Tree House "Final" pass

Yay! Overall, I am pleased with how they turned out.



When I have time, I want to add more polish but, for now, here they are.

Tree House (WIP) II

Sargent Master Copy

John Singer Sargent master copy "Alice Vanderbilt Shepard"

Tree House (WIP)

My first pass on my tree house.
If you would be so kind, crit please.

Library

I've been spending a lot of time at the library lately. While I love the vast supply of books, I can't really stand "old book smell"- too much of it and I physically get sick (nausea). Anyways, here's a sketch I did there a year ago.

Brown Bag (wrapped)

if

Hayao Miyazaki

(deep in thought, his signature guttural groan)


On Saturday evening at Berkeley, there was a conversation/ interview with animation legend Hayao Miyazaki in the flesh.
Just being in the same room with Miyazaki-san was inspiring enough. The whole time he maintained a great sense of humor.

I sat six rows down from center section, which given the size of the auditorium was a pretty good seat. The girl who sat next to me had flown all the way from Fullerton for this. We were both joking about how horrible it'd be if some tall person obstructed the view. Of course as it turned out, this GIANT sat right in front of her.
Awww (but fortunately with some awkward angling of the head, she saw the stage just fine)




Ohh... a night to remember

Gasp!

What?! It's been over a month since I last updated?! How did that happen?!! Ugh I'm so ashamed... I won't let that happen again.

But (I think) I've been productive.




(Self explanatory I hope)



Backside to an envelope. Quick drawing.



And here's part of the a project I did last semester. They're mini bras made from pink ribbon and the "coat hangers" I made just last week from paper clips. Cute right? Hehe.

[old] Random Doodle

I like to draw odd faces when I'm bored. (Like most artists) I have tons doodles floating around on random bits of paper, napkins, notebooks, and in this case my sketchbook.

Holding hands

"Time is just something that we assign. You know, past, present, it's just all arbitrary. Most Native Americans, they don't think of time as linear; in time, out of time, I never have enough time, circular time, the Stevens wheel. All moments are happening all the time."
-R. Green and M. Burgess, Northern Exposure, Hello, I Love You, 1994



For this collage, I clipped out images of watches and pasted each down as I found them. Each new watch connected hands with the previous until there were enough to reach all the way around.
The challenge was I could not predict the next piece, i.e. the directions of the watch's hands nor could I manipulate them to connect.

Strangers

"Our responsibility is much greater than we might have supposed, because it involves all mankind" - Jean-Paul Sartre

Unfold

Sea Cliff

Today, Henry and I went sketching in San Francisco. Here's what I did at the sea cliff.

Stuck in a Rut

Sketch, Persephone.
Done for Illustration Friday: Adapt





I've been having the worst artist's block. I know I shouldn't knock my own work, but lately I just haven't made anything worth looking at. ugh. I'm trying to get through it...

Just Experimenting

Kind of interesting looking

A Little Less than Happy...

The previous and above posts were done during finals time, if that helps put them in context.

I've found that a self-portrait isn't a depiction of how you look so much as it is how you feel.

Sinking

"Let them think what they liked, but I didn't mean to drown myself. I meant to swim until I sank- but that's not the same thing"
-Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness

Let the Summer Begin

School has been absolutely exhausting, but it's over. And about time too, I was so fatigued. My head was aching and my body had the chills all over. I generally don't get sick, so I was feeling pretty awful which... didn't exactly help me focus on exams. I'm still recovering two days later.


Despite the astronomical load of work I've had to do, I still managed to find some time to sketch (though I wish I could say the same about sleep).

Watch out for...

To a certain degree everyone has these thought tendencies but I believe we, as artists, are more susceptible to distorted thinking. Severe cases will fester unhealthy mentality about one's work and self. While it's one thing to be your own worst critic, it's another to be a self-condescending dictator. Be mindful, recognize these thinking patterns, and aim for something more realistic, but most of all don't forget to be kind to yourself.

I'm digging the new Coldplay music video. haha. so cute.

Elegant Lettering

Isn't this super pretty? Well thanks! I think so too!






But unfortunately it's not my work. Oh poo.

For those of you who don't know or haven't already read in my previous post/s, I was fortunate enough to have been a part of an awesome summer abroad course in Paris. (My first time in Europe by the way!)
While in the Luxembourg gardens, a friendly Parisian approached me and complimented my sketching. After cordially chatting for a bit, he introduced himself. And when I told him my name, the man asked if he may write it out for me. The result is the above image. :-) Turns out he was an artist too, an engraver to be exact and worked at a company in Concorde that does custom printing and writing. He also offered to be my guide to the city since he knew all the best places to draw. But as luck would have it, my flight home was the very next day. So Marc decided to give me his business card, scribble his email on the back of it, said to let him know if I came back to Paris, and of course not to lose this card.
And I didn't!
However... my mother (without asking as usual) cleaned out the "garbage" I brought home. Darn.

Nudity

Figure drawings from the past few sessions. We have this new model who's just fantastic. I love it when the pose can just draw itself :)

Help!

...save the arts in public schools!



(It could be the because of the lighting but that "crayon" is actually assembled with a tapioca straw, green construction paper and black marker)

Our Lady

Re-posting seems like I'm "cheating" or something to that similar effect. Hm. Well it was originally here and as a submission for Illustration Friday, I didn't really want to edit or rearrange that old post. So here, it's special enough to have its own post now.
(Although it's been many months, this Notre Dame drawing still stands to be the best architectural piece I've done since.)



Oh Paris... I miss you :(

Discovering...

NEW figure drawings

Last semester I was studying and practicing a lot of figure drawing and saw improvement each week. It was awesome. Here's where I currently am this semester:

More Old Stuff

I remember being really tired when doing this one ^

The sun was blazing in my eyes and my feet hurt from walking so much... ^
From top to bottom is my parents' kitchen, Alacatraz as viewed from Fisherman's Wharf, and the Dutch Windmill by Ocean Beach.
The Dutch Windmill day was kind of strange. heh, in a good way. I walked there from my house (in my head it seemed a lot closer). I then started to chat with this old man sitting next to me and told me about the newly wed couple taking pictures by the windmill. And not like he was proposing but of out curiosity, asked if I was married... heh well can't say I've ever been asked that before.

Afterwards I was sketching and this woman sat besides me. Again I found myself chatting. She was an artist too and... a tarot card reader too. Naturally I asked, and she said sure (still had to pay though. darn it!) She asked me to think up a question in my head. At first I thought about my future career/ success but ultimately thought something else. Despite that, a lot of the cards ended up being about money. hmm sounds like a good thing. :)

Then Nelson, Chris, and Priscilla showed up to sketch also. How kooky! :P

breezy

Two Sketchbooks Ago...II

Sometimes I don't think I know what I'm doing. My head feels like a pretzel.

Two Sketchbooks Ago...

Two sketch books ago was last summer, during and after the month long stay in France. Looking at the them I saw my enthusiasm and growth. I don't know why I hadn't used some of my pages for my portfolio earlier, but I'm getting on it. Here's a sneak preview: This is an artisan bread maker in action by Pier 39. He was working behind a large panel of glass so tourists could watch him roll out dough bears, dough crabs, dough alligators, etc. There was even a button and speaker people could press to talk the baker. It was pretty cool to watch (and sketch). But with so many people around, a couple of them brought attention to the baker I was drawing him... I (reluctantly) showed him the sketch. And I don't think he liked it. hahaha. Yes I exaggerated the nose but he, as well as a not-so-quiet tourist, didn't find that to be particularly appealing.
Ugh there's just too much pressure in showing portraits to the persons I draw. If I know they're going to see it, I feel like I have to capture likeness and flattery. Then I end up not being able to draw them at all. I don't want people to not like it.
I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels this way.

Valentine's

So Valentine's Day was yesterday (i.e. a little more than two hours ago). My dad told me there was a poor selection of cards this year sooooo he asked yours truly to make one for mumsie dearest instead. Being the day of, I didn't have a lot of time (like I ever do) but today especially since I had to submit my paper to my online class at something o'clock. Fortunately the card didn't take as long as usual and I'm relatively satisfied with how it came out. My mom is too =)
(and pardon the poor quality, I don't have my scanner here)



Hm the inside looks like it needs another heart or two... nugh oh well I'll let it go. hah

So the list of recipients for "The Annies" has been put up:
http://annieawards.org/foryourconsideration.html

(Wow. Major congrats to the Kung Fu Panda crew)

Self Portraits

To be quite honest, I generally dislike doing self portraits. I'll still do them if the only willing available face is just that of my reflection's.
The first one I did here started out representational but towards the end of it I got bored so I decided to reek havoc- cue the pen scribble a.k.a. (semi)blind contour. I kind of liked the product and wanted to play around even more. The following four pieces were born as I alternated between blind and semi-blind contour. I hope it's obvious but I really had a lot of fun doing these.

They're all kind of fine artsy looking don't cha think?

the last of winter break

I can't believe I only have a few days of winter break left... Ah well I can't complain; it's been a pretty productive month. I painted/ sketched everyday, saw the Totoro Forest Project exhibit, went to the figure drawing marathon, did a little bit of reading, and recently started watching more movies. (Had it my way, I would have gone through the entire AFI top 100 films of all time from bottom to top, BUT eventually...)

So of course, I didn't get to do everything I wanted but I guess that's just to be expected (re: rest).

My Soda Exploded (Figure Painting III)

My soda exploded and it wasn't one of those dinky little floods. No. My soda had really *burst* as in the getting on the ceiling kind of burst. It was totally my stupid fault for abusing the can but still- I was definitely not ready for this. My sleeves are wet, I'm out of paper towels, and my roommate's cat is in my room trying to eat one of my ear plugs. That's about twelve ounces of sticky liquid splatter onto the ceiling that dripped down the walls, dampened some papers, and let's not forget, flooded over my painting. Ah well, it's not a tragedy. It's not my best work and I can always paint more and better. I'm just... a bit ticked off at the moment.

The damage is heaviest at the upper right. I originally had more contrast on the head area, a tad more variation on color, and my brush strokes were more apparent. After the "little incident" they've kind of bled and blended together. Ugh, this bites beans.

Figure Painting II

Figure painting in water soluble oils with a limited palette- roughly 4 hours.

Overall, I'm pretty pleased at how this came out.

A Good Day at last

Figure drawing went well (finally). It took me 4 disappointing drawing days to get back into the swing of things since I was so very rusty. So I spent all day today brushing up on anatomy and thankfully it paid off. My drawings seem to be getting larger and larger still, scanner's been a bit funky lately and the drawings probably need 2-3 scans for the whole image. So yeah, um I used my camera...

Cemetery

^CLICK to enlarge please (the thumbnail does no justice)

With the others in CS ho-down crew, I went to Calvary Catholic Cemetery in San Jose to sketch/ paint. I must admit it was kind of weird at first but after a while I eased into the place and eventually it felt more like a park... with tombstones.

I wanted a juxtaposition with the dead with living, hence Miss Kanako and Christine. ^___^





Ugh. My scanner keeps desaturating my pictures! Even with Photoshop I can't get the colors to the original. *sadness*

Miscellaneous Summer Stuff

"Hamlet"- located in Marie Antoinette's Garden in the Palace of Versailles. If you know, the garden is HUGE (ie lots of walking under the sweltering Parisian sun.) Nonetheless Hamlet was well worth it. The dreamy little cottage-like buildings looked like something out of a storybook.
Unlike my other watercolors, I didn't pencil it out first and instead went straight ahead.
This is the Bay Bridge linking San Francisco to Treasure Island (for those who are not familiar, yes that's the actual name). Pen sketched from the Ferry Building located in the Embarcadero district of San Fran.
This was the first page in my then-new sketch book (now 2 sketchbooks ago). I like the experimental color on this.

Stooopid Collage

Strange collage I did last year. I was laughing the whole time, seeing how much more crazy and weird I could make it.
The result is this lovely monstrosity. You're welcome.







I saved this on Microsoft Word originally so opening it on Photoshop significantly reduced the quality. Oh well

Experimented with a weird palette, but I like the result.

The news has been rather upsetting lately, more so than usual.

Bretens Praying (Detail)

This took much more time than it should have.

It's a copy of this artist I just discovered: Pascal-Adolphe-JeanDagnan-Bouveret. I'm surprised I hadn't heard of him before. Really good stuff.

So I translated his oil painting into watercolor, but the paper buckled and apparently didn't like wet media very much, so I had to cheat and use pen for the black. I wanted to paint her whole body but with the way the paper reacted... it wouldn't have gone well. This thing is teeny tiny and will remain indefinitely unfinished.





and my left shift key is broken. nooooo =(

Figure Drawing

I used to only go to two figure drawing sessions a week, but now I'm going to all of the three sessions offered in the week. I think all in all I only missed like 4-5 times out of the whole semester. Here are some the better ones from this Fall '08.

Figure Painting

My first attempt at figure painting in watercolor. Not too horrible for someone who wasn't quite sure of what she was doing. Gestures were 5 min and the long pose was an hour. (By the way, that's a stuffed bird as the prop.)

This was the only session during Gale's class for the figure; I wish we had more.

more from Paris

I was fairly surprised at how this came out- much better than I excepted at the time. Though I hate to say it, I did not have fun drawing it. heh. It was so hot and humid. There wasn't a good place to sit (not to mention a spot with shade and or somewhere clearly urine-free). In the end, I stood under the shade of some sparsely planted trees surrounded by tourists. Unfortunately the longer I drew, the more the sun kept moving, and well... the shade I was under too. Oh well, at least the drawing reads well. :-P



Just looking at the name, I thought Sacred Heart was a hospital. (I think someone has been watching too many episodes of "Scrubs"...) Anyhow, I went back to this spot two times to "finish" it. While I was sketching, a guy sitting next to me complimented my drawing, then offered me a celebratory beer. haha! (I didn't accept of course, but it was a lovely gesture of Parisian kindness :-P )




My favorite drawing I did in France. I took up John Clapp's "Draw something you're scared of" supplementary assignment after the Paris class ended. This was actually try #3, time one and two aren't really worth posting.

Plus, I had little experience in drawing buildings, perspective and all, but I'm very pleased with how it turned out. It took me 4-5 hours but it was worth it.









ohhh nostalgia

PARIS: before and after

Going on the Paris trip was such an amazing experience, and the sights! => the beautiful buildings, and musuems stockpiled with the art from in my textbooks, and so much more.

I loved it so much. oh... le sigh, Paris i will return for you.

I also made HUGE leaps in my art.
Witness the transformation >>>

before:

After:

See a difference, no? :-)

At last...!

my own art blog! I've been meaning to make it for ages :-p