Crumpled Journal

Healing

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Joan Mokhtar) — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 05:07:00 +0000

In one of those 'draw something'' moods while Yuna was playing in my head. I love the sleepy acoustic version of her singing this song.

Inking Process....sorta.

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Joan Mokhtar) — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 14:18:00 +0000

A lot of readers (okay...just that one guy 6 months back) requested I share some of my cartooning process on the blog. I'm not that secretive...I mean to post this kind of useful (maybe?) info, but I just get forgetful. Anyway, here it goes:

This is a page I quickly sketched out and inked. It's not part of any story...yet, but who knows? You may recognize the idea ... it's a panel taken from one my earlier comics.On the left is the sketch done in black pen...not ball point, the thin, felt-tip variety...it was the nearest type of pen I could grab. On an A4 sketchpad. Really thin paper.I began with a facial expression (figure in foreground) and the the composition expanded on from there.

The inked version on the right is pretty close to the sketch. The pen was a brush-pen bought at Daiso...the green one, small size ( there's a picture somewhere on this blog). I didn't use a light-box (although I do have a drawing table with a glass panel if I need to trace ). Turns out the sketchpad paper was so thin I just needed to lay a fresh page over the sketch and it was still visible. Yay! So I could ink while lying down. I did make changes in the inking.Most notably the second girl who's ..uh, seducing? ShyBoy-chan. I wish I had kept the squarish shape of the scarf like in the original sketch ( I like simplified shapes ) but I kinda lost it in the inking.

SCAN!! ( 400 dpi here)

And a few more fixes in photoshop to neaten things up. If I was more careful in the sketch/ink stage I would probably save myself time and have better looking original artwork! So : Crop the torn binding away, adjust the brightness/contrast to bring out the brushwork. Erase any splotches or stains. Actually there was minimal fixes done on this. I did add a bit of black on top so the title would pop more and add some tonal balance to the page. And that's it! Click for the larger version.

Hope you found that interesting. Leave a comment if there's anything else you'd like to know about my process.Cheers!

September Sketches and Cartoons

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Joan Mokhtar) — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 08:12:00 +0000

Cosmic Comic

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Joan Mokhtar) — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 08:42:00 +0000

Real Emotional Girl

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Joan Mokhtar) — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 09:16:00 +0000

Not A Harem Girl

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Joan Mokhtar) — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 08:35:00 +0000

Come With Me to Florida pt. I

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Joan Mokhtar) — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 19:18:00 +0000

Wait, you say. This is'nt Florida. Very astute of you! My parents in Dubai agreed to mind my daughter during my 3 week residency at the Atlantic Center For The Arts (ACA). I had a few days to spare in Dubai and took time off finishing some client work to go sightseeing with my folks. I took the above picture while we drove to the beach- the worlds tallest tower, glinting in the sun.

On the way we saw the neighborhoods and houses. Dubai is monochromatic in color compared to Malaysia- wet, wild,green - and very sunny. I enjoyed the architecture and how clean (but dusty) everything was.

Finally we arrived at a nice stretch of beach. It reminded me of my childhood days , walking along the Kuwaiti coast with my mom and pretending to be mermaids sitting on boulders.

I thought this awesome truck would transform into Optimus Prime at any moment. Who would own a machine like this??

A nice respite of green overflowing from a courtyard garden.

We walk along the beach, my mom takes a picture of me and OJ against the backdrop of the Burj hotel which is a Dubai landmark.

More refreshing green - we walk through a park to reach what we hope will be a nice stretch of beach.

No photography beyond this point! It's a family friendly beach with well-maintained facilities.

After the beach we walk through the park again, passing by some public art- horses customized by various artists.

OJ enjoys a strawberry ice-slushy-drink , we all think the fruit salad is lovely- cool and decadent with plump grapes,kiwis,mangoes ,pineapples and strawberries.

We all look very adventurous in our hats.

OJ and grandma slurp it all up before ordering another (it was very warm weather).

I share the leftover popcorn with one of the nearby horses.

A lovely play area that,again, reminds me of Kuwait.

A snapshot of the Dubai skyline as we drive home.

A last glimpse of my parents African-themed pad (hey- the kids are grown up and gone, they can have fun decorating) before I kiss them all goodbye and fly to New York, New York.

Not Again

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Joan Mokhtar) — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 13:45:00 +0000

Pressure

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Joan Mokhtar) — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 05:43:00 +0000

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Joan Mokhtar) — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 06:04:00 +0000

So I wondered what the blurb for Rojak might be like. It made me think of what I really want the core of the story to be ( that readers would find most interesting ). Boarding school seem to fit.

And where do I find the middle ground between whats Malaysian and Global? Local and universal? Everyone can relate to being a teenager and trying to make sense of stuff, right?

Those after school specials are finally sinking in.

There is a true story involving sunglasses , by the way. And it involves rap. But I'm not telling just yet.

The notebook spirals and paper were added for a school-feel and the yellow+checks is just so 90's.

Ponder

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Joan Mokhtar) — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 09:24:00 +0000

Whut

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Joan Mokhtar) — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 08:20:00 +0000

Brat

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Joan Mokhtar) — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 07:38:00 +0000

Smile in a bottle

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Joan Mokhtar) — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 21:29:00 +0000

Drawin's

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Joan Mokhtar) — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 19:12:00 +0000

Ring My Bell

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Joan Mokhtar) — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 15:47:00 +0000

I'll make grown men weep

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Joan Mokhtar) — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 04:55:00 +0000

Hope Iridescent

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Joan Mokhtar) — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 16:03:00 +0000

A while back I got the word from a facebook friend that Linkin Park was looking for some art to go with their new single, Iridescent. I liked the song which had a message I really needed to hear at the moment.

The illustration somewhat combines my geeky love of 80's cartoons and soul-therapy. WOAH DEEP. In the end , I liked it the final outcome. I hope the band will too. Thanks for the great song, LP.

Interview in Gempak Comic Magazine (Feb 2011)

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Joan Mokhtar) — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 20:24:00 +0000

The title of the article which is "WIRAWATI SENI KARTUN NEGARA" roughly translates to "National Cartoon Art Heroine"....I don't think I'm quite where I want to be yet, but feel very humbled and a little giggly.

Gempak is one of the top selling comic and infotainment magazines in Malaysia. It was very cool of them to interview me ( honestly, I'm so not mainstream at the moment ) for their magazine...thanks Gempak! :)

If you did not manage to find the issue (man those Gempaks sell fast) , here's the scanned 4-page spread :

(warning before you click: they're pretty big!)

I will put up a translated version when I have some free time.

Thanks to Hansel, the very nice reporter and the graphic designer who did a pretty awesome job.

100th blog post !!!

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Joan Mokhtar) — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 10:15:00 +0000

Thanks for visiting this blog since I started in in 2006 ! I promise to make it even more interesting and fun to read in the future (with more frequent updates , too). Cheers!

Thank you , Sofie's friend.

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Joan Mokhtar) — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 13:53:00 +0000

emo pic to match emo post

I was feeling a little isolated as of late. It could have to do with spending a LOT of time at home with Kai while getting back on track with projects and plotting my return to postgraduate pursuit... my mind always on one thing or another!

So going down to KL about once or twice a month to visit my grandparents in Kuala Lumpur is a relief. Well, usually.Was still feeling kinda bummed. Even my crazy kids antics were only temporarily amusing. I was pretty much being a pain to Rashid with my cranky behavior.

Thankfully my sister Sophie (also the talented photographer known as Malayrish ) tagged along for a ride home after meeting up with some of her friends in KL and one of them had some nice things to say about my comics,my Rojak graphic novel project, my blog (!)

It's nice to have reminders that there are people out there who follow and appreciate what I do/attempt. It makes me feel more connected and part of the great Out There. Especially since I probably spend WAY too much time inside my own head ( especially delving into my past with Rojak ). Human contact is so important in a world of tweets and likes...those are nice too,but make hearing it person so much more awesome.

So to all of you who are reading this, follow the blog or wonder what I'm up to, who have ever commented or sent an e-mail : your words of encouragement mean a LOT to me. I don't think I'll ever get tired of knowing and reaching other people through sharing my work.

Thank you.

You are part of what makes my life awesome.

Lingua Comica International Comic Anthology Published!

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Joan Mokhtar) — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 07:54:00 +0000

Year: 2009

Editor: David Ocon Fernandez and Titus Ackermann

Publisher: Asia-Europe Foundation

ISBN: 978-981-08-4817-0

Order from here

Finally! What can be considered my first internationally published book :)

In 2007 ( yes, books sometimes take that long ) the Asia Europe Foundation organised for an awesome team of young comic artists from Asia and Europe to meet and live in London for one week. The purpose? Create comics that encouraged inter-cultural dialogging , world peace and being excellent to each other.

Artists were paired up to create comics , and you can see the final product, edited by Paul Gravett (paulgravett.com UK), most awesome comics writer and Titus Ackerman ( mogamobo.com Germany) in the video above. We're all so thrilled to be presenting it to the world. Guys, you rock!

Lingua Comica has contributions from JM Ken Niimura, Sophie Darcq, Kaori Kuniyasu, Mari Ahokoivu, Gabor Kiss, Nguyen Thanh Phong, Sarah Joan Mokhtar, Tom Smith, Aziza Noor, Paola Cortese, Rommel Joson, Vishwajyoti Ghosh and Fionualla Doran.

2ND ASIA-EUROPE COMICS PROJECT

Lingua Comica

The 2^nd Asia-Europe Comics Project, LINGUA COMICA, was held in London from 20^th-24^th October, 2007. ASEF joined hands with COMICA (the London International Comics Festival) to bring together 14 emerging graphic novelists from 14 ASEM countrie. The participants undertook online artistic projects and engaged in a five-day dialogue using the medium of the graphic novel as the main tool of communication and artistic work.
The project was organised in two phases. It started off as an online artistic project, the Asia-Europe Collaboratory, at the end of August, 2007 in which the participants were broken down into seven Asia-Europe pairs and worked together via the internet. They continued their collaboration in London in October, where the artists met, attended panels on comics collaboration between the two regions and shared their experiences on their online works, continuing their collaboration.
The partnership online and offline was facilitated by internationally-renowned comic artists and lecturers Sarnath Banerjee (India) and Gerald Gorridge (France), and supported by a high-level number of resource people and guest lecturers, including Benoit Peeters (Belgium), Kosei Ono (Japan), Igort Tuveri (Italy) and Titus Ackermann (Germany). Paul Gravett (UK) was the Artistic Director for this project.
The outcomes from the meeting will be made available to the public in the form of a graphic novel. The graphic novel will contain the very relevant and innovative works from the talented Asia-Europe artists that worked in Asia-Europe pairs for this project, as well as solo works from each artist. The graphic novel is expected to be published by mid-2008.
This project was implemented in co-operation with the COMICA International Comics Festival in London and was supported by the Institute of Contemporary Arts London, the Goethe Institute London, the Institut Francais London and the Japanese Embassy for the UK.

Brush Pen-demonium

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Joan Mokhtar) — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 14:33:00 +0000

Spotted these brush pens at one of those everything-japanese-for-RM5-shops at IOI Mall, Puchong. I picked up a whole bunch of and love the lines I'm getting from them. One of the great things about the comic residency was trying out media I had been staying away from for so long.

I didn't have the patience or confidence for brushes as a teen starting out, but it just seems so enjoyable and effortless now ( but still nicely challenging )

Also picked up a new pair of headphones ( comfortable ones ) so I can delve more deeply into music and not raise the noise level in the house while I work late. Met some folks with pretty good taste in music during the ACA comic residency that kinda gave me more confidence in just liking the kind of music that I like ( weird right - you'd think I would know myself by now ). Mostly oldies 50's and 60's alongside the 80's and early 90's I've loosely collected. Now, what's a playlist again?

The Family That Plays Together, Stays together.

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Joan Mokhtar) — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 15:00:00 +0000

WACOM Intous + Comic Studio EX

Gift from The National Art Gallery

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Joan Mokhtar) — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 18:08:00 +0000

Hey peeps.

I've had this HUMONGOUS box sitting in a corner of my studio for a while and finally got around to opening it. the It was a gift kindly presented to me and other winners by the National Art Gallery during the award ceremony for the National Contemporary Mural Competition in May.

Well, no wonder it was so heavy! It was like going through a sunken treasure chest!

Hoessein Enas postcards. Awesome. I studied this artist in college.

Epic loot. Mug, shirt, pen , name card holder, notebook, sketchbook, tie pin...and a lovely check in an envelope.

A steel key chain with a button?

Sweet!