• Art & Places,  Seoul, SK,  Traditiional Art,  Travel illo,  TRAVEL/HOLIDAYS

    Art & Places: Korean Dancheong Art

    Emila Yusof

    During my visit to the Gyeongbokgung Palace, I noticed that every building has a very attractive and vibrant paintings.

    Curious of finding more about the art, I took pictures for the purpose of studying the design and went Yahoo-ing the net. I didn’t know what the name of the style was, but I just typed in “culture of Korea” and voila! I found a wiki page about the art. It is called Dancheong.

    Dancheong is a multi-coloured decorative painting mostly done on wooden buildings and artifacts for the purpose of style and to protect surfaces and conceal the crudeness of materials.

    Emila Yusof

    Originally arriving with Buddhism when it was brought from China, the patterns of Dancheong were modified in Korea. It is said that during the Shilla period, Dancheong was even found on commoners’ home. Now it is limited to temples and palaces as well as some musical instruments.

    Dancheong is based on five basic colors; blue (east), white (west), red (south), black (north), and yellow (centre).

    According to its design, colour and style, Dancheong is classified into five types: Gachil Dancheong, Geutgi Dancheong, Moru Dancheong, Geummoru Dancheong and Geum Dancheong.

    There are also special kinds of Dancheong such as Gobun Dancheong, Chilbo Dancheong, Geumbak (Eunbak) Dancheong, Geumni (Eunni) Dancheong and Ottchil Dancheong.

    Emila Yusof

    Gachil Dancheong usually uses a green or reddish-brown monochromatic under-painting with no patterns. Geutgi Dancheong adds some decorative patterns by drawing black and white lines on a single-colored under-painting. Moru Dancheong draws a simple-shaped Meoricho (pattern) only on the ends of the bracket, and adds the finishing touches to the middle part of the bracket with black and white lines. Geummoru Dancheong is a crossover of Moru Dancheong and Geum Dancheong, adding some geometric patterns to Moru Dancheong. Geum Dancheong boasts the most colorful paintwork, with various kinds of elaborate silk patterns and Byeoljihwa (decorative pictures) drawn on the whole part of the bracket, except the part on which Meoricho is drawn.

    The process of Dancheong is as follows: at first, workers begin to work with polishing the foundation of Dancheong. After applying boiled water including glue to the foundation, they prepare the drafting paper by coating it 5 times.

    In order to put figures of drafting paper on a building, they must spread blue & green soil on it. When they tap a powder bag on framework-covered surface, it flows out from a hole and outlines the figures carved in the frame. After, they decorate the building with paint using the basic five colours.

    Emial Yusof

    Overall, I really love this one unique aspect of Korea. To me, art truly reflects the culture values of a country and I am glad that I had the chance to experience and see this art form myself.

    Here’s my take on Dancheong on watercolor paper with my color preferences. It doesn’t have specific meaning as I was just exploring the design.

    Sketch by Emila Yusof


  • Italy,  TRAVEL/HOLIDAYS

    Italy Travel Tips

    Italy is such a beautiful country and to be able to enjoy it you must plan your trip carefully. You must know what you should have in hands and what you should know about the country. I learned it the hard way as I was not prepared. So here are some Italy travel tips based on my experience that I would like to share with you. It might not be as concise but I hope it helps you plan your trip.

     

    Get a Travel Italy Guidebook

    I did a mistake that no one should. I didn’t have anything on me about Italy not even a map. And for that I had tough time finding my way around. Get a travel book/guide on Italy and make sure you buy one with information such as maps of cities and accompanying metros (subways). Also, many travel guidebooks offer advice on where to go, how to get there and what to do when you arrive.

     

    Learn the Language

    Without some basic knowledge of Italian, you may find simple tasks cumbersome and frustrating.

     

    Pack light

    Ideally a carry on bag should be sufficient. If you can’t carry your own bags on and off trains and up and down stairs (not all hotels or B&Bs have elevators), you will have problems as porters are not common particularly on trains. I had tough time carrying two luggage up and down the stairs of train stations.

     

    Money

    Do carry some Euro money. Taxis from airports hardly take money in other currencies, so you may face problems, if you’re not carrying Euro change. Nevertheless, almost all major stations and airports in Italy possess the facility for foreign exchange.

     

    Stamp your train tickets

    Do not forget to stamp your train/bus ticket or else you will have to get down when the inspector get on board. You’ll stamp your ticket by aligning an arrows labeled “convalida” with the slot provided and pushing until you hear the mechanical whine of the stamp. Then you’re set to board your train/bus. I was lucky that I did not get thrown out of the train, the ticket inspector did warned me to not forget to validate.

     

     

    Hotel tariffs

    Be mindful that during the peak holiday season or in conjunction with international events, you’ll be faced with more expensive hotel tariffs as Italian holiday-makers and international tourists compete for accommodation. I found out that my publisher had to pay 50% higher than the normal tariffs for our rooms during the International Children’s Book Fair.

     

    Don’t walk alone

    Walk away when approached by strange men. I had an experience being approached by two men (in Rome) who claimed they were the police. I managed to get away. I did however, walk alone safely on other occasions.

     

    Taxi fare

    A taxi fare from Rome’s Fiumicino Airport into the central city costs more than 6o Euro and a Leonardo Express train trip are 5 times cheaper. So take the train, if you can.

     

    Travelling to Florence

    If you are going to Florence using EuroStar, then you have no problem reaching at the right station,which is Florence Santa Maria Novella. If you take the cheaper intercity train, you have to get down at Firenze Rifredi (or Florence Rifredi) and take another train to Florence SMN.

     

     

    That is all I can think right now. Have a safe trip and have fun if you’re going Italy!

  • comm. work,  digital illos,  header/blog

    iBabyDepot header

    A commissioned header I did for iBabyDepot blog. The owner, Laura, wants me to come up with a header that match her online shop, iBabyDepot.com. Made her a small banner as well. Do visit her shop if you need anything on baby stuff.

    ibabydepot

    ibabydepot banner

    The header and banner (including emsdoll) is licensed to iBabyDepot. Copyright is mine and if you are interested to make similar header and emsdoll, please contact  me: emila@emilayusof.com. Copying, cropping and editing is prohibited.

     

  • Seoul, SK,  TRAVEL/HOLIDAYS

    Seoul, the soul of Asia

    Remember my trip to Seoul, South Korea in June 2011? Here’s the complete article about my visit there. I hope it can be a guide or some kind of reference for you to read prior to your visit there. Pardon me for the heavy loads of images.

    It was great visiting Seoul. I wish I could extend my stay and truly feel the soulfulness.

    Arriving at the airport, my husband and I were greeted by the rain. I just love rain, the fresh smell it brings out. This is true you know, not just to comfort myself for not traveling during the spring.

    Really.

    Ok, that was partly to comfort myself. The smell of the rain part is purely true, I did not make that up. Try go running or dancing or walking in the rain, you’ll understand what I’m talking about.

    seocho04

    You see, we were dying to travel to Seoul in the Spring (earlier June) but due to some circumstances, we had to travel at the end of June. And that was during the rainy season. We could not travel on any other months as we were bound by MAS’ terms and condition.

    The rainy season or Jangma as the local people call it, lasts from the end of June till the end of July, for about 30 days. The taxi driver told me this but according to other sources, sometimes it will rain until the end of September. Come rain or shine, the locals seem to enjoy the season. I enjoyed watching them walking in rain with style.

    imas_walk02

    And boy, the wind was quite heavy that it almost blew me away. It turned my umbrella inside out.

     seocho07

    Nonetheless, the rain did not stopped me from discovering Seoul. I visited Namsan Park, Itaewon, Namdaemun Market, Gyeongbokgung Palace, Korean Folk Museum and Korean Folk Village.

    Our second day in Seoul was quite productive. We went to Itaewon and Namsan Park.

    Itaewon is a city district, in Yongsan-gu, Seoul and it is a popular area for residents of Seoul, tourists, and U.S. Military personnel. Many restaurants serving international dishes are found in this area including cuisine from India, Pakistan, Egypt, Turkey, Thailand, and Mexico, foods that are not widely available in Korea. The Seoul Central Mosque is also located in Itaewon.

    Local landmark Hamilton Hotel can be found here as well as dozens of shops and services aimed at tourists. High quality leather products in Korea can be found here at reasonable prices as well as various types of traditional Korean souvenirs.

    itae01

    itaewon04

    And the visit to Namsan Park was great! I get to capture flowers in the form of photo as well as drawings.

    flowers08

    flowers10

    flowers07

    drawing-flower4      drawing-flower3      drawingflower2

    Namsan Park is one of Seoul City’s largest green spaces and is the first Botanical Garden of Korea. It is a home to a numbers of species, which include foliage, fleshy plants, cactus, dwarfed potted plants, and orchids.

    There are also exercising spots and walking trails and many Seoulites come here for their daily walk. From up here we can capture panoramic view of the city of Seoul.

    If you are in Seoul, do drop by Namsan Park. Attractions include the Seoul Tower, National Theater, Namsan Public Library, and statues in memory of Korean patriots, etc.

    Namsan Park is facilitated with a cable car that leads to the Seoul Tower. A tour in Namsan Park is completely free, except for the cable car ride for which a ticket has to be purchased. I did not get on the cable car as it was closed due to strong winds however there is a bus number 02 at the bottom of the park to take you up to Seoul Tower.

     namsan01

    namsan02

     

    Visiting the Gyeongbokgung Palace, Korean Folk Museum and Korean Folk Village was more like it. I got to learn about Korean culture and traditions.

    Gyeongbokgung Palace

    Gyeongbokgung Palace is a symbol of majesty for both the Korean nation and the Korean royal family. Gyeongbokgung Palace or Palace of Shining Happiness was originally constructed in 1394 by King Taejo, the first king and founder of the Joseon Dynasty. But the majority of the palace was burnt down during the Japanese invasions of Korea between 1592 and 1598. Palace buildings that survived the Japanese occupation and Korean War include Geunjeongjeon the Imperial Throne Hall, Hyangwonjeong Pavilion, Jagyeongjeon Hall, Jibokjae Hall, Sajeongjeon Hall, Sujeongjeon Hall, and Gyeonghoeru Pavilion.

    Amongst buildings that I explored were: Geunjeongjeon (The Throne Hall), Gangnyeongjeon (The King’s Quarters), Gyotaejeon (The Queen’s Quarters), Jagyeongjeon (The Late Queen’s Quarters), Gyeonghoeru (The Royal Banquet Hall) and Hyangwonjeong (small, two-story hexagonal pavilion).

     

    Officials at the Gate

     
    The main Gate

    Hyangwonjeong

    After visiting the palace, I visited the Korean Folk Museum.

    Korean Folk Museum

    This museum is located in the palace area, so if you visit the place, do drop by the museum.

    The museum uses replicas of historical objects to illustrate the folk history of the Korean people. The museum has three exhibition halls which illustrate ‘The History of the Korean People’ from pre-historic times to the end of the Joseon Dynasty in 1910, ‘The Lifestyle of the Korean People’, and ‘The Lifecycle of a Korean from Birth to Death’. It also houses a children’s museum and an outdoor exhibition.

    The museum was originally sited on Mt Namsan, and moved to Gyeongbokgung in 1975. The current building was built in 1972 and housed the National Museum of Korea until 1986. It was remodelled, and reopened as the National Folk Museum in 1993. The building’s design is based on various historical buildings around South Korea.

    Entrance to the main hall


    Folk painting

    Here’s a slideshow and video to sum the visit to both place:

     

    Korean Folk Village

    The Korean Folk Village has over 260 traditional houses set in a natural environment occupying approximately 243 acres of land. Houses in the folk village not only include typical houses of commoners, farmers, and noblemen from the southern, central, and northern parts of Korea including island areas, but also buildings for special purposes, such as the shrine of scholars, the provincial governor?s office, a private school, a Buddhist temple, and shaman’s house.

    Many of the buildings and houses were relocated to the folk village and restored according to the original lifestyle of the Korean people in the late Chosun period. Approximately 30,000 items of daily life have been collected from diverse regions and placed in each room based on their characteristics and period.

    Various traditional lifestyles are also reproduced in the exhibit houses and crafts workshops for tourists to experience the culture of traditional Korean life: crafts include bamboo weaving, yarn spinning (out of cocoons!), silk making and many more. Crops like rice, barley, wheat, cotton, ginseng, sweet potato, radish, and sesame are cultivated in a traditional way so that visitors can observe the whole process from seeding to harvesting.

     


    The main entrance

    Silk making

    Here are more picture from the village:

     

    Namdaemun Market

    If you need to go shopping in Seoul, consider visiting Namdaemun Market.

    Namdaemun Market

    Namdaemun Market is one of the oldest continually running markets in South Korea, and one of the largest retail markets in Seoul that covers over 10 acres. It is filled with over 10,000 shops, stalls, retailers, street vendors, and has several department stores nearby. Here you can find clothes, shoes, fabrics, tableware, flowers, vegetables, ginseng products, toys, and watches. Newly designed Hanboks (traditional Korean costume), blankets, and bed sheets can be purchased at great bargains. You can get a t-shirt here for the price of 2000 won instead of buying elsewhere with the price of 7000 won. Cheap, right? I was a bit frustrated as I already bought few t-shirts at Itaewon for the price of 7000 won each.

    Namdaemun Market opens from 11:00pm to 3:00am, and is crowded with retailers from all over the country. It is closed every Sunday. Daily visitors here exceed 400,000 people.

    Namdaemun Market first started under the reign of King Taejong (1367 – 1422, the third Joseon king) during the Joseon Dynasty (1392 – 1910), when the government built shops around Namdaemun and rented out the shops to traders. The market began to take its form as a trading marketplace during this era and continued to prosper until the Japanese took over management of the market in 1922 during the Japanese occupation. This went on for several years until the liberation of 1945 when the Koreans took control again, but the market continued to have a rocky history due to the onset of the Korean War and it was not until 1954 when the Seoul Namdaemun Market Co. Ltd. was founded that the market began to take hold again. In recent years, the market has undergone massive renovations and there are plans to renovate the market even more in the future.

    To visit Namdaemun Market you need to take Seoul Subway Line 4 and exit at Hoehyeon Station (Exit 5).

  • ABOUT ME,  watercolor

    Have you ever been bullied during childhood?

    I know, I had. It was a nightmare. When my parents got divorced, my siblings and I had to be left under the care of my grandparents (now deceased) while my mother went to the city looking for a job to support us and to find a descent rental home to live. We were transferred to a school in Kg. Sega, Raub. The students were not very friendly and they had this mindset — “city kids are bad kids and therefore needs to be bullied”. Other states but Kg. Sega were considered ‘city’ that time. I had my nightmares when they throw leeches on me (on of them stuck on my leg), stole my money and my art materials. They were also using sarcastic remarks when I was the only one who reacted to the teachers when they asked questions. Showing off, they said.

    But all that came to and end when my mother came to pick us up and left for Kuala Lumpur in 1979. In Kuala Lumpur, I had never been bullied once. Never. I belong to the city.

    Not many of the students in my class back then knew this but I was actually born in Kg. Sega, Raub.

    Here’s one illo I did for the calendar project.

    And the mindset didn’t really leave the town, my niece and cousin were both bullied at schools in Raub few years back. Their stationery were stolen and they had to endure verbal abuse from classmates. My cousin who is now studying in one of the universities in KL really glad to finished school. As for my niece, she is staying with me now and go to nearby school. She never been bullied here.

  • MISC

    Emilayusof.com Facebook page

    I actually had one before but had to delete it because of certain reasons. But then after awhile, I made one again with the thought that it won’t be a fan page but merely an option for readers to keep updated when I post new entries on my blog.

    If you wish to get an update through Facebook, do ‘like’ the page: emilayusof.com. I have a wibiya bar on the bottom of this page for an easy access to ‘like’. This has been there for quite sometimes. You can also use it to search articles in my blog, tweet certain posts, subscribe and share on various online social platforms.

    Over the years, facebook has made many changes and one feature that I like so much is the insight where it includes the demographic data, likes and reach.

    demographic