Gift Tag Doodlings *^_^*
The holidays are just around the corner and I wanted to share one quick crafty project I did last year that anyone can do to add a nice touch to your gift giving. :)  Every year, I try to attend the "Zero Land Fill Upcycle Event" in Seattle where collected samples of fabric, carpet, wood, tile, stone, and more to get them out of the waste stream and into hands of the people to create new works of art.  It's a free event for the public to attend.  I collected quite a bit of laminate wood samples which I thought were great for gift tags.  I was able to doodle on them some happy snowmen w/ nothing too fancy, in this case, Crayola Crayons. :) Attach a piece of twine and wrap with your gifts to your loved ones. I used mine to tie up some adorable wooden stationary stamps as gifts to friends. So cute!

Alphabet Illustration Project:
I love children illustrations.  Children's picture books in the bookstore is one my favorite sections to be at for hours and hours. And with an expected baby boy on the way and a couple of good friends' also expecting, I really wanted to start a project that would become a precious gift for our children.  I started with the idea of designing and creating a poster of an alphabet illustration with fun adorable animal characters. But then I wanted to make my animals have a little more fun as well which I don't often see in other alphabet illustrations for children. It was quite challenging though to come up for each letter, an animal as well for the animal to make sense w/ the object they are interacting w/ associated w/ the same letter.  A lot of brainstorming was in the works... even getting ideas from my husband as well.  :) So, without further adieu, here are some images from the project! :)

Above are working sketches for each of the letters in pencil.

From the working sketches, I redraw each animal on my phone by hand using a stylus and the app, SketchKit, adding color and final details. Finally then, importing them into my computer to arrange and design the overall layout of how I want the poster to be.

Above are some of my favorites! :)

And finally! Printed and framed and ready to give as gifts! I am quite pleased with how they turned out! What do you think? :)  I certainly can't wait to go over these w/ my little boy in the future! :)

Hand-Made Thank-You Cards: *^_^*

I really really and I mean really enjoy personalizing anything I give to my friends and family when I have the time. It makes opening something as simple as a Thank-You card so much more fun and exciting for the receiver.  :) 

Recently, I was lucky to have good friends organize a baby brunch shower for me and was showered w/ many thoughtful gifts for my husband and my soon-to-be born baby boy. I wanted to thank each of my friends in a special way rather than just sending a pre-made thank-you note/card.  So I used my fictional character, "Cat", as the main character for each card. Cat would show off each of my friend's gifts in a fun adorable way and a 2nd notecard would be attached w/ my personalized note.  All cards were individually hand-drawn in a combination of fine black ink pen and black sharpie.  

This was a really fun quick project for me.  Hopefully these cards made all my friends smile when they opened them. :)   

Hello Robin Print for Robin: 
Instagram is pretty amazing. It connects you with people you'd never thought you would connect with. For me, it was Robin from Hello Robin Cookies Bakeshop. Of course you can connect with her in person as she is the kind of person who interacts with every customer she sees at her bakeshop. Yes, she IS that amazing! :) And you can tell she really bakes from her heart for the customers. I love how her and her team comes up with themed cookies to surprise the customers every so often! It's a fun place for any neighborhood. :D 

Anyway, I lost my train of thought here :P, Instagram was able to connect us and I was so honored to have been asked by Robin to draw her bakeshop! I was ecstatic, jumping up and down! Really! :D I didn't even know where to start! I really wanted to capture the personality of her shop and include her cookie display case displaying their yumminess! I loved the color and pattern of her cookie counter so decided to use that color as the theme of the whole drawing and as the focus. I wish I had included their cookie prep island/station as well somehow because it's a very unique concept in that it's like your kitchen island at home where your friends can interact with you as the cook/baker. It feels so homey! But here is what I ended up with in the end:

And then all printed, packaged and ready to be delivered to Robin herself. :)

I'm super super happy with the results! It was a fun project indeed! :)

Exhibit Recap: 
"Live On: Mr's Japanese Neo Pop"

I get inspired by many things! Especially colorful graphics! VISUALS! VISUALS! VISUALS! This is a late post but last year, I was able to check out Mr.'s art exhibition at the Asian Art Museum at Volunteer Park. It's his first solo museum exhibition.  And some of his works in this exhibit takes "kawaii" (cute) pop art to a new dimension.  I really enjoyed it. I particularly enjoyed his perspective interior sketches. There's something about sketches, with imperfections, showing thought processes, line upon lines trying to be refined, I just love. The following are some of my favorite inspirational pieces from Mr. himself. :)

Check out the details above. The reflection in the eyes! I appreciate these details. 

These images remind me of "Helmet Girl and Cat's" Adventures.:)

I love these sketches by Mr.!

Helmet Girl and Cat - Coloring w/ Crayons

When I created the characters, Helmet Girl and Cat, I knew right away what medium I wanted to use to create them: crayons, a medium probably every artist had used as their first medium in life. The perfect medium to help bring out the playfulness, youth, and innocence of Helmet Girl and Cat's everyday adventures. *^_^* I'll post more pieces so stay tuned. :) 

House Renderings

While I love doodling and sketching, there are times when I do need to pull out that straight-edge-side-of-brain and pull those skills into my drawings.  This is just one of the renderings I had done as freelance work for a local contracting company. I used basic black ink pen on tracing paper and then adjusted contrast of drawing digitally. Each drawing would take me about 8 hours long to complete. My favorite part of these renderings is rendering the landscaping. :)I always think it's good to utilize and practice different drawing skill-sets.