Gosh, with a glimpse of an eye, the first month of year 2012 is coming to an end. I should have blogged this earlier but was caught up with a couple of stuffs before the CNY. So yes, as the title explains it, this is a short article about my new phone, the Samsung Galaxy Note. I know most of you will have questions why I have gotten this phone instead of the Iphone 4S but I'll hold that question for now and will come to that shortly. The G-Note is a new product category that sits right between a smartphone and a tablet. With that, Samsung managed to capture a lot of attention from the market which lead to one of the possible reasons for stock shortage in Malaysia. I searched around shops in Penang for the G-Note and most shops didn't have it. Generally, their comment was that you will need to wait indefinitely.

Even DIGI's online store was out of stock (black / white). A few shops had the black one but being determined that I wanted the white one, I decided to wait. It was with luck that I came across this shop in QB selling phones and decided to go in to ask. The shop owner told me that in order to get the white one, you will need to pre-order. Since after weeks of asking around and not making any headway, I've decided to pay the deposit and have the shop order it for me. Fortunate enough, I've managed to get the device within a week's time. So here's a snapshot of my phone.



Now, let's come back to the reason why not the "I" I have been a user of Apple products and I have no doubt that they are good but the reason why I didn't get it is because it's pretty much the same with it's previous successor (the Iphone 4) but with better hardware and camera. The G-Note on the other hand has a fresh attempt of it's note taking capabilities with the help of S-PEN which is pressure sensitive made possible by Samsung and WACOM. Since I liked drawing from the day I was born, this device definitely captivates me a lot. Talking bout drawing, here's my first quick sketch using the S-PEN via S-NOTE (app).



On the other hand, hardware specifications are up-to-date and performance is good. I don't deny the fact that the Android OS still have areas that can be improved to give it more stability and also smoother performance but, I tend to believe that one of the main reasons Apple devices are smoother is because it limits the configuration options available to end user. So, things are less complicate to the user and controlled in a way as compared Android.

Bottom line is both are good devices but G-Note interest me more hence, the decision. Loved the big screen for browsing and watching youTube So for those of you who wanted to know whether this is a good phone, the answer is yes. The size however, is it's strength and it's weakness so if you are fine with that, then there's no problem. Holding it to talk is also not weird as what people might have described it to be ^__^ For more details, head on to the official website.

It's weekend again so took some time to draw another piece of art. This time, I did a quick doodle of someone we all know, Steve Jobs We all have been seeing lots of his B&W pictures all over the places so, took some concepts from there for me to come up with a portrait of him. Once again, I am using the chalk sketch style for speed painting for this work. Here are some of the progress snapshots of the sketch before arriving at my final piece.



And below is the final output where I stopped at. Hope you all will like it



Have fun during the weekend and take care. The weather is really humid as we march nearer to CNY so, make sure you stay indoors if possible. Until next time guys... bye bye !!!

Happy New Year 2012 to all !!! We have stepped into another new year and hopefully it will be a better than the previous one. Well, I must say that this long holiday was really good as it had given me more time to do the things I want and also slowly think things through and gradually changing my inner self. The holidays are coming to an end soon. One more day before routine starts but I think I am pretty ready for it

How about you guys? For those celebrating Chinese New Year, have you done your spring cleaning? Mine is almost complete say 95% ha ha... Just keeping that 5% until it's nearer Apart from that, have you set your new goals for year 2012? Well, hmmm... maybe not all are new goals perhaps some are carry forward from 2011 Regardless of which, all the best and good luck to you in achieving all these goals this new year.

Took some time today to draw and paint something with my tablet via Corel Painter. Woo hoo, first painting for year 2012



Alright, going to stop here for now. Enjoy the rest of your holidays and see you in the new year ;)

Wow... finally the long break is here. Today is day 2 of my holidays which started on 19th Dec. Took some time to sit down and draw something on my iPad as it's long time since I last posted some art work. The thought that came across my mind while playing on my iPad was a dark warlord. I did some doodling when I finally decided to further work on it before hitting the delete button So, what's this dark warlord about hmmm.. for those of you who've seen my post in Facebook you will know a bit of a background about this guy. Here's a bit more details on this character; He was once an honorable warrior but chose to abandon humanity for absolute power and immortality. The dark arts had tainted his soul turning him into a dark warlord who is ruthless and deadly. All who attempts to stop him in his quest to conquer the world will only result in death. Sounds scary ei .... haha Well here you go the art piece below.



Going to stop here for now. Until next time people... and Merry Christmas & Happy New Year to all of you Have fun and take care as well.

It's good to be back !!! It's quite a while since I last posted articles here. Well, life had been pretty much busy for the past few months to a year but now, things are slightly slowing down a bit giving me more time for myself. Hmmm, weather in Penang is a bit strange these days, hot during the day and rains in the evening making it the perfect environment for the flu bug :( With these weather uncertainties, my photography outings were lessen too but, that's only part of the reason. The other part of the reason which, I hate to admit is that I tend to be lazy these days and prefer to stay in and rest on weekends (could be a sign of aging ). Anyway, I still do some random snaps here and there if I find anything interesting. Here are some pictures of skies I had taken in my balcony recently. One shows a blue sky while the other shows a cloudy sky.





Okie dokie, will stop here for now. Going to enjoy my remaining evening before routine starts for next 5 days Take care my friends. Cheers !!!

Today is Ishtar's and Saw's wedding Happy and glad I was able to attend the wedding dinner with my colleagues to celebrate this big day. Well, this had also given us the opportunity for our group of friends to gather up and have dinner together. Focus of the night was the dinner and to catch up with one another. But being me, I have my camera with me as well Not so much coverage for the dinner but just some leisure group pics and also some key moments. Here are some of the pics that I'd taken during the dinner









Would like to wish Ishtar and Saw congratulations and may happiness always be with you in your future journeys. And for the rest of you who joined the gathering at CBTL, thanks for the wonderful gathering Have a nice weekend and cheers !!!

This is a sketch I did couple of weeks back but haven't posted it. So doing a simple write up here to share it with you guys Just something a little different than the usual portrait sketches as this one is a bit more focused on an overall. It's about an Asian girl dressed in a clothing which resembles the traditional Korean costume for the ladies. Sketched and painted via ProCreate on Ipad. One of my favorite painting apps on iOS For those who like digital sketch / painting you might consider buying this app as it's quite powerful and easy to use. You can click here to have a look at the app in iTunes. There you go, below is my work.



Have a nice weekend guys and see you guys next week. Take care and signing off now.

Yet another digital sketch practice on my workstation. This picture was sketched on Photoshop using chalk style brushes and the experimentation or exploration was quite fun and it's slightly different as compared to the normal hard and soft brushes. This one carries a texture to it adding a more art strokes to your picture making feel more sketchy. Well, here's the picture I managed to come out with. I started it with a simple wire sketch and slowly adding in colors and make changes as I go along.



More practice to come ... hopefully I will be more familiar with it in time to come and produce more fun art pieces. Have a nice long weekend to all especially those who took additional leaves in addition to the Hari Raya & Independence day public holidays

I have been looking for a new notebook backpack ever since I threw away the old Targus one couple of weeks back as it already worn out. Most places were selling standard backpacks that range from brands like Targus, HP and Belkin. The usual price range was around MYR 90 - MYR 150 but I didn't want to buy them as they are very office-like. What I had in mind was something more casual and funky and hence, I continued searching. HP has a few nice ones but due to circumstances, it's not recommended that I buy it (you guys should know why)

Well, today I head down to QB to settle some errands and also to buy some stuffs. I headed to the digital mall to grab a headset for my colleague and as I browsed around, I stopped by the notebook backpack section. Lots of choices there, and there were varieties of backpack models from the AVF brand. It was there that I found this backpack which fits my requests Best part of all, it's only MYR 49 and comes with a 1-year warranty too. Woo hoo... Hopefully it will be able to last me long as it's only for a notebook, adapter and some cables. Here's what the bag looks like.





Quite a good buy for me. Yay!!! Going to bring it over to office tomorrow Enjoy your remaining Sunday guys!!! Take care.

It's the weekend again, and like never before every minute and second of the weekend counts like precious diamonds However, it's a rather quiet day for me today, staying at home chilling around with music and net surfing. With a peaceful mind, I recalled that I have a picture which I had completed partially thus, I have decided to complete it. Spent some time setting up my old old Wacom tablet after plugging it to my desktop. I am thankful enough, that this old device still works despite of its age If you guys are into drawing and thought of getting a tablet, Wacom is the brand to get. It is reliable and has good sensitivity and pressure control as compared to other tablets out there. One of the only set backs it has is high price but if you are buying one which will last you for many years, then you are actually saving in the long run right?

Anyway, here's the picture I've painted with my tablet in Photoshop. I've used less colors for this pic as I started it using black and white and progressively adding some colors and tones to it. Wanted to try another approach of painting and see how it turns out to be



Alrighty guys, I am going to stop here for now. Take care and have a wonderful weekend