. I took as many photos of whatever caught my eye as visual reference.

The traditional folk costumes, ceramics and the incredible woodwork and architectural forms were so gorgeous.

More Shanghai pics here. (You’ll also see other stuff I got up to in Shanghai…)

Hangzhou 杭州

After the average lunch (by Shanghai standards!) we immediately trooped onto the bus and headed towards Hangzhou. It was about a four hour drive by my recollection with a couple of rest stops. I feel most of the tour time spent was on the damn bus. I certainly got to know my fellow tourists well.

Now in each city we were delegated a local tour guide on top of our tour co-ordinator, so I guess it was good to get a perspective from someone who actually comes from the city, though most of the time I tuned out because each guide just reeked of insincerity and shifty intentions to me. I’m naturally suspicious…

I’d not been to Hangzhou before so it was great to finally see it. It’s a beautiful city, still considered a city in development so it’s actually relatively slower than its sister cities. It’s known as one of the seven Ancient Capitals of China.

Hangzhou is most famous for its West Lake (xi hu 西湖), which we also got to see and took a half hour cruise around. The weather was warm and simply perfect. Our guide claims that it’s considered the romance capital of the East. Maybe. I just lament that I hardly got to get a good look at the place—we arrived too late (like 4pm, just nearing dusk).

Following West Lake was a truly fabulous dinner with Hangzhou (or its parent Zhejiang) specialty dishes (probably the best I had in the whole tour). Delicious sour fish soup and dongpo pork to name a few. Afterwards we went to see “A Night in Hangzhou” performance in a local arts centre. Basically it presented a brief collage of Hangzhou’s history, legends and icons.

I was deeply touched by the Butterfly Lovers segment—I just love history’s great tragic romances. Actually most of my favourite romances usually have some kind of tragedy intertwined or end in tragedy. And you can’t top the original Romeo and Juliet story (this was centuries before Shakespeare’s creation). The gorgeous Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto composed by He and Chen, of course, made its aural presence. Beautiful lighting effects, moving images, and as always stunning acrobatics and dancing made it a dreamy spectacle.

The next morning while still in Hangzhou we went to a longjing 龙井 (dragon well) tea plantation to see how the famous leaves are harvested and roasted. Longjing is considered a green tea delicacy, and is mostly produced in Hangzhou—it’s the cream of the crop, or the greenest of the crop, rather.

We got to taste the local longjing, and it was very qing 青 (gentle) and subtle but still with a fulsome sweetness. Beautiful flavour. I think myself as a tea enthusiast (not really a connoisseur though) but even I wouldn’t be cheated into buying a lot of packs—not the ones the sellers were giving out anyway. It’s something I was very aware of—avoiding getting conned at all costs. They’re just so damn ruthless about it that unsuspecting foreigners have no idea when they’re being duped till it’s too late.

(Needless to say my uncle in Shanghai gave us quite a few boxes of longjing)

More Hangzhou pics here.

Nanjing 南京

That same day, we headed towards Nanjing. This was not my first time in the old capital—my second aunt lives in the city centre so whenever I am in China I visit her too, though this time I obviously couldn’t.

We first visited Zhong Shan Ling (中山陵) which is known as Sun Yat-sen’s (pioneer of the Kuomingtang/leader of Republic of China after overthrowing the imperial system) mausoleum. This wasn’t anything new as I’d been there 13 years ago—and it looks exactly the same. Well, that’s not strictly true; I think it’s much cleaner than before?

Also had time to check out the night lights afterwards. It was extremely busy when we went (I think it was Sunday) so I was terrified of getting something stolen off my person. Pickpockets take advantage of the crowds and make nimble and swift work of thieving.

Also notable was the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge (Nanjing Changjiang Daqiao 南京长江大桥)—an engineering feat in the early days of the Cultural Revolution, when the outside world considered China incapable of building such a monumental structure without foreign help (the Soviets pulled out). The tour guide (apparently a history teacher) expressed so enthusiastically the pride of the Chinese back then, and how kids today don’t appreciate the honest labour and humility that was cultivated so much in those times. Personally I thought he was full of BS, but he does have a point.

I just love propaganda!

I felt awkward posing in front of Chairman Mao though—funny how I didn’t feel that weird when I was in Tiananmen Square…

We also visited a shopping precinct devoted to jade and precious stones, specially designed for tourists. You can imagine how wary I was of these places. I was mainly waiting impatiently to move to the next destination.

Nanjing’s food and general service quality (like the 5 star hotel with its massive dubious carpet stain—shudder) was decidedly less impressive but that didn’t bother me. I was also quite keen on visiting the Nanjing Massacre Memorial (I’m very interested in this often forgotten and deeply dark and disturbing part of history, and I am currently reading The Rape of Nanking), but there  just wasn’t enough time on this trip!

Speaking of the Massacre, the tour guide quipped or perhaps quite dead seriously stated that you shouldn’t mention the Japanese when talking to local Nanjingese. Obviously it’s still a deep and sore wound decades on. Do they still hate the Japanese? Probably—that’s generations of deep-seated hate, as with Japan’s generations of ignorance, excepting a few people. I can’t imagine what it’d be like to return to live in a home completely sacked and violated by a foreign invader. There are some things you just can’t get over.

More photos from Nanjing here.

Of what I saw thus far, Hangzhou was a main highlight, but honestly, by this time I was just looking forward to getting back to Shanghai …

COMING UP—Breezing Through Suzhou and Wuxi!

Congratulations, Kirsty! I’ve sent a notification email already, so please reply back with a delivery address so I can post these goodies on your way!

Thanks to all who participated – I loved reading all your responses! Watch this space for more similar giveaways in future.