Little Birds

The illustration of a cardinal bird is so well-liked that I decided to illustrate more birds and make adjustments to the previous birds - cardinal and blue jay. It's a beauty on how there is a rich diversity of birds. Happy viewing! 

 Kingfisher

 Quail 

Sparrow 

Cardinal 

Bluejay

Memories

of being lost on both sides, 

of her undying love and strength as she stayed closely with me through this difficult journey on the train ride of going back and forth to the only special school that was far away from home, 

and of her patience and perseverance in trying all her ways to help me vocalize as she refused to believe the news that there was no hope for me to utter a word. This is the first time I expressed a few of my memories into illustration. I admit it was a little awkward in baring them as they are pretty personal and how each image often pulls in a string of other memories - good and bad. Nonetheless, I would like my dear Mum to have them so as to remind her how she is such a strong woman and an inspiration in my life. 

It coincided nicely with Happy Mother's Day and I decided to make another one of a rose in paper cut. Off they went, traveling over 14 hours of flight to reach my Mum! Mother's Day this year without a hug for Mum for the first time felt so out of place. Soon, there will be a plenty of hugs when I get home. =]

Tropical Chiffon Pie

First illustration of a food recipe! I admit it wasn't easy not to feel hungry while illustrating it. And I like food. Tropical Chiffon Pie's recipe credit goes to Woman's day.

Alphabet Flash Cards

Illustrated the first few alphabet flash cards, featuring different animals. It is also sort of a jigsaw puzzle where the kids can piece them up together and at the same time, they can learn the alphabets and animals' names. I'm considering to complete a whole set over summer, with better typography. It will be fun.

Sketches

Mr. Prochnow

And here's another fun one too, trying out a different approach in stylization. A portrait of one of my great teachers, Mr. Prochnow. It's for the teacher trading card project which will be used for raising funds for Illest of Ill and all the illustrated trading cards of different teachers will be released next semester!

Mildred

Did a portrait of a young girl, Mildred for the Memory Project where photos of orphaned children from Afghanistan and Honduras are given out to artists to paint or draw a portrait of them, one for each. It is a way for the children to develop a good esteem when they get their portrait from us. Hopefully, my portrait of Mildred will bring her smiles! It was a nice exploration in that style.

Sketches during the shortest trip I ever had

Hola! Recently, I went on a short vacation to Baltimore / Washington DC to visit Gallaudet University for the first time. As it was the shortest period I ever had, 3 days and 2 nights, I barely had enough time to really sit and draw during sightseeing but to take a plenty of photos. Besides, it was pretty chilly. The row houses and old buildings are so, so beautiful that I'm looking forward to express them in art! Also, my friend and I stumbled across the oldest city and it was quite an adventure, discovering the unexpected place. Shall reveal more about that in the future post. ;) Here are a few sketches I managed to squeeze in the time to sketch. :)

Everything was dark at night except for the faraway lighting coming from the house at the opposite side. It shone beautifully across the huge lake. The night, starry sky with puffy clouds. It was simply soothing to look at this scene out of the window of my friend's cosy home in somewhat an African style. I ended up sleeping on the other way round, head nearest to the window and snuggle with the familiar wind.

Reflective, shiny glasses are attractive to me.

Phones, seemingly, the central of their lives.

I'm already missing the experience at Gallaudet University and I'd definitely love to go back there again as well as to catch up on Smithsonian's 19 (!!!) museums and galleries.

Happy News

Two weeks ago on Friday, Feb 10, I was informed that my work, Mother Teresa got selected for the Society of Illustrators Student Show which will be held in New York! I was so speechless and a little lost that it took me quite some time to believe it. It. is. just. wow. It's really an honor for my work to be placed along side with the other talented students' works. I'm grateful to my family, teachers and friends around me for their support. It is definitely a steppingstone for me.

And I'm pleased to announce that my awesome Instructor, Mr. Caleb Prochnow has posted up the tutorial about my work, Mother Teresa on Vector Genius' website. There are also other cool works in there that you can check them out too. Link: http://www.vectorgenius.com/

Wine Label Design

I had fun creating those illustrations and designing the whole look of wine label. Haven is a make-up brand. I chose the typeface carefully in order to give the overall an aesthetic look and rich personality of the brand. I like to keep the design simple yet pleasing to look at. Here's the process below. Thought it would be nice to show what goes through my mind and how I arrived at the final result.

Candy Delight

Min, the little raccoon

New Home

Designed a greeting card and chose to illustrate a fancy home for one to send warm wishes to congratulate the proud owner on a new home! There's no other place better than home sweet home.

Teaser

Currently, I'm working on storyboarding about the story of a cute raccoon..For now, it is just a sneak peak, the study and exploration of raccoon's movements and actions.

Scarves

Scarves with different patterns based on the memory of scarves given as gifts from the loved ones. Wearing scarves with my white top is my favorite part of dressing up.

Kingfisher & Me

A banner of kingfisher pattern for my science class, Biodiversity on Earth. I'm fascinated with the process of creating shapes, deciding the angles and the placement of each shape. So I decided to create a self portrait of myself in that style but with some changes. I'm pretty pleased with the result and that most people like it! 

Relaxation

Making the most out of such perfect weather when some days were pretty cold last month.

First-timer at Myakka State Park in Florida and there was this tall wooden building, a canopy top where you can see such grand view of trees and trees, particularly palm trees.

Inspired by the movie, Brother Bear watched twice during the winter break. I really like its story and it has great environment shots - beautiful composition.

First-timer at Nokomis beach where there are really pretty seashells and definitely a place for fishing. It was a little chilly as the sun set. Another beautiful beach.

A quick watercolor sketch of Indian Beach after such a good morning run. It was the last day of winter break.

Self-Portrait Sketch

First blog post for a New Year, 2012! Better than never. Yup, that's me wishing you a Happy 2012! May we continue to produce even more artworks and grow to be a better artist. Do work to impress yourself.

For you,

Sketches in Virginia