Trees and such

I have an obsession with trees. I love taking photos of them: the big or the small, the old or the new, the green, yellow, red or brown, the bare or the full - they all amaze me. This obsession with trees probably started during my university days. When I was in school, I remember feeling overwhelmed when drawing trees; what with the intricate branches and full branches of leaves, it was not an easy task at all. It was always much easier to draw a coconut tree or a banana tree! (which brings me back to the time my painting of a beach scenery with coconut trees was chosen to be sent for an international art competition in Japan).

Deprived from receiving any art lessons during secondary school, it was only at university did I have the opportunity to do something I always liked. I took Art as my elective and my life immediately changed. I used to spend time in the parks to sketch and doodle the intricate branches of huge old trees. Of course, autumn and winter was the most perfect time to do this as the trees were bare! LOL!

When it snowed a few days ago, I was again mesmerized by the beauty of the trees when covered with snow. They were breath-taking! I long to sit and sketch or paint these wonderful scenes but I simply do not have the time to do so. Hence, these pictures will have to do for the time being. I've also included some pictures of the things in my back garden.

my favourite (above) - this would be an interesting one in charcoal

the pond my twins made with their own bare hands

my workstation

Halwafy's latest entry was a workstation tag, where you are required to snap a photo of your workstation and put it up, while listing down those who have done the tag and in return you too have to tag 7 other people. I am not interested in tags but while I was doodling away with my tablet PC, I found myself drawing this:

When I do sit at my workstation, this is basically my view... If I included a wider view, err.. it wouldn't really be a nice one to draw - my magnetic board and wall is filled with diagrams, notes, schedules, verses from the Quran and motivational words, while my 50 x 105cm table is piled with books and notes. Other than the fact that with the amount of books and papers on my table you can't actually see the green paper wrapping my table, between the plastic sheet and wrapper are pictures of the children, postcards and birthday cards. Since this was done without real planning, it's quite difficult to do the background at second stage. Hence, you get a more simplified version of it. Boleh la kan?

(sketched using my HP Pavilion tx2000 tablet PC)