Bam Bam, What a Bam Bam

"...you loafing around the studio and Desmond Dekker telling the man to give you a break, and he give you the break because he hear the hunger in your voice before he even hear you sing. You cut a tune, but not a hit song, too pretty for the ghetto even then, for we past time when prettiness make anybody's life easy. Wee see you hustle and trying to talk your way twelve inches taller and we want to see you fail. And we know nobody would want you to be a rudeboy anyway for you look like a schemer." (James, 2015, s.8)

"But one hit can't bounce you out of the ghetto when you recording hits for a vampire. One hit can't make you into Skeeter Davis or the man who sing them Gunfighter Ballads." (James, 2015, s.9)

"The dream didn't leave, people just don't know a nightmare when they right in the middle of one." (James, 2015, s.8)

"More people start moving to the ghetto because Delroy Wilson just sing that 'Better Must Come' and the man who would become Prime Minister sing it too. Man who look like white man but char bad like naigger when they have to, singging 'Better Must Come.' " (James, 2015, s.9)

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I discovered Marlon James' "A Brief History of Seven Killings" a year ago, without even paying attention on "Winner of Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2015" sticker on the cover. Things that matter was the bird on the cover (mine was the Riverhead Books edition), reminds me so much of Doctor Bird Records logo.  As a Jamaican music enthusiast, I smirked so many times as I read so many musician names that I admired. Names above were only the beginning.

If you were getting along so well with Pamuk's My Name is Red and A Strangeness in My Mind, 700-ish pages of Seven Killings would be a breeeeezeeee. Landmines are on self-adjustment to patois and Jamaican slang (if you've been listening to Max Romeo the entire way, I think you've got it covered). So, are you ready to switch your F-word curse to bumbaclot?

Meanwhile I will leave you to Delroy Wilson "Better Must Come" and Toots and the Maytals "Desmond Dekker Came First" (extra: google up about the funny stories behind the competition that inspired Maytals to make this song)

A true dem nuh know it's a fram creaaatiooon.

"Awan Jahat"

("Awan Jahat", 21x15 cm)

I began this drawing as my micro diary in DIN A3 format, but I did a moronic mistake on the prior paper so I switch it to smaller size. I called these mushroomy-atomic bomb-clouds as “awan jahat” (a thunder cloud in Bahasa Indonesia) diary. The main idea of awan jahat is I need a way to express my feeling through strokes and shades, instead of certain object such as human, bloods or whatever. I have to be honest, it is the only way I deal with negativity, that surrounds me at the moment.

I used HB and sometimes 2B graphite, I just mixed it on my mechanical pencil. Until I stroked it on paper, I totally have no idea which is which. So, the color or dark-lights did not necessarily depict my feelings on that day, their shapes probably did. I won’t tell you exactly either. It took me more than 3 weeks to finish it,

While I’m working on smaller size, I also remake this "awan jahat" on its OG A3 size. I consider this is my tiny-frog-leaps for next year, I am eager to do bigger size, e.g. on DIN A2.

(currently listening to my favorite Travis Millard’s Talks at Google)

Neptune Hits Hard

Neptune Hits Hard (digital drawing on photoshop, 2016)

Sometimes Neptune hits us hard to the bottom. You'd rather spend your pastime by reading Han Kang's "The Vegetarian" and intentionally skipping "Star Wars: Rogue One" on the first week at the cinema (yaawwnnnn).

I painted directly on photoshop, based on sketch on notebook I made a long time ago. Here's the process:

 1) It all began with this ball of fire and a palette from Victo Ngai's T-Cell

2) This was the actual design I did on my notebook. A girl that hit by meteor.

3) Then I decided to drop the girl and switched them for classic robot.

4) I added flares here and there and highlight on the robot.

5) Details on the robot. I am so happy I could cry.

Study on 80's Chrome Fonts

(graphite on paper, 10x15 cm, 2016)

Saya sejujurnya nggak terlalu berminat dengan hand lettering, apalagi yang cursive gaya-gaya web cewek/pinterest. Kalau font bikinan Aaron Horkey, font serif di komputer atau font game saya masih tahan deh. Namun setelah pulang dari pameran Sathar vol.1: Past kemarin, saya merasa harus bisa bikin font game-game Nintendo. Pasti berguna suatu saat nanti di karya saya.

Saya mulai belajar membuatnya kemarin, font dasarnya menggunakan Impact. Rasanya besok-besok saya harus modifikasi sedikit font-nya supaya nggak keliatan seperti tulisan di rental komputer "Harap Lepas Alas Kaki" yang dibuat di MS-Words.

Kata "Sade" sih dipilih karena singkat, 4 huruf saja. Saya cuma keingetan Sade, yang meski besar di 1980-an tetapi tidak pernah mengalami fase font Moonwalker-nya Michael Jackson di cover albumnya (sampai ke era 2000-an pun demikian). Nah ini saya berandai-andai kalau Sade masuk ke area game dan film di era itu, mungkin akan kena wabah font chrome ini.