Revisiting of An Old Friend: Rainy Day

Here is an old painting of mine (maybe it is a self-portarit?) It's fun to revisit some of the old friends... especially after my earlier post about me being afraid of paints; I think doing this will help make me want to paint again.

I did this little painting almost 3 years ago. It was done on a piece of MDF board about 6" by 12". I like paiting on wood better than canvas. Blank canvas just looks so clean and perfect, and I always feel like I am ruinning it by painting on it. That's one of the reason that adds to my fear of painting... But with wood I am less afraid. I do like doing little collage works on small canvas though. I will try to scan some of them and show them later (if they can be scanned well).

48 Luchadors in Chaos

This is the continuation of the previous post... After I did the red/orange version, I craved for more colors for the 48 Luchadors, so I scanned it and changed some colors in Photoshop, then added more doodles around it. Funny that I am a fan of both simplicity and chaos (you probably could tell that already from my artworks). Which one do you like? :)

Artist website to check:
My friend Dick Daniels finally has an online shop! Now you can shop for his artworks by checking out his website at www.FunHouse57.com (and did I already mention his stuff is super fun?)

Watercolor + Ink: 48 Luchadors

After the quick attempt of watercolor last night, I ended up painting big dots on the watercolor paper and turned them into more luchador heads. Original artwork is 9" by 12".

Watercolor Test: Mr. Confused

I got a little cheapie Reeves watercolor pan set after work, and this was the first thing I did with it. I am not a painter (I can paint a wall but that's about it), and I'm always envious to see people who can produce beautiful artworks with oil, acrylic, gouache or watercolor. If there is one thing I'd really love to take some lessons for, it would be painting. But until then, I am just gonna do whatever. I know I'm afraid of painting and it shouldn't be like that; I certainly wasn't afraid of it when I was a little kid. I wonder what happened? (Funny thing is I still like to buy paints... So weird.)

Anyway, this little guy looks really confused to me. So I put a Chinese phrase above his head, and it means "unable to make head or tail of something" (that's how I feel about painting techniques right now)...

Sketch Book Page

I've learned my lesson: don't bring a sketchbook to bed and doodle before sleep. I can't really get a good night's sleep if I do that. Too much stimulation for the brain... But I can't quit...

IF: Tales and Legends

I haven't really done anything in the animation style on my blog, but I think for this one it is appropriate. This is an old Chinese legend called "Hou Yi Shoots the Suns". There are different versions of the tale, but the basic story is like this: long long time ago, there were 10 Suns and they took turn shining over the Earth. But one day, they got bored and decided to appear in the sky all together. That caused the Earth to overheat; everything was scorched dry and people were on the edge of perishing... Finally, the Emperor sent a powerful archer named Hou Yi to save the world by shooting down nine suns, leaving just one to carry on...

The complete story can be found here if you are interested.

"You Make My Day" Award

I am so flattered that I got the "You make my day" award from Aspa at Carousel on The Hill! Thank you Aspa!! You just made my day too! XO

Now the task is on me to find five artists that have made my day to give the award.
On one hand it is easy cause there are so many talented artists that inspire me everyday in the big blog world, but on the other hand, it's super super tough to narrow it down to just 5. (So if I see you were just picked by other people, then I will pick somebody else!)

Here is the rule I got from Aspa's post:
1. Write a post with links to 5 blogs that make me think and/or make my day.
2. Acknowledge the post of the award giver.
3. Display the "You Make my Day Award" logo with a link to the post that I wrote. (Optional)
4. Tell the award winners that they have won by commenting on their blogs with the news.

So I have to pick just 5 here, but don't forget you guys all make my day each and every day:
1. Geninne from Geninne's Art Blog
2. Maura from freg-ment-ed
3. Marci Senders
4. Jhoanna from One Red Robin
5. Gustavo from Aimar Ilustrado

Pen Test: Sharpie Doodle

I found a bunch of color Sharpies that I bought from Costco long long time ago, so I tried to doodle something quick on an old book page to see how the colors would turn out. Old papers always seem to have a special magic power and I really like how it mellowed out the Sharpies just enough but not too much.

(The typo in the doodle was real though... -_-)

Chomp Chomp Doodle

I did a super quick doodle for my friend Mimi at work (she is also the drummer for our band). Actually it was inspired by her catch phrase "Chomp Chomp Chicken". I had to put two of her "favorite" things in the doodle: meat on bones and a wound on the sensitive area of your inner lower arms... Sorry, coudln't help it. :p

Lucha Hat

Over the weekend I did a little doodle of a girl wearing a big luchador mask headpiece... And after I dug out my old crazy photo yesterday which looks pretty similar to the doodle, I've decided to do it digitally (I would love to paint it instead, but sadly I am not much of a painter), and here it is.

An Old Photo of Myself

My friend Maura just posted a photo of herself as a Blockhead on her blog. That reminded me so much of an old photo of mine which I had forgotten about, taken by my roommate back when we were still at school. My roommate Misaki was a photographer major, so once in awhile we had to be models for her various school projects. I remember for this one, she wanted us to do our own masks using brown paper bags, and she would take photos of us wearing our masks at different locations throughout San Francisco. I had mine taken in a magazine shop on Polk Street. I can't imagine what was going through the poor shop owner's mind at that time; he must had been thinking "what a bunch of freaks"! Ah... those are the good old days!

IF: Plain

I thought of the good old plain water when I saw this week's topic. I know it's good for our bodies to drink 8 glasses of water per day, but it's so hard to really do it. I did these little illustrations in round shapes cause I was thinking maybe I can turn them into badges in the future so I can wear it to remind myself... : )

PS: I did quite a few little quick sketches for this idea, I thought it might be fun to show some of them here.

Pen Report

I got a few new pens yesterday, both from the store and from my mail order. It was like Christmas for me again... On top of that, I finally finished the old sketch book and started a new one, and I couldn't wait to test my new pens. So here are the first pen report from me. It was scanned straight from the page at 300 dpi then reduced to 150 dpi, without any retouching. You can really see the difference and line quality between each pen.

The pens I used are: Martha Stewart Crafts 0.5mm fine tip writing pens in different colors; Sakura Pigma Micron 0.3mm in black (which I've been using all the time), Pilot Precise V5 extra fine, and Pilot Hi-Tec-C 0.3mm in Black as well. I've had used the Hi-Tec-C while I was at school back in San Francisco and loved it so much, but I can't find it in store where I live now. Thanks to my very talented friend and an amazing artist Maura ... she posted about this pen on her blog "fragmented" (you have to check what Maura did with her orange pen... it's so fun!) and the online store JetPens.com where she got it. I ordered a whole box and it arrived within 2 days. Talked about fast service!

Doodle: 46 Luchadors

The luchadors doodle is way over due! As I mentioned before, I LOVE luchadors, not the wrestling part, but just the masks... they are so colorful and fun, and I love drawing them. I've always wanted to doodle bunch of masks together and finally I started one before I went to bed last night and finished it this afternoon. This is just a quick one so it hasn't been cleaned.

Also, here is a fun link to see hundreds of luchador masks!

IF: Stitch

I can never pronounce the word "embroidery"correctly...
This is for this week's Illustration Friday "Stitch". I did two versions; one with a red background and one without.

Saturday Bookstore Hops, Art Inspirations and A Page from My Sketchbook

I am still waiting for my Botero Drawings book, but I went to our library at work on Friday and they had a copy of the same book, so I checked it out and I can tell you, it is awesome. I am so glad that I ordered it; it's definitely worth every penny.

So yesterday I drove around town to different bookstores to see if they have any other books about the artist; all I could find was one little book, but it was marked for only $4 so I got it. I also targeted a great Picasso box set and a book featuring Bosch's "The Garden of Earthly Delights" which amazes me everytime I look at it; those will be my next book purchase.
(By the way, you have to check out this link. They actually make action figures out of the painting! Unbelievable!)

After that, I went home and just enjoyed my evening. Nothing beats winding down with an art book, TV and doodling in my sketchbook, especially after my crazy busy week/weeks at work. Here is another page from my sketchbook. Two of the little characters were actually modeled after these Botero paintings shown here (images taken from the book). Can you find which two? :)


(Top: Excursion to the Volcano, 1966, Oil on canvas; Bottom: Picnic in the Mountains, 1966, Oil on canvas)

Book of Fernando Botero's Drawings

I don't know how this subject even came up during our conversation today, but Robert told me that he found it odd that I don't like Botero's works because judging by what I draw and my style, he thinks I would love them because they are so comical. It's not that I don't like his artworks, it's just I've never really taken a good look. But today after we talked, I finally did my research and I have to say that they are really starting to grow on me, especially his drawings. So I ordered this book from Amazon.com. It's not a new book but it will be my first Botero book and I can't wait for it to arrive! I will try to show more of the images when the book gets here. Meanwhile, here is one of the Botero paintings I love (don't know how old/new it is)! The image was taken from this link. It made me laugh just to see the tiny chubby dog in the fat lady's arms. Also, here is a good flickr link to view lots of Botero's sculptures around the world.

(PS: Happy Birthday, Robsie.)

A page from my sketchbook tonight

I have so much work and I have to bring work home and do sketches tonight. But as soon as I opened my book, I started to doodle something totally unrelated to my job. I first did a chef girl holding a cupcake, but quickly everything just went out of control; that's what happens when you try to do work on a couch in front of the TV. Before I realized, my whole night was gone. Oh well... here is a scan of a totally unaltered image of my sketchbook page (I did colored some line works red so they show better because they overlap with each other). I thought it might be fun to show so at least it doesn't go wasted... I have to say I was looking at Mary Blair's books earlier so that angel girl was doodled after one of her character from "The New Golden Song Book" which I think is out of print, but you need to get it if you could find one!

IF: 100%

I love knitting with 100% wool, especially if I am going to felt it later.

Red, red and more red!

I love red! Even though I did not paint any wall in my house red, I love seeing it as an accent color. It's just so full of energy and makes me happy. So when I found this red boot in the local antique mall for only $4 I just had to get it. I plan to put it on my office desk and use it to store my Micron pens. Also, I found a super cute giant bowl and a matching plate with birds and florals motif on sale at Anthropologie (I knew it was bad for me to go into that store... but I couldn't help it). I love the color combo of red, deep blue and white. It's so yummy! I only wish that I had gotten two of each instead of one... Heehee, I am greedy!

IF: Soar

Flower Brooches

I've been on vacation for 11 days since the weekend before Christmas and it feels like eternity. Finally I have to go back to work tomorrow... I didn't really do anything constructive during my break except eating, sleeping (a lot) and watching TV. Why? Because it's too darn cold!!! We have had snow every other day, and even though it's not snowing right at this moment, it's freezing! I think it is like below zero outside right now due to the wind chill. Bbbbbrrrrr!!!! But I did make some crochet flowers (that's as far as I can do when it comes to crochet... crochet is just so confusing to me) and turned them into brooches. I felted some of them and I like the different layers of textures on them. It's so addictive; I can just sit in front of my TV and do that all day. I am sure I will be adding more into the batch! You can click here to see each flower individually.

2008 is here!

YAY!!! It's the first day of 2008! I am looking foward to another year of blogging, sharing inspirations and making new friends! Here is to a healthy and wonderful year for everybody! XOXO