I saw the SFG challenge for this week and had to dig these up from my old computer. They are from way back when I inked a drawing, scanned it in, colored it in photoshop- and thought it was the coolest. The game pieces were the these blobs of "germs" and the objective was to get to the smelly armpit. But watch out for Deo the Deodorant! Believe it or not, this was part of my senior thesis when I was in school.
Something a little different this week. I've been working on this self promotion piece on space and aliens but I won't have time to finish it this week. So this is a sketch/color comp... good to change it up and show my actual hand drawn lines.
Happy Chinese new year! Above is a poster I did for Scholastic. This may look familar because I posted the different zodiacs separately a while back. Don't know what animal you are? You can find out here. I am a dragon and they are the best, haha!
Funny how 2006 was the year of the dog...look at what I got from my valentine-chocolate doggies! They are too cute to eat!
Wow! Thank you so much for everyone who came to visit my blog and left all the lovely comments. It was a nice surprise and very exciting to be the pick of the week at IF! It even pushed me harder and continue to do what I love to do, so thank you. Here is another fun piece... just in time for valentine's day.
A swap with Anette- look at the beautiful illos. Plus, she did a drawing of a chicken for me! (Thank you!) We are part of the Illustration for Kids group, and recently started a blog. I couldn't of survived without these talented ladies. I am grateful for meeting them when I did- I had just started to freelance and it was so important to have a support sytem in place. Most of the time, I am alone working on projects, and sometimes you just need a fresh eye on things and get some feedback.
This idea came to me and I wanted to execute it quickly- mostly thinking about simple shapes and a limited palette. Poor Mr. Tomato.
I have been tagged by Anja to list six weird things about me. (Thanks, Anja!) Let's see...
I've always had a love for Japanese packaging- a huge inspiration and influence on my work. The well thought out design, color, and not to mention- incredibly cuteness- makes me want to buy it even if it contains lumps of coal inside. Above is a few boxes tacked up on my new corkboard.
This past summer, my brother bought me a few Japanese kids books when he was in Hong Kong. I have no idea what it says, but it does put a smile on my face.
Just this weekend, I found this in a chinatown candy shop. It was the character from the book! Inside are indivdually wrapped chocolates- each with a different character. The attention to detail is amazing. I am off to gobble up the chocolates (but saving all the wrappers.)
Its probably not surprising that I had a sketch of a chicken superhero for a while now in my sketchbook. Is the egg ammo disturbing? Like cartoon chickens eating sunnyside eggs for breakfast?!
A lovely little surprise came this weekend: some samples of this travel Game kit for Kindermusik I illustrated for. Its so wonderful to see my artwork sprinkled throughout the kit. The design looks great, I am very happy with the way it came out.
One of my favorite self-promotion pieces. It got me alot of "buzz!" (sorry, that was bad....)
Over at Sugar Frosted Goodness, the week's challenge is "fast food." Ohh how I LOVE this topic! This is an oldie but a goodie. I love drawing food, restaurants, kitchens, etc. Perfect!
Hope everyone had a great holiday and all best for 2007! I've been bitten by the crafty bug, having the need to make all sorts of things. So many talented people out there inspiring me. I also took a few classes at Make Workshop, so I wanted to put my new skills to use. Here is my chicken stuffie (thanks to Geninne for the link to the pattern, check out her cute piggie!) How can I resist!?
My holiday cards are off to friends, family and clients today. The inside says, " May all your holiday wishes come true!"
I found these wind-ups at my local drugstore for $2.50 each. They are so awesome!!!
Drawing alot more kids for my portfolio. I wish I had these outfits myself! I wanted to be a fashion designer when I first went to art school. In the end, I picked illustration (thank goodness for that!) Being an illustrator allows me to be everything- fashion designer, interior designer, etc. in my own world. Thats why I love it.
The wacky scientist have been living in my sketch books for quite a while. This was the perfect topic to get him outta there and into color.
I have a confession to make. When I first came to the U.S., I didnt know what Thanksgiving was. What was this strange holiday that included eating turkey and cranberry sauce? At school, the teachers and my classmates asked me, did I have a good thanksgiving? Did I have turkey? I always LIED and said yes. But really, it was just like any other day at my house. And we had....chicken. I remember I didnt want anyone to find out like it was some terrible secret. Of course when you are that young, you don't want to be different. I asked my mom to cook turkey and her answer was, "Chinese people dont really eat turkey."
Oddly enough, I've gotten two bunny-related assignments back to back. Guess I could use a break from drawing chickens. I've also been busy with holiday cards/and promotional stuff. This is the first year I'm actually early and prepared in making a nice holiday card for once....and its still November!
This is a very old piece, about 2-3 years old. It was at a time when I finally was going somewhere with my style and wanted to take illustration more seriously as a career. Its always fun to draw evil strangers having a cigarette in his mouth, although in the world of children's publishing, I won't be able to do that, most likely.
Got to work on a Chinese New Year poster for kindergarteners this week. My parents should be proud I know all the Chinese characters for each animal in the zodiac. Haha!
I've been playing around with textures and transparencies in Illustrator. This is also my submission for the black and orange contest...for those of you who don't know about it, there is still time to submit! Deadline is Oct 31st.
I've been trying to work on drawing more people lately. Animals are alot of fun but some projects call for humans, so I've been exploring how many faces and hair styles I can come up with.
Just finished a fun little story about a Rooster that doesn't want to get up in the morning.
Yikes, I've really took a hiatus with IF and general blogging. I don't really have any excuse except my life is full of libras and had tons of birthday gatherings to attend to. Above: Some doodling, colored in photoshop.
This month I finally had some time to do some personal projects, which was a great release. Here are some characters from a story I'm working on....most likely they will change once I get to know them more in my mind.
*No butterflies were harmed in this illustration.
I thought in theme with this week's IF, I would change up my usual illustration technique. Its hard to part with my vector art (I heart Adobe Illustrator) but its nice to explore other ways to create art. This is hand drawn, scanned in, and colored in photoshop. I also love the idea of a limited color palette.
Click image to enlarge
It was a weekend of inspiration and relaxation. I finally went to the MOMA to see the Dada exhibit, which ended today. I havent been to the MOMA since their renovation(!) so the space itself was a new experience. Its always been my favorite museum in NY.
Thanks to Linzie for her invitation for me to participate in On my desk. On my desk is where creative folks go share stuff on their desks. For me, that means sharing a glimpse of my chicken collection! Some day, I hope to have as nice of a space as some folks featured there, as I think of my apt/studio as a temporary dwelling at the moment.
As a children's illustrator, I've drawn alot of farms. Luckily, I like drawing chickens and chickens live on farms, heh!
Last year, I got a wonderful opportunity to design for Little Brown and Cranium. The Cranium Funfolio Family Edition is coming out in September and I finally found it listed on Amazon here. I did not design this cover but I did design the interior:
It was so much fun, since I got to work with alot of Gary Baseman art (which I am a BIG fan of), and also incorporate my own illustrations in the pages. So if you are lurking at the kids section at Barnes and Nobles, pick it up and check it out :-)
Just got these samples in the mail the other day. First time seeing the new Stickers Fun series. It never gets old seeing your work printed on shiny paper!
No cheating this time, an IF original! The colors are a bit off though when I converted from CMYK to RGB. Of course usually there is a shift in colors but this is a bit drastic. Oh well, I am not the most web savvy. Just wanted to submit this...now back to work.
I dont think I've drawn this much bugs...ever. But I had so much fun with these.
The kitties are finally in color! The final here is slightly different than the sketch. They are sitting in the boat instead of standing and they needed some safety vests! Too bad because I had to get rid of the girl kitty's fabulous little coat I had for her. Oh well...we don't want them to drown now.
