Watercolor sketching

Spent yesterday getting back into the swing of things with watercolors by trying new techniques from Jane Haine's Atmospheric Watercolors book. Although neither of these sketches strictly employed the technique from the book, I had fun anyway! The giraffe is actually painted from a David Webb watercolor book (from a painting and photo reference).

Hidden Villa

Did some plein air sketches at Hidden Villa in Los Altos. Pretty area! Really wish I had brought my paints, as the colors on the vegetables and houses were fantastic! As it is, I just did some pen sketches and then colored the one below in PS afterwards. Blue kale! So yummy!

Figure Drawing

A friend and I attended a lovely figure drawing class in Palo Alto yesterday. I missed figure drawing! It's amazing how rusty you can get after a couple of months -_-;

I think the above sketches were 2 mins each?

10 mins

20 mins

20 mins

20 mins

Reid Hillview Airport, San Jose

Today I joined the SCWCS Plein Air group for some sketching at Reid Hillview airport down in San Jose. Fun day! Who knew airplanes are so fun to draw??

Aquarium sketches

Sketches from the Monterey Bay Aquarium last Friday. Their new Tentacles exhibit is great! Lots of fantastic cuttlefish in there - I could seriously watch them ALL day.

Song of the Quarkbeast: Blix

Recently re-reading Song of the Quarkbeast by Jasper Fforde. What a fabulous series the Last Dragonslayer books are! Couldn't resist trying to design some of the characters....here's The Amazing Blix.

Hakone Gardens

Just did a plein air sketch day at Hakone Gardens down in Saratoga. Fun day and beautiful location! The Cherry trees were in full bloom and there was so much bright foliage to draw....I decided to focus on the buildings instead (because I just can't resist some awesome Japanese architecture).

Love Is In the Air

Feel's nice to sit down and spend some time on an illustration finally! I did this piece in the hopes that I can get into a gallery show.

Dr Who Shada

Aaaaand here it is, my finished Dr Who piece for the upcoming Meltdown Comics gallery show in LA on November 1st! 

Halloweeny

Some potential halloween stickers. Invasion of the zombie foods!

Dr Who Shada

Here's a color rough of my Dr Who Shada piece for the upcoming Dr Who show at Meltdown comics in November (haha, I said upcoming didn't I?). Felt nice to get back into a bit of photoshop painting. I think for the final I may do vector lines and shapes and painted fills. I've also accidentally painted Tom Baker to look like my dad...>.<;

Fashion From Computers

Some color sketches of fashion inspired by computers! This will be a series of illustrations that will hopefully find its way into a booklet alongside illustrations by my very talented friend Anand :)
Inspired from HAL 9000:

And the Univac 1108 computer:

Disgruntled Llama

Llama at the local faire...

Plush, Plush!

More plushes! I spent the weekend glued to my sewing machine making more giant plush Onigiri pillows and some new Super Chub Sushis for my growing collection of cute foods.

Fat enough to fit in your hand, but still small enough to nom! Super Chub Sushis!

Can't have a craft day without tea and biscuits! I almost broke my sewing machine sewing these guys...apparently there was too much fluffy adorbz going on (or I threaded my bobin backwards...cuz you know...that happens).

 Anyways, now there are two pillows...hoping I'll have time to make two more before the end of July!

Onigiris

Plush onigiris will be in force at JPop Summit this July! Now they come in two flavors - smooth and wild! Noms!

Shada

Busy planning lots of art. Here's a sketch of a piece I'm going to do for a Dr Who art show in November. It's based off the book Shada, which was originally a screenplay for a Dr Who episode back in the day (by Douglas Adams no less!). If you're a Whovian and haven't read it yet, I highly recommend it!

Cute Food in June!

It's almost June and I've finally started to think about additions to my inventory leftovers from Cherry Blossom (which by the way, was a great success!). I am now thinking about doing the Jpop festival in July with my good friends in the Squee Brigade. To prepare, I'm thinking of doing a new sticker run of cute japanese food - nigiri, onigiri and pork buns!

Stickers to put on everything! I will additionally be doing another run of Sea Otter Dr Who stickers (since the last batch SOLD OUT *_*). And of course, more stuffies! I'm planning on making lots more onigiri this time (they practically flew off the table at Cherry Blossom!).

In addition to festivals, I have a show piece to make for a Dr Who show in October and several illustrations to make for a Tech Couture booklet I will be a part of. So between copious amounts of overtime at work, I shall fit all this stuff in...erm...somewhere. (Seriously, if anyone ever scoffs at you that being a professional artist is easy because you "get to draw all day", please smack them in the face.)

As Willy Wonka says, "So much time, so little to do - strike that! Reverse it. Thank you."

Cherry Blossom Festival!

Hi all! This weekend I will be selling my stuffies, stickers, prints and some brand new originals at the Cherry Blossom Festival in SF. So if you're in town, stop by and say hi! (We'll be in the New People building on the second floor) :)
Here are some pics of what I'll be selling:

Mini Onigiri!

Pork Buns!

Some cute food original watercolors

And of course, some Sea Otter Dr. Who stickers for good measure!

In addition to all of those I'll have extra prints from APE and some additional zombie pumpkins for sale. Phew! Any left overs will be posted to my etsy shop after this weekend, so stay tuned! :D

Sea Otter Dr Who

I'm a huge Dr Who fan and am also mad about sea otters. So what's not to love when you do a mashup of the two?? :D These will be stickers in the coming weeks, so watch out over at the etsy shop for sea otter - whovian cuteness!

Oakland Zoo Sketches

Sketches from the Oakland Zoo today!

The hi-light I have to say, were the tigers - some of the most beautiful I have seen in captivity! They practically glowed with healthiness and vitality. Altho as you can see...I neglected to draw them (I was too busy cooing at their adorableness...).