The Elements - (in progress)

木 / wood - Shop in Daikanyama, Tokyo

If you know me, you will know that I am Wood.

Wood dreams.
Young saplings that buzz with
Summer and spring, of revels in the almond sun
and all of creation in its cornucopia of
feathers, fur, flowers, fronds.
Beauty that comes with the price of fragility.

Wood bends.
Around immovable rocks, towards precious light,
swayed by the currents and vortices of the world.
Indeterminate, yet focused in its direction of growth.
Nobody can predict where
or when -
Things grow in a pattern that most do not comprehend.

Wood is inward.
If hurt, the forest closes itself to the blinding world,
With no reason.
With no exception.
A dark fort of black trees; leaves that blot light, matted branches that scar the sky.

金 / metal - Steel sculpture in Tokyo Midtown Park

汽 / air - View from 5th Station, Mt Fuji

土 / earth - view from 8th station, Mt Fuji

水 / water - Water Temple by Tadao Ando, Awaji Island

Toyrings - Acrylic Fashion Rings

Toyrings is a product that my friend and I are working on at the moment. Although these rings are not for sale at the moment, be sure to drop a post or email me at kenkqb@gmail.com for information or even complimentary rings for friends and anyone who's interested to have a little piece of quirky fashion at the tip of his/her fingers. =)

Rift Lamp

This is a lamp to be placed in the corner of a room, creating an illusion of a hole torn, and an expanding star-like object spanning the rift created.

7 other parallel dimensions are revealed through this rift.

The illusion is created with the use of 3 mirrors placed perpendicularly to one another.

"Kami" Chair

Inspired by paper construction and origami, I designed this chair as an exploration of the structural and formal qualities of folding. Designed as a continuous loop of folding planes, the chair resembles a delicate paper construction that deforms slightly when one sits on it, creating a visual tension of strength and immateriality.

It will be made of powder-coated aluminium (white) with a continuous layer of black polyurethane foam on its inside face of the loop.

Blood House

I've long had this idea of doing an ongoing comic strip, making use of 3D software to actually model out the scenes and places that the characters will be in. Once these iconic places are actually modelled out, I just have to move objects and place the camera as if with a dollhouse, basically capturing the scenes as I go along.

Of course what would be interesting is the design and feel of these environments. This is Blood House, possibly the dwelling of a predatory seafaring character; a location that eventually culminates in some form of hurt or murder. The idea is to have the lowering tide change the look of the house from inviting to intimidating.

The sad and weird thing is, I feel more excited about this 20-min architectural creation than my entire Year 3's work. I guess the disillusionment of the architectural profession is really setting in.

Lava and Polarity Mazes

Ok... new maze concept!

1st one is just a normal maze for you to get warmed up.

The 2nd maze I call the Lava Maze. Basically the red squares are hot lava, which means you can only walk across a maximum of 5 red consecutive squares, after which you overheat and fry. Make use of the white squares as "rest stops", and be sure not to underestimate your travelling distance in the lava!

The 3rd Maze is the Polarity Maze. When you walk through a colour (pink/cyan) it charges you with the colour polarity (e.g. pink). You can no longer walk through the same colour that you are charged with (pink), but when you walk through another colour it charges you with a new polarity (e.g. cyan).

Enjoy.

New Photography Manifesto

1. The Subject shall no longer be of primary importance; gone are the pictures of budget holidays and pseudo-artistic shots, gone is the capture of old people and shophouses and stray kittens and children laughing. Just as the representational paintings of masters lay dusty in galleries, these photos must lie in dust as well.

2. What is true and beautiful is Komposition, the balance of Lyte and Shadow, hyperrealism of Tex-tures, and evocative geometric Shapes. The photograph should be an ageless work of art.

3. Emotional response shall only be created by visual Tension and Release, and strategic abstraction of Shapes. Beauty lies in the simplicity of the image - in a world full of real complexities, visual art should serve to distill visual Beauty.

4. O! The beautiful Shapes of koncrete and metal, eroded by Nature's hand herself. Why should leaves and birds dominate our canvasses of light when Nature has chosen to lay her hand on Man's own built masterpieces.

5. Let us unite and march forth in a blinding future devoid of Photoshopped images, unidentifiable sunsets and tiresome blurry Lomographs. Let our destiny be one of purity and pristine Beauty. Let us embrace the New Photography of tomorrow, brothers and sisters of the Lens!

Blind Staircase

Some people dream in monochrome,
some people dream in numbers or words,
some people dream in sounds.

My dreams are almost always hyperchromatic visions of deep colours, fringed with colours that serve to densify the bold colours. Even the sky seems a saturated liquid that flows endlessly through space.

I dream of places. Places I've been before, but twisted as if seen through a glass bubble. Curtains flap soundlessly in the invisible wind. Things that should be there are ripped from the world, leaving a silent void that maintains its boundary with the rest of the polychromatic world.

I dream of trains. Of parks. Of houses that I've stepped into before, but now as a helpless intruder.

I dream of people. The soft warm faces that I know and love, the transparent ghosts that shuffle through the maze of my life, the glowing seeds that are people who are yet to be.

I dream of a blind staircase, leading to a blind door.

30-sec Portraits of Idling People on the Train

When you're on the MRT train and you're bored, one of the most entertaining things is to draw. And the most interesting subjects you could ever hope for are sitting right in front of you in a row, sitting still, engaged in their own little space, unaware that someone is watching them....

This really nice auntie sitting beside me peeked over to see I was doing and started giggling loudly once she figured out which people I was drawing. She then thanked me for making her laugh. Glad I was able to make a random person happy today. =)



"Woman With Pursed Lips SMS-ing Boyfriend"

"Big Hair, Big 'Phones"

"Dog Tags Are Macho"

"Immersed In Canto-Pop on My IPod"

"Uncle Turtle"

"The Seat Beside The Glass"

"PSP Boy"

"Momma's Mountains; Sista's Valley"

Fibrous Sticky Cocoon

It's been a long time since I last updated this blog, mainly because of work and reservist training commitments. Thanks to those who regularly checked for updates here, and I promise more exciting content will be added in the near future.

We had an 2-day exercise which involved setting up a defence position in forested area somewhere in Marsiling. The thick jungle vegetation consisted mainly of large fruit trees like durian, jackfruit and rambutan trees, and we were tasked to dig shellscrapes or trenches in the ground in which we would sleep in. Very much like sleeping in a shallow grave, I suppose.

I lay in this damp hole in the soil, slipping in and out of consciousness as I struggled to sleep, the strange intoxicating stench of rotting fruit, the sounds of metallic rifle magazines clicking in the dark, and the texture of crisp leaf litter and moist organic matter brushing against my skin, the depthless freckles of light that streaked through the aged leaves of old trees, completely immersing me in a surreal, deeply tactile environment.

Call them visions, or dreams; these few images vividly surfaced in my mind as I sank further and further into a sub-conscious state of mind, a distorted reflection of the reality around me....

cilia on sticks
pustule-like, glistening like insect eyes
nowhere to shift without touching them

a heaving mass of scales
some brittle and skeletal
some black with age and decay

fibrous husk of tissue

like frozen muscle

deep scars that hide dark secrets

feathery antennae that bristle

that curl and wisp and fray

invade the crevices of your body

Don't Bottle Up Your Feelings...

Bottle A: Darling, your eyes are gorgeous. They're so....clear and transparent.

Bottle B: That's because they're made of glass?

Bottle A: Errr.... your beautiful head is so.... shiny.

Bottle B: That's because my WHOLE BLEDDY HEAD is made of glass?

Bottle A: Well... I love your... transparency. And your... openness towards me. It's as if I could see right into you, into your beautiful, pure soul.

Bottle B: In case you haven't noticed you could probably see right THROUGH me. And that's coloured water by the way. Probably food colouring... you know.

Bottle A: Come, let me hold you tight!

Bottle B: You've got no frickin' arms.

Bottle A: Oh. Crap.

Teleportation Puzzle

Care for a little bit of of cerebral stimulation?

This is a little invention of mine called the teleportation puzzle. Basically it's a grid of patterns which act as pairs of teleportation gates, and you need to get from the top left hand (entrance) to the bottom right one (exit).

The trick is, when u step into a gate, you immediately get teleported to a gate of similar pattern, and from there you choose another gate, moving only horizontally or vertically. So eventually u have to get teleported to the pattern at the bottom right, and then you exit.

Sounds easy? Try for yourself lor.

Sounds hard or don't get it? Just take it as just another drawing lor.

Saccharine Sweet Beach Babies

This is more freakin' saccharine sweet than sugary caramel drizzled on strawberry cotton candy with colourful sprinkles on top.

Something I did, that is more lighthearted...and kawaii... I guess.

Someone call a dentist before I get tooth decay.

Azure Cavern Lake

This is a digital painting that is still in progress, but I thought it would be interesting to share with you guys a little bit about my work process. First stage would the conceptualization stage, which usualy is a sketch using pencil, which might be inked in properly with .3/.5 pens afterwards, depending on the look. This time i'm going for a more "painterly" effect without the sharp outlines, so I just scanned in a very rough pencil composition.

The idea is a scene of a large underground lake, cavernous but with its own network of jetties and pendulous architecture hanging from the cavern ceiling, a bit inspired by the carved profiles of classical balustrades and columns. We see a protagonist taking in the whole scene, but I haven't defined him/her yet.

The next step is to paint the entire scene in a monochrome wash to establish all the darks and lights of the scene. This creates some form of depth and defines the main objects. Of course, this is done very quickly and intuitively so I won't get obsessed with filling in confusing details right at the start.

Now I establish the main colour scheme for the picture - a dark, greenish-grey look that makes the buildings look like they are carved out of jade. The only differering colour is a warm highlight in the corner, where an opening to daylight allows little sphere-copters to emerge out of the cave.

That's all for now, folks. Stay tuned to monitor my progress!

Metallic Cords Around My Head

Cords.
They hiss and writhe around your torso
Metallic Medusa.
Warm eyeballs that freeze into directionless titanium ball bearings
Flesh that becomes cold plastic.
Diaphanous blood that now throbs through your body.

I watch silently as the transformation takes place.
Not thoughtlessly, nor painlessly.

Your body remains rigid while something in you
collapses
and dissolves - I can see it in your glazed visage.
Like a machine.
Little red lights and circuits that shut down at regular intervals;
You die a thousand deaths, whirring to a stop.
And I anticipate the silence that follows.

Part of me watches helplessly
As one would watch the disintegration of a massive glacier
Falling impossibly, slowly, majestically.

I wonder too about the ghost in your aluminium shell.

Aural Score

An aural score is a written or drawn interpretation of a piece of music that cannot be noted in normal musical notation. This is a score I did as an assignment in a class, and the piece that this score corresponds to is definitely not your usual pitched music. It begins and ends with the sound of doors opening and shutting, noting the movements in the piece.

Each segment is a soundscape that depicts a scene - the 1st minute or so that you see in the score is actually the sound of a clattering carriage, which suddenly morphs into the sound of a city street in the dead of the night, with rain and soft traffic sounds.

Does music need notes and rhythm to be beautiful? I don't think so. Perhaps it's the little sounds that remind of you of a special place, the voice of someone, the comfort of the hum of your PC - things like these that become the music of life.

Japanese Assassin in Full Fuschia

Some friends commented that I had this cutesy style that's quite recognisable so I decided to have a bit of fun and go out of my comfort zone in doing this one... Not much to say about this, except that: if I were to design a CD cover for background electronic music played during Japanese Cosplay events....this would be it I guess. Not that I really think there's a market for that kind of music...

On hindsight, when I'm free I'll probably do the following things to this:
1. make the stuff behind her more symmetrical
2. clean the lines up by re-drawing the whole assassin digitally
3. reduce the flowery stuff a little

But oh well... probably won't do it in the end....

Planar Burrows

This is an idea that I will be working on in the near future, which may actually materialize into a physical product. Just to give you a hint of what this is about, it's a mix between ideas from a book called Flatland, a colourful PSP game called LocoRoco and some of the creatures I have created so far....

Will keep you all updated on the progress of this! Watch this space.

Loss, Isolation, Perversion, Hopelessness and Frustration

In the light of current events... here's something more negative to darken up your day - a 5-panel abstract piece featuring 5 dark emotions.

Enjoy yourself figuring out which is which.

Evolution to the Zodiacs

Time for a drastic change in frequency and style as we travel back to the past a bit more. This is a doodle I did a long long time ago on the back of a writing pad - you can still see the creased texture of the brown paper. I've just colourized it on Photoshop to add a bit of depth to the picture and you can still see the title that my friend helped to give to this drawing - "Evolution to the Zodiacs", in his own handwriting. A pretty optimistic title, considering that I envisioned a sad, mutated bird-like creature unable to fly, clutching a beautiful wilting lily in its beak.

Ok, maybe I admit the teenage years fuelled some kind of artistic angst.

Radioactive Angel

Here's something I did pretty long ago in an anime-inspired style. I took part in this T-shirt design competition, and the theme was "Radioactive" so I decided to interpret this theme in a slightly unconventional manner - designing an Angel of Radioactivity, spewing unstable molecules with her staff and holding an orb canister of uranium or something. OK, looking back at this I find it a bit cutesy and Power-Puff girl-ish, but anyway here's what I did. Notice the bright C100% Y100% green colour - it's meant to be Radioactive!

Angular Rabbit

Peering through orthogonal hedge,

Is an Angular Rabbit with an edge.

With parallel lines as a pair of eyes,

A pointed tail of particular size.

Right-angle carrots are his food of choice,

And tangential lettuce makes It rejoice.

When the Angular Rabbit needs the loo,

It most gleefully poops out cubic poo.

Surreal Whale

Remember the jellyfish post? Another creature which I think is really beautiful is the whale. I once told a friend that one of the last things I would do before I die would be to actually see a blue whale live in the ocean - a majestic creature that's as big as a bus or a house, but floating so gracefully in the water, reminding me of a huge space shuttle performing its slow ballet in synchrony with the planets in outer space.

Spatial Calendar Revisited

Hey all! Thanks for the great ideas and responses after seeing my Spatial Calendar idea. Will be trying to develop the idea (once I'm free...haha) and here are some of the comments/suggestions that some of you have come up with:

1. Why is Saturday and Sunday the same size and rectangular?
>> Good question. Maybe this calendar seems more suited for the workaholic...

2. Maybe the boxes could be more free-form, and defined by the owner of the calendar.
>> That's a great idea. Was thinking of creating a random grid in the background which people can draw over to define the size of each of the days.

3. Maybe you could have date numbers floating around.
>> Possible. Then you could have little bubbles connected to these numbers, where you enter events and times. These bubbles could then be connected to each other as well!

4. Why the need for numbers / days?
>> You know...that's a very interesting question.. Why are we even numbering our days and dissecting our time like that? More of a philosophical question I guess... There's this idea of "free music" or music that breaks the boundaries of the space-time grid (regular beats in time), why not we break free of this cycle (day/night) and see our life more as EVENTS in a long long lifetime. Worth thinking about...

Bumping into a Little Creature

Was experimenting with this style of illustration - it's pretty much the same way I did Nitro and the Dragon, but I wanted flat, bright colours that are somewhat like that of a children's story book. Here we see a lady purple dreadlocks/chicken/slug thing with her elephant/polar bear/skullface husband encountering a little seal along the way.

Some people ask me where on earth do I ideas for all these characters, and the truth is... I don't really know.

I played this game with a friend once where we drew random shapes on a piece of paper and had to fill in details so the shapes made sense ... or looked like something. I guess that's how these things are conceived - your pen just randomly moves around until u chance upon something that looks good to you, then you bring your idea to life.

Unfortunately, I realise that's how I design many other things as well - banking on pure chance and intuition, then riding the wave once you catch onto something. That's BAD when it comes to more function-driven design, for the record.

Spatial Calendar

This is one idea of that I had that I was pretty interested in developing.



When you look at a calendar, you see equally spaced, boring blocks of empty space waiting to be filled in with activity. Because of the way you see these uniform blocks, it drives you to live your life in this routine way, forcing you to conform to a activity-time grid that determines your life.



What if you changed the way you looked at the days? Some days seems shorter, longer, more hopeful, exciting, constricting, inextricably linked with other events in time on other days. Here's a calendar that encourages the living of a non-conformist, non-routine life:

Seriously, don't ask me how it works. Just know that every week has 7 days.

Mutation's Abound

Here's another plant from my series. It's inspired by the fusion of 3 things - a Zen Garden, a cactus and a faucet, thus I call this a "Faucet Cactus". I guess what these three things have in common is the idea of balance. The Zen Garden inspires balance, the existence of the cactus is a result of balance in a harsh climate, and the faucet is a tool to balance an equilibrium of flow.

(Man, this guy is really good at crapping the shit out of nothing.)

The result? Something that seems really at peace with itself and its flat stone base that it grows from. Enjoy.

Party Pills!

When you feel like partying, you bring out the booze.
When you feel like partayyyyy-ing, you bring out the disco ball and a flashing dance floor.
When you REALLY feel like partayyyyyy-ing..... bring out the PARTY PILLS!

QB: Say YEAAHH!
People: YEAHHH!
QB: What you wanna do??
People: PARTYYY!
QB: What you wanna doooooo??
People: PARRRTTYYYY!!
Retarded Amoeba: Mambobobo-chi.
People: MAMBO!
Retarded Amoeba: Chachagoogoo..
People: CHACHA!

*Frenetic Latin music plays in the background*

Disclaimer:
Plastikk-cube is in no way endorsing the use of drugs in any form, and instead encourages the consumption of healthy alternatives like Tic-tacs.

Identity Crisis

Liar Liar Great Balls of Fire

Ok I lied about the last post being the ONLY panel. This is the 2nd scene where he reaches a tavern in the desert town. His spidery camel has 7(!!) legs. "All the better to walk with, my dear."