It's been a month...

...since I've last posted. Sorry, I'm just not into this blogging thing like I used to be. I guess that will be one of my new year's resolutions to work on. (Yes, it's almost that time again...blah)

Anywho, I've actually got a couple of pictures to post. The first set is from APE which happened a couple weekends ago in San Francisco. Boy, did I enjoy it. It definitely had much more of an intimate atmosphere compared to the other cons I've been to. And there was walking and breathing room! lol Unfortunately, I had to limit myself to only $100 spending money. But I was happy with what I got. I also got to chat it up with a couple of my favorite artists: Nidhi Chanani and Pascal Campion. Those two are awesome! Hopefully, if I crack the whip on myself and start churning out some artwork, I'll set up a table next year. (Another thing to add to my resolutions list!)

From top to bottom, left to right: Bill Presing, Sho Murase (and the "Heroine" book), Fiona Meng, Danni Shinya Luo, and Liana Hee,

Nidhi and Pascal prints

I love Bill Presing's artwork!

I was soooooo excited when I saw him drawing this on the inside!

The next pic is actually a piece I did a long time ago. My friend e-mailed me a couple weeks ago asking if I had any Asian inspired artwork that she could borrow for an event she's having. I had to do a little digging through all my old artwork, but I was able to find it. It's done with Caran D'ache. For those of you who don't know what that is, it's like a watercolor crayon. I'm not a super fan of using it, but I actually like the way it turned out with this piece. So I'm dropping off Mr. Buddha this weekend and hopefully he might find a happy new owner who'd like to buy him!

As you can see, I scrubbed out the background because honestly, I didn't like it at all.

 And lastly, I have a cute little Halloween pic. I actually did it a couple weeks ago as a demo piece at work. I didn't know what to paint, so I just came up with it on the fly. I figured I'd post it just in time for Sunday. So with that being said, Happy Halloween to everyone and I hope you all have a safe and fun weekend! Eat tons of candy, too! =D

paint...

Hey all! Here's a quick color rough of a painting I plan on doing on wood...yes, wood! I bought a little wooden plaque awhile ago knowing I was going to paint on it, but wasn't sure of what. Unfortunately, I also gessoed it, not realizing that the wood grain would add great texture. (Hey, I've never painted on wood before, so lesson learned.) Oh, and I also bought some new paintbrushes, too. Gotta break 'em in!

I've just been inspired by some of my favorite artists and their paintings on wood (such as Camilla D'Errico and Martin Hsu) so I want try my hand at painting with acrylic again. As it stands, ever since college, I've hated acrylic with a passion. But hopefully, if I try some new techniques, I could learn to work with it. So this piece will be my experiment. Very ambitious, I know, but here's to hoping...

Oui oui!

 

GDG's topic for this week: French maid pinup

Doodly doo...

Hey all! I know, it's been awhile. So instead of just giving a lame excuse, let's cut to some doodles I've drawn lately. I'll try and get around to coloring them, but who knows. There's so much stuff I wanna do...

 I really don't know what's up with this girl. I guess I just wanted to do something different...

Something a little cuter...

So since I wasn't accepted into GDG, I figured I'll just draw along with their weekly theme anyway, in hopes of building up a nice little portfolio of girlies to submit next time. This week's theme, pirates! I'll try to get her colored in.

That's all for now, folks!

Yeah...

I know...I haven't blogged in awhile...I've been moving...I just got my internet up and working about an hour ago...haven't done any artwork in the past two weeks...that's my update!

So sorry...

Hate to blog and run, but I haven't had dinner yet and I'm a starving monkey! Here's some pics of what I've been up to. Super update blog to come later.

Hey!

Where the heck have I been?! I sorta took a two week vacation. It was only intended to be one week to celebrate my birthday, but lazyiness, depression, drama, a weekend at Disneyland, and tons more "fun" stuff just got in the way. So here's some highlights from the past two weeks.

1) Disneyland - Yes! I went! It was llllooooonnngggg overdue! When I was a kid, my family and I would go every summer. I hadn't been there for at least ten years and an opportunity to go magically appeared so I jumped on it like a ravenous lion on a zebra. Sooo many memories from childhood came rushing back when I was there. The sights, the smells, Captain EO! And I finally rode the Tower of Terror. Umm, those kind of rides aren't my thing so I don't know if I'd ride it again. Speaking of again, I think I just might be going back in September. Yeeeee!

2) Real life stuff: The boyfriend and I are looking to move. We've been at our current residence for almost three years now and it's time for some new scenery. We don't know if we're going to stay in town or move back near home base. So I've been spending a lot of time searching and researching places within our price range. Boy, does it really suck the life out of a person! It's a pain in the neck, but we're both getting restless.

3) The big ta-da!: So here's what I've been keeping secret. You may think it's corny, but for me, it's a big deal. I'm making merch to sell for an Etsy shop and beyond. When will it open, you ask? That's still in the works, but hopefully very soon. My goal is to test my stuff with the shop, and if I do extremely well, I might go on to cons and stuff. This whole project has been weighing heavily on my mind because I'm basically using money that I don't have to fund it. But I know if I don't do anything with the abilities that I have, I'll be one lost soul. So I'm crossing my fingers. Here's to trying!

Here's a pic of the finished charms. I'm still working on notecards, prints, jewelry, and possibly little plushie things.

So in an effort to not be super lazy, I tried to eek out some sketches every now and then. I really like this one. I might try and finish her or at least slap some color on. On a side note, I want to try and veer away from digital illustrations for awhile. I like the nuances of watercolor, but I like the crispness of everything when done digital. AAAArrrGGGhhh! I don't know.

This pic is a couple months old, but here's my last attempt (as of right now) at playing with Sculpey. I just haven't been in the mood. I made this little guy for a co-worker's birthday. He came out pretty decent.

Bloggity blog blog...

Can someone please tell me what's up with the weather? How does the rain always know when to come strolling back in on a Monday to start the week off crappy? I was suppose to go to the beach today, but nnnnooooo... }=( Oh well, such is nature. Anywho, dragons #3 and #4 are donezo. I honestly was stuck on how to do wind (if you haven't noticed by now, they are elemental dragons) so I decided to change up the color on the yellow one's plates (I don't know dragon anatomy, so don't get all huffy if I got that one wrong) to show the wind wisps.  Other than that, not much more to report for now...

Stuff, stuff, and more stuff to do...

Happy wet and rainy Monday, everybody! (Well, if you live in Northern California, at least.) I've got projects on my mind. So many things to do, so little time. Here's dragon #2...

Numbers 3 and 4 are almost done. And here's the third attempt at working with Sculpey III. I made it for my boyfriend for his birthday. He's a DJ, hence the headphones.

And on a last note, I'm learning how to use a sewing machine. Hooray! It's hopefully going to be a part of my secret project. I'll upload some pics of practice runs once I get something going. That's all for now. Gotta go be productive!

*Bleh*

Happy May everyone! Still stressed. I've been doing so much research on my project that it's been stressing me out. Didn't get much done last week due to that. I've finally joined Deviant Art, though. So for those of you who have a DA account, please watch me! Thanks! Here's the link: http://0-smalls-0.deviantart.com/ . I'm really not in the mood to blog, so I'll leave you with this happy little guy. Hopefully he'll make up for my crappy mood.

Here come the clouds...

I'm very stressed out. Honestly, I'm suffering financial hardships right now and I don't know what to do. The deadline for my secret project might have to be pushed up to ASAP or put on the back burner, the latter being the goal-crushing last option. I'm going to try and make it happen now, but I'm very wary of digging into my savings since I'm already drowning as it is. But like entrepreneurs always reiterate *hint*, you gotta make that leap of faith sooner or later. Everybody just cross your fingers for me...=S


Anywho, here's some eye goodies for today. These two little ladies will be a part of my project.

Drawring...

Lady of the day...

Hmm...

Here she is! Miss Masquerade is finally done. 

Yeah, I know. It took me awhile. But I've been getting side-tracked left and right. And I've been doing a lot of thinking and researching. About what, you ask? Can't say just yet. Hopefully by the beginning of next year, it will all come to fruition. So in the meantime, you'll have to wait on pins and needles. Mwah ha ha ha...=D

Is it Monday already?

Why did the days seem so long when you were a kid, but now, as an adult, they just fly by? It just seems like I never have enough time to do anything. Anywho, with that being said, I pumped out a couple of pieces last week. I'm still working on Ms. Masquerade, but only because I had to pull a do-over. I didn't like the way she was turning out. Hopefully she will be done tomorrow...key word: hopefully. =P

Monday, Monday...

So here's what I started working on today. And I've noticed that I've been doing a lot more girls and computer work lately. I guess it's just the "no muss, no fuss" aspect that appeals to me. And as for the girl thing, I dunno. I gotta get back to doing cute stuff. So to balance my artwork out, with every digital piece that I do, I'm going to TRY and do a watercolor piece. Or better yet, a PASTEL piece! I was going through my old schoolwork over the weekend and noticed that I'm not that bad with pastels. After I finish this blog, I'm gonna jump on that sketchbook of mine and start doodling cute and kawaii stuff.

Oh, and here's my second attempt at working with Sculpey. Instead of doing Valentine cards, I made Valentine charms for a couple of my co-workers.

*Peep!*Peep!*

Happy Easter everyone! Just had to say Wonder Con was awesome! I met a few of my inspirations there like Brittney Lee, Pascal Campion, Kei Acedera, Erwin Haya and a couple of new ones (Nidhi Chanani and Karen Krajenbrink). Just want to give them a big thanks for being so nice and chatting it up with me. I saw so much stuff I wanted to buy and I felt sad I couldn't buy it all...hahaha =D. I also stopped by the Girls Drawin Girls booth and got some info on how I can join. So now I'm going to submit some of my artwork and hopefully become a member. *crossing-fingers*

Now I have all these ideas in my head of what I want to draw, too bad I'm not a multi-tasking octopus otherwise I'd do it all at once. But since it's Easter, I had to make an Easter doodle. So here's me messing around in Corel Painter 9 with different brushes and techniques.

One more...

Fin!

Oops...

So I missed a blogging Monday. I was actually working on the picture for this post since I didn't get to do any artwork over the weekend (had to enjoy the sunny goodness while it lasted!) Overall, I'm okay with it. I know there's a ton of things I need to work on, but if I work on this picture even more, I'm just going to ruin it. And I'll go crazy just looking at the thing again. In the end, I'll just keep practicing with every illustration I do.

On a side note, I bought my ticket for Friday attendance at Wonder Con! Woo hoo! Just a couple more days. I'm just worried that I might overspend. We shall see...

Another one...

Here's the other doodle I was working on. The outline is finished but I'm just messing around with the colors for now. I still don't know what to do with her. Any suggestions?

*Additional stuff added on 3/30* Since I don't know how to message other people on Blogger (hey, I'm still new to this. Leave me alone =j ) I just want to say thanks Brad, for the flower idea. I think I just might do that! And is it me, or does my girl kind of look like America Ferrera? I didn't use her at all as inspiration either...weird! 

Progress...

Finally started painting the mermaid. Here's some pics.

doo doo doo...

Let's see, what's new...I didn't get much done last week in terms of any new art because a greeting card I was working on was wracking the heck out of my brain. I can't post pictures of it just yet because I'm not sure the recipients have received it. Pictures will be posted, don't worry. 

I just finished doing some more color comps, and I think I found the one. I've already got the final line work down on paper, I just have to start painting, dammit! I also started messing with this doodle I had in my sketchbook for awhile. I brought it into Illustrator and started doing some line work on it, but as far as finishing it, I have no idea what my plans are.

On a good note, my business cards are done! Albeit they are home-made (what can I say? money's super tight.) And on a side note, never get the pre-cut business card paper. What a waste of money! At least that's another thing to cross of the ol' checklist just in time for Wonder Con.

So since I don't have pictures of that stuff I just mentioned, I'll post pictures of my new creative outlet, Sculpey figures. I decided to try it out since it seemed like it was easy to work with, and let me tell you, it is. I've made about four little figures so far. These pics are of my first attempt at making something, so give me a break.