Have a Merry Day

365 days I draw (day 41 : float)

2012-02-01T09:27:00.001+07:00

365 days I draw (day 40 : lost)

2012-01-31T16:38:00.003+07:00

365 days I draw (day 39 : care)

2012-01-30T09:25:00.001+07:00

How Rapunzel takes care of her long-long hair :)

365 days I draw (day 38 : stuck)

2012-01-27T10:06:00.001+07:00

The lady's high heel got stuck in the pavement and her little maids are trying to get it out! :P

365 days I draw (day 37 :...)

2012-01-26T20:11:00.001+07:00

Tell me...what do you think she is doing?

365 days I draw (day 36 : movie)

2012-01-25T09:51:00.000+07:00

365 days I draw ( day 35 : piece)

2012-01-20T09:52:00.003+07:00

Some pieces are not in place but I hope you can read the message :)

365 days I draw (day 34 : crave)

2012-01-19T08:28:00.003+07:00

365 days I draw (day 33 : rose)

2012-01-17T09:10:00.000+07:00

A rose is a rose is a rose. ---Gertrude Stein :)

But there's a mistake in this image :P

365 days I draw (day 32 : hollow)

2012-01-16T09:49:00.003+07:00

What do you think she is doing?

365 days I draw (day 31 : wind)

2012-01-15T09:05:00.001+07:00

And It's one month already! :D

365 days I draw (day 30 : pattern)

2012-01-14T13:40:00.003+07:00

365 days I draw (day 29 : fresh)

2012-01-13T09:21:00.001+07:00

Merry girl is picking fresh oranges for your breakfast :)

365 days I draw (day 28 : thin)

2012-01-12T09:01:00.002+07:00

365 days I draw (day 27 : tangled)

2012-01-10T10:03:00.002+07:00

She woke up one morning and found that her tangled hair had changed into little birds' new home :P

365 days I draw ( day 25-26 : family and geisha)

2012-01-09T13:02:00.001+07:00

My original idea was something like 'kitty family tea time' but the tea cup somehow turned out to be this soup bowl. So why not change it to supper time? :P

This could be a cute card or letter set. What do you think?

And Here's my day 26 : geisha
I thought I would do something more graphic for this topic, playing with lettering but it didn't work so I went back to my cute little girl. Still enjoy drawing little things :)

365 days I draw ( day 24 : holiday)

2012-01-07T16:59:00.001+07:00

Holiday just passed but you know that we can enjoy it everyday :)

365 days I draw (day 23 : burn)

2012-01-07T09:20:00.000+07:00

She got sunburned from sleeping under the sun too long :)

365 days I draw (day 22 : broken)

2012-01-05T17:36:00.000+07:00

She mends his broken heart with her kindness. :)

365 days I draw (day 21 : later)

2012-01-04T10:08:00.000+07:00

I skipped this challenge for several days during the holiday :( I'm back now :)

hand drawn birthday card

2012-01-03T09:47:00.000+07:00

The very first drawing I draw this year. A hand drawn birthday card :)

I used to sketch a rough draft first then scan and trace it on computer, but lately I found that sketchy lines and imperfection could look more charming :)

Hand drawn drawing with ink is the way to practice making decision too. First you have to imagine what you want to draw in your head, estimate the area of drawing on paper sheet and then draw the first line. This stage always excites me, if you put the first line on wrong spot, the whole drawing could shift. If you put on wrong colors, unlike pencil and computer, you cannot erase or undo it. You can only accept the result or start all over again :P I guess that makes hand drawn drawings more precious than the ones produced on computer.

I used to think drawing on computer is quicker than drawing by hand but now I think the undo function and the color panel can slow you down because you will keep undoing things and changing colors until you are satisfied, which sometimes never happens :P

Technology drives people to want more and never teaches us how to feel enough.

Just some rambling thoughts on a gloomy-weather day. Off to draw something now :)

Happy new year 2012 :D

2011-12-31T20:56:00.001+07:00

Happy New Year! I wish all the best to you! :D

365 days I draw (day 20 : choose)

2011-12-28T10:06:00.002+07:00

365 days I draw (day 19 : believe)

2011-12-27T09:32:00.000+07:00

365 days I draw (day 18 : surf)

2011-12-26T15:41:00.002+07:00

365 days I draw (day 17 : glide)

2011-12-24T13:55:00.000+07:00

365 days I draw (day 16 : winter)

2011-12-23T16:34:00.002+07:00

365 days I draw (day 15 : game)

2011-12-22T14:37:00.000+07:00

365 days I draw (day 14 : watch)

2011-12-22T08:47:00.000+07:00

365 days I draw (day 13 : craze)

2011-12-20T13:00:00.000+07:00

Drew this with bookplate design in mind :)

365 days I draw (day 12 : ghost)

2011-12-20T10:06:00.002+07:00

He opened the album and the ghost of his mom's haunting past came out. << just a sentence I made up :)

365 days I draw (day 11 : robot)

2011-12-19T10:08:00.002+07:00

365 days I draw (day 10 : clover)

2011-12-17T11:23:00.003+07:00

She fell asleep while looking for a four-leaf clover. Can you find one for her?

365 days I draw (day 9 : phone)

2011-12-16T14:50:00.000+07:00

365 days I draw (day 8 : cat)

2011-12-15T15:15:00.004+07:00

The cat in the hat singing ...:)

365 days I draw (day 7 : sea)

2011-12-14T09:18:00.001+07:00

365 days I draw (day 6 : talk)

2011-12-13T09:29:00.001+07:00

With all the social network stuff, we talk more or we talk less?

(My mouse-hat image doesn't look quite right, wondering if it's clear enough...)

365 days I draw (day 5 : snow)

2011-12-12T09:33:00.001+07:00

I'm beginning to enjoy doing this! Imagine looking at all the 365 drawings at the end of next year (hope I can make it *finger-crossed*)

It will be my great pride :D

Hope you enjoy my art :)

365 days I draw (day 4 : real)

2011-12-11T09:14:00.001+07:00

Today's topic is 'real'. The idea behind this drawing is it seems to me that different mirror reflects different image. I mean 'me' in the mirror at home looks a bit different from 'me' in the mirror in somewhere else. I may look fat and dark in the bathroom's mirror at home but look very beautiful in shop's fitting room's one.

I know that it depends on width and shape of the mirrors and lighting in each place is different and maybe some other factors I don't know. It just occurs to me that I know I exist but I don't really know how exactly I look for real...

Not sure if I make it clear enough. Just my thought though :)

365 days I draw : day 2 and 3

2011-12-10T20:33:00.001+07:00

Here are the drawings for my 365 days I draw challenge. The topic of the above one is 'brilliant' and it's brilliant Christmas! :D

Below are the set of day-3 drawing, 'lush'. It's one drawing but I realized that it could be separated into 2 pieces too!

365 days I draw (day 1: night)

2011-12-08T21:05:00.001+07:00

Those who have been here before might have known that I participated in an art challenge called AEDM2010 and did a whole book of The Sketchbook Project 2011. These two things made me focused on drawing for some time. Now I have to say I miss the feeling of waking up in the morning and have a habit of searching for ideas to draw. It has something to do with pride too. When you finish something even the smallest ones each day, you feel proud and useful somehow.

Then I came across a post of Stephanie's about daily doodles challenge and I thought it's time for another challenge to get me back to drawing habit. So, here it is my '365 days I draw' challenge!

I will try to stick to topics as much as I can but may not be able to post it here everyday. I already promised to myself though that I will make it my everyday habit to draw. The goal is to help me focus more on my art and learn to get me out of the box, to constantly think in creative way.

And here is my very first drawing. The topic, which I follow Stephanie's, is 'night'

However, after I finished drawing this, I realized I still did the same thing as I had done before. I need to learn more about creating stories and working on backgrounds. So I did another sketch here :

This may look a bit strange but I drew this based on the initial drawing and tried creating a sentence to make a story which is "She dances with the Star in the night of shining moon"

What do you think of my two sketches? I enjoy doing this and just hope I can make it through the whole project!

MerryDay's Christmas design set

2011-12-04T21:20:00.000+07:00

So, It's December already. The month of celebration, the month of thinking about the past and planning for the future. It seems to me though that December is actually a pause period for working. Everybody is busy thinking about parties, gifts and family reunion. I especially love the cool breeze in the morning and the sky looks clearer and more beautiful than in other seasons :)

And good weather really affects my mood for art :D Above is a gift card designed for MerryDay's Christmas card set. The illustration is actually a blown-up version of my Christmas Girl's hat which I drew last year.

Last year I did this girl as an e-card and postcards for my friends, didn't make it for sale but this year I'm still in love with her, so how about making her a small gift card ? and since I cannot find small envelope, I also make its envelope by hand with kraft paper :)

I love making things in set, making Christmas Girl gift tags seems like a good idea :) I love the red wine and pumpkin orange ribbon, don't you?

As if it's not enough... sometimes designing stationery set is like a game for me, I can keep on thinking about it, make it big, make it grow... Here another tag design, Red M and snowman Christmas gift tags :) Just love the red Christmas color! My friend told me that the letter M looked cute and reminded her of cookies. it's just like a compliment somehow :D

All of these Christmas items are available now on my shop. I enjoy making this design set. Hope you love them too!

Me, myself and Joyful Time design gift set

2011-11-29T21:08:00.000+07:00

December is coming already and I feel like I haven't done anything significant yet. This year has been almost good for me. I mean it started pretty good but then I found that things that I could handle easily in the past became irritating at present. It makes me want to pause my life and sit down and really look into my future. Is this really what I want to do or is it just something to do for a living?

Money is important. It feels good to look at increasing numbers in your bank account but it's not the most important thing in the end when you don't feel good about what you are doing. Things didn't go well and I decided to give myself a rest. Three months of preparing myself for a new journey? Sounds dreamy and somewhat elegant. I am not even sure that I can make it. But the starting step is just what I need right now.

The thing is it has been almost 2 months already but I still don't have anything tangible to be proud of. There's so many things in my head I want to do but I'm still in the starting steps :P At this moment I can only move forward and try harder, I guess it's the only way to make my life not so boring.

So, What I am doing? It's what I have been dreaming for so long but couldn't concentrate enough to make it happen. Illustration is the keyword. Stationery design is another one. There's one more month left for me to prepare my own illustration portfolio. Wondering if I can make it in time or need to extend the period.

Anyway, Images you see here are ones of my attempt. Stationery set for holiday time. Just hope it can make you feel joyful and be ready for the most awaited holiday, Christmas! :D In case you don't know yet, I have a little shop on Etsy and this holiday set is available here on my shop.

There are 3 items in this Joyful Time set here:

Joyful Time gift card

Sticker Joyful Time scalloped shape

Joyful Time gift tags

Another set of Christmas design is coming. Will talk about it soon...

Thanks for coming. Hope this post is not too boring for you.

Draw Don't Drown

2011-11-08T22:24:00.000+07:00

Bad news for you. Well, actually, it's for me who live in Thailand.

Right now we, Thai people, have been suffering the big flood crisis for several months already. Many provinces from north to central part of Thailand have been flooded since August. Some area has recovered, some are still living in water. This big flood is part of natural disaster and part of human mistakes. It's too complicated for me to explain the latter part. I can only say that right now there's a huge amount of water traveling down and through Bangkok, the capital city where my place is.

Sounds scary? Yes, it does. But the situation is not completely unmanageable. We are unfortunate to have lousy, stupid and selfish government but at least we have the strength of local communities, volunteer spirits and a great help from our army. We are going through difficult time and although I'm not sure when and how the flood will visit my place, I have a strong feeling that we can make it and that's why I'm still here writing this post.

During this hard time, volunteer helps and fund are very important to flood victims, we have several fund-raising projects going on around the country, in real world and in cyberspace, both inside and outside of Thailand. I try to participate as much as I can and the image above is one of my contributions for a project called Draw Don't Drown.

Draw Don't Drown is a postcard design projects to aid Thailand against flood crisis. Basically, people from around the world can participate by creating any kind of visualization in postcard size to be produced as fund-raising postcards. There are lots of beautiful images over there on the facebook page to browse through and if you are interested to buy or help. please take a look at the project's info page.

I have to say that raising fund is important but it's not as important as all the spiritual support we have received here :)

There are two more images I did for this project, I will post them here very soon.

Thanks for coming I hope you have a merry day today!

By the way, I haven't thought and written in English for some time, my apologies if my English here makes you confused :(

merry sunday!

2011-11-06T09:24:00.000+07:00

I have been lost in facebook crowd,
Trying to find my way back to blogger now :)

Merry Sunday!

Merry girl reading (and skating :)

2011-07-22T12:45:00.002+07:00

Take a short break from work and draw this. :D
My Merry girl is very talented. She can read while ice-skating!
Do you think what book she is reading?

I dream of raspberry mocha

2011-07-20T17:13:00.002+07:00

Busy working today. How about you?

Ice Cream Girl illustration card

2011-07-19T19:45:00.004+07:00

Just want you to know my Ice Cream Girl illustration is available on my shop as gift card too :) >> Ice Cream Girl illustration card

New on Etsy : Ice Cream Girl to-do list notepads

2011-07-15T19:02:00.004+07:00

My shop, MerryDay, has been quiet for a while. Today I have added a new item Ice Cream Girl to-do list Notepads.

To-do list pad design has been on my mind for some time. I'm glad I have finally made it. Last week the weather here in Bangkok was so hot that I felt I had a fever all the time. So drawing this little Ice Cream Girl seemed to cool me down :)

I'm still lousy at getting things done. Hope this little girl can help me :)

Check things off! and get yourself a scoop of sweet ice cream.:D

By the way, I'm on Google Plus now. Anyone want to add me? :)

have a merry day :)

2011-07-08T09:39:00.002+07:00

Feel like posting something but couldn't find words. How about a doodle? :D

One fine day

2011-07-05T17:16:00.000+07:00

Have a good day today? :)

a colorful sneak peek

2011-06-28T13:54:00.004+07:00

What I'm working on...at a very very slow pace :(
I'm beginning to feel annoyed with myself.

Maybe I need to be more careful. When you try too hard to make things perfect. More likely, they will end up mediocre.

The Mountain

2011-06-22T08:39:00.003+07:00

The Mountain from TSO Photography on Vimeo

What a stunningly beautiful time-lapse movie. I can keep watching it all day.

Again, Nature is the greatest artist.

My Sketchbook Project 2011

2011-06-21T08:40:00.003+07:00

My Sketchbook Project 2011 has been digitized and online. You can see the whole book more easily here :) >> www.arthousecoop.com/library/1859

a simple design

2011-06-18T15:01:00.004+07:00

A gift with simple package design for my boyfriend. Hope he likes it :)

What is your favorite drawing subject?

2011-06-16T09:36:00.004+07:00

What is your favorite drawing subject?

I think my favorite drawing subject might be butterfly as you can see here, here, here and here. What I like the most is beautiful pattern design on their wings. No man can design such beauty like Nature herself, we can only be inspired by her great work :)

I had tried to find this kind of butterfly encyclopedia book for some time. Most of the butterfly books I saw have very realistic photographic images which scare me a bit (I don't like insects). So, this book with soft-colored illustrations is just perfect for me. Take a look inside here:

So beautiful, aren't they? Maybe my next drawing would be something inspired by these lovely butterfly :)

Oh! this book comes with a comparison sheet here, very nice! :D

Hope you enjoy your day. See you with my next drawing hopefully with butterfly.:D

Butterfly Girl Sketch

2011-06-03T08:52:00.003+07:00

Initial sketch for my new drawing collection. This is in a quite slow progress as I do it along with updating my web site. This style may look quite different from what I have done so far for my shop. It's not new to me though. I have drawn similar girls since I first started my art study.

This is the very first drawing I did when I applied for art school. The original one is hand drawn on a large drawing sheet (not sure where it is now), then I drew it again on computer. Since it's done digitally and I had limited knowledge of Illustrator program's function at the time, the drawing looks so dry to me now.

Here is another one. I think I did this for Illustration Friday on the topic of 'Mysterious' some years ago. I did some more of this style after that. Then I dropped it.

Now I find that I still enjoy sketching this kind of drawing and I think it would be great if I can incorporate this with my current sketching style. So, I'm working on it now.

Let's see what I can come up with :-)

Thanks for stopping by. Hope you have a creative day! :D

Hello on a gloomy day

2011-05-29T15:36:00.005+07:00

Hello. How are you today? It was very gloomy when I drew this girl but I think I can say I have a very good weekend now.

I got a really nice email about my shop. I got my newly-bought imac set up in a breeze (I was known to get into some mess whenever I changed electrical stuffs, so this is kind of relief to me). And I found that someone considered my blog one of her favorites! Now I'm in a very good mood :D

Next month is going to be my birthday month and I have something that I really really want to make it happen. It's not something grand, just some ordinary plan involving my drawing like the one above. I have a feeling that it will effect my future in some way...

Thanks for stopping by. I'm sure you are having a good weekend :-)

Welcome to MerryDay's Little Tea Party!

2011-05-20T17:05:00.003+07:00

Would you like a cup of tea? With milk or just sugar? Come sit with me :-)

I don't know about you but, to me, the word 'tea time' does give me some sense of happiness, almost romantically We don't have tea time in Thailand. I guess we just have coffee time which has changed into something quite different since Starbucks came. But that's another story. Today we are going to have cups of tea, shall we?

I did this Tea Time Duo Mini Flat Notecard Set by beginning with this original drawing of the Tea Hatter. Then came the Teacup Girl. After that I dropped these two characters for a while. Now they are back with these little yummy cake girls.

A cup of tea, a piece of roll cake or a slice of strawberry shortcake while chatting with friends, what more do you want for a happy afternoon? :D

I think you can tell how much I enjoyed making this little tea time set. They are all available on my shop. I will be very happy if you just stop by and take a look :D

Thanks for coming. I wish you have a merry day and maybe a little cup of tea?

Honey & Lemon for You

2011-05-18T13:12:00.002+07:00

Doodling while working :) The pink flower does not really relate to honey or lemon. I'm just having a coughing symptom now. So annoying :-(

Life in slow motion

2011-05-11T11:12:00.003+07:00

I spent the last 2 days away from computer screen and internet. Having a sore throat and low fever, I found that my body needed some rest.

Life without the internet was slow but not unpleasant. I could finish 2 books and some sketches posted here.

Sometimes being idle in work might make you productive in some other ways :)

Yellow Swirl on White or Brown

2011-05-07T21:19:00.003+07:00

This little flower design comes from one of my doodles a year or so ago. Before opening my shop on Etsy, I had a hard time finding my own style. It took me some time to finally learn that I love drawing curve lines, something whimsical and swirly like this. I usually let my mind blank first when I put the tip of pencil on paper. Then just let the lines flow. Sometimes it ends up in something nonsense and no good for design. Sometimes the lines turn out very nice and I begin to think of next steps.

There are some times too that the original sketches in pencil which look really cool at first turn out very lame in final production. It depends...

As for this swirly flower, I printed the illustration on white paper first. It looked nice just as I expected. Then I wondered how it would look on brown paper, so I tried. Some says the one on white pops out more than the one on brown.

As the creator, I have to say I like them both. What do you think? Do you like this design on white or brown?

You can find these mini letter sets on my Etsy shop here:

Yellow Swirl Flower White mini letter set

Yellow Swirl Flower Brown mini letter set

sketchbook continued

2011-05-02T15:54:00.003+07:00

No, I haven't dropped my friendship sketchbook theme yet. I guess my brain didn't work properly while drawing this though. I meant 'facebook', don't know why I drew 'me' instead :P But I think you get the idea :)

The Portrait of Fish-Eating-Head Girl

2011-04-29T13:26:00.001+07:00

Fun! :D

Introducing the brown series mini letter sets

2011-04-27T19:53:00.009+07:00

So, I have been in 'no-mood-for-blogging' period again. I haven't been too far from my computer though. I think I could say that my time has been well spent creating some new items for my shop.

Above is one of my mini letter sets I just listed. I also would like to call it 'the brown series':-) The illustration may look familiar. It's one of my Sketchbook Project pages I did last year. I had always wanted to make something out of it. First I thought of a big print, then postcard design. They didn't seem special enough for me. I wanted to print the illustration (I retraced and colored the lines in Adobe Illustrator program) on brown paper. But the paper stock that I have is too thin for card design. So, I thought of notepad and letter set. By that time, my sister bought me a round paper shaper and I found cute set of mini envelopes. They are just perfect for making mini letter sets :-).

The feedbacks I got for the first brown mini letter set: fleur was pretty nice. So I enjoyed making more. Here are what I have so far for the brown series. You can find them all on my shop

FruityCute Girl and inspired doodles

2011-04-07T16:00:00.003+07:00

I have two things to show you today. First is my most favorite character, FruityCute Girl :-D. The design is one of the first drawings I did when I started my Etsy shop. The very first version of this girl looks very different. Her face was fat and she didn't smile prettily as the latest version does. It's the same drawing but just a bit of line adjustment can make the two girls look so different. :-)

You can find my FruityCute Girl notepads on my shop now.

Second is my inspired doodles! Here are my doodles for the topic of 'library' and 'sunshine'. Click on the image to see the larger version:

I like the idea of mobile library although I have never seen one :-)

I have always wanted to publish my own book, written, illustrated and designed by me. I guess I have to start writing a complete manuscript first!

Lollipop looks like sunshine and it makes you smile, doesn't it?

The Sunshine girl on the right page is a character I would like to be. She is always positive, energetic and she can be happy even in cloudy days :-D

Hope you enjoy my post. Have a merry, sunshine day!

Inspired Doodles : cat

2011-04-06T08:52:00.003+07:00

I drew these last night. Not really thought of anything at first. Then some stories just came to me :-) I especially enjoy the top one, the nightmare of the faceless cat and sweet scene of a Victorian cat's tea time :D

Next topics are 'library' and 'sunshine'. Wondering what I will come up with ;-)

Off to take some photos of my new shop items now.

Inspired Doodles workshop

2011-04-02T21:31:00.004+07:00

This month I'm taking an online workshop with Stephanie, an inspiring illustrator I admire. The workshop is called Inspired Doodles. I was a little worried at first wondering if I could manage my time properly. But now that I cleared up all my work and it seems that it's going to be a slow period again, I guess I will have more things to post here :-)

Above are my doodles for the workshop. I haven't drawn as much as I should have as I spent this couple of days making new design for my shop. Below are my two last items for my 10 Million Love design collection. I still love my little yellow duck girl but I guess it's about time to move on to new designs :-)

Here are links to these latest items, in case you are interested :-)

Little Yellow Duck label stickers

Baby Yellow Duck Girl label stickers

Yellow Duck Round tag ( and I'm back :-)

2011-03-22T20:36:00.003+07:00

It's a relief that I finally completed all my work project in time without so much problems. Well, there were some fuss about editing artwork before sending out for printing but it's just common problems for book design work, I guess.

Hmm...I don't know what I should write on this blog right now. My life in the past weeks seemed all about work. It's a bit surprising that I could finish reading 2 books during the time though. I got really stressed with the works and, besides sleeping, reading was the only way I could escape. I wish I could draw but I felt like I used up all my creative energy with my day work so at night I enjoyed other people's creativity instead :-)

There was a horrible moment during the weeks though. I think people from all over the world are praying for Japan right now. It's really a horrific news especially when I watched the tsunami washing away the city, not knowing where my sister, who was on a trip in Japan, was at the time. It turned out that, luckily, she was in the tsunami warning area but not the major one where the catastrophe struck hard. She's back home now, safe and sound but we still feel so sad about what happened over there. Just hope that Japan will recover from this hard time very soon.

Oops, I almost forgot to tell you that I have just added my new items on MerryDay shop The Yellow Duck round tag is my favorite. You can take a look at the details here:

Yellow Duck Round gift tags

Thanks for coming. Have a merry day :-)

Merry Phoenix

2011-03-07T16:18:00.002+07:00

Something drawn during work breaks. Some kind of Phoenix with a promising, merry next life?, I guess. Love the fluorescent yellow :-)

Baby Duck Bath bookplate and stickers

2011-02-28T20:21:00.003+07:00

Two more items I have just added on my shop. Baby Yellow Duck personalized bookplate and Yellow Duck Stamp Stickers.

I love making bookplates. I feel happy when someone buy it and has it personalized with someone else's name. It reminds me of my best friend who bought me Barnes & Noble's gift voucher. With such book-related gifts, what else could make book lovers happier?

The stamp sticker is another thing that I enjoy doing. It requires more labor in the cutting part. Have I told you yet that all my items are homemade? I print everything from my Epson printer and cut and make envelopes by myself. This way I can control color quality and I can experiment with different kinds of paper easily.

Anyway, I used to collect stickers years ago and before that when I was a kid, my sister, my brother and I had a bedroom door full of stickers. You know...the way kids put stickers on their stuffs but we had the whole door panel! It's very pretty, I have to say, with all colorful stickers attached neatly on the panel by my sister.

I moved out from that house some twenty years ago. My cousin's family stays in that house now and the door is still there. Sometimes, I just think that we should have brought that door with us too. It's an art piece and our childhood memory :-D

There will be more stamp stickers coming in this 10 Million Love collection If all goes well, I plan to have more stamp design because I really love the format and the words, 10 Million Love, don't you?

Thanks for coming and commenting. I may be a bit quiet but I'm still here :-)

As always, have a merry day!

Introducing 10 Million Love design collection

2011-02-25T22:02:00.005+07:00

Today I have just put some new items on my shop. Not sure if you remember my baby bath illustration I posted last year. This yellow duck comes from that illustration. I fixed some part of the girl's face, make her cuter and put brown background. I think you know how much I love brown paper by now :-).

Then I thought this illustration could be played with. I could make it into a bigger collection. I started this design last year and it took me very looong time to complete with all other things getting in the way. Now I have finished the whole collection.

I proudly present you my very first design collection called '10 Million Love'!.

The wording came to me when I was designing a card for my friend. She wanted a matching stamp sticker to go with the card. So, I put the number 10 on the design as a start and then the words 'million love' just popped in my head. I thought it sounded sweet and simple and I could play with the types very easily too.

I'm so crazy with this design that I actually made 10 items for this collection! I spent my whole last Sunday taking photos of all the items like crazy. I got really exhausted after that!

Right now I have just listed 2 items on my shop. Can't wait to list more but I need to find time in between my book jobs though.

You can see more pictures of this collection but right now I only have 2 items on my shop here:

10 Million Love Gift Card

10 Million Love Sticker Tags

What do you think of this collection? Do you have any stationery items you would like to see in this collection?

I'm very excited with this new design, I hope you do too.
Thanks for coming. I wish you a merry day!

Sketchbook : friendship is a sheltering tree

2011-02-22T17:05:00.001+07:00

I'm super busy again. But I will try drawing at night :-)

I want to stop the time...

2011-02-21T08:07:00.002+07:00

That's what I thought this morning, to pause the clock and do whatever I want to do with no care of job deadline or future success.

Right now I just want to...

Read a good book.
Enjoy good blogs.
Watch some nice tv programs.
Oh...need to have my hair cut too :-)

I may or may not be back to work this afternoon.
Just let me have slow life period this very moment.

Be it a slow Monday :-)

Some more sketches

2011-02-19T12:01:00.004+07:00

Have you ever been like me? Have tons of ideas going on in your brain but zero energy to work more on computer to create things. That happens to me right now and I'm feeling a bit frustrated :-( But I guess I have to take care of my health first. Going to take a rest. Charge my work battery for next week. Enjoy my weekend! :-D

By the way, I did my friend-theme sketch at night. I intended to have only black and red but, with poor light, I mistook blue as black! Well...I guess it still looks OK :-P

I'm going off line to sit back, relax and read something now. What are you going to do this weekend?

Oh...almost forgot. My Merry Rabbit bookplate got to Etsy front page yesterday! It's the first time for my shop, so excited! ;-D

Congratulations to One World One Heart Giveaway's Winner!

2011-02-17T20:35:00.004+07:00

Congratulations to Barbara Olivo Cagle! You are the winner of my One World One Heart Giveaway. Hope you like my handmade label and stickers!

Thanks everyone for playing. I may be slow in visiting back but I will do my best to see all of your blogs. Thanks to those who have just followed my blog too!

Hope you have a merry day!

brown sketch

2011-02-16T17:24:00.006+07:00

Hello. How are you today? It's only one day that I didn't blog but it seems I'm quite away from my blog. Don't know why I feel that way.

I am quite busy. Book layout job can take all your time. I almost finish one book and going to start the next. I enjoy doing it but just wish I could speed up my work for my shop too. I think ever since I participated in Art Every Day Month and The Sketchbook Project last year, ideas come to me more smoothly and easily. That's a good thing. I just have to make all ideas into real things.

By the way, I just got mail saying that my sketchbook got there already, those who are in the US please be prepared for the tour and don't forget to see mine!

Also, you can still play with me in One World One Heart giveaway until this Friday. Good luck!

Book Beauty Monday : The Lion with the Bird's Nest

2011-02-14T20:14:00.005+07:00

Book Beauty Monday is back :-) For those who may happen to be here for the first time or have just followed my blog (thanks! :-D), Book Beauty Monday is weekly post about children's books I collect. It disappeared from this blog for some weeks as I had so many things to take care. Children's book illustration work is like my main source of inspiration. I open it when I get bored, when I feel sad and when I can't find ideas for work. So, I feel obliged to talk about this art to honor those wonderful artists :-)

Today's book is an old Japanese picture book called 'The Lion with the Bird's Nest'. These images are taken from Thai edition. The book was first published in 1960, written by Eriko Kishida and illustrated by Chiyoko Nakatani.

It's a lovely story about Jojo, the lion whose strong aura scared all animals in the jungle. He's getting old and quite lonely. One day he let a gray bird lay eggs on his crown. He spent his time with his new friend while taking care of the eggs on his head until little chicks hatched out. They became friends with Jojo and now other animals were not scared of him anymore :-)

What I love about this book apart from the cute story is how the illustrator rendered her work. Her illustration has a wonderful combination of nice texture and beautiful color selection. I especially like the transition from dark opaque green and blue to sweet, airy light green and pink at the end. It reflects the changed opinions that other animals had towards the lion at the end, I think.

Please note that I only post sample images of the book to show its illustration style, not the whole book.

Hope you enjoy this post. Have a merry day!

PS. Have you entered my One World One Heart Giveaway yet? Come and play here! : http://haveamerryday.blogspot.com/2011/02/one-world-one-heart-giveaway.html

One World One Heart giveaway!

2011-02-09T21:51:00.004+07:00

Last week my lovely friend, Conell sent me a link of this wonderful event called One World One Heart. I am really excited about this. It sounds interesting and fun. If you haven't heard about it yet. Go to the link and see the details :-)

So, I'm participating in One World One Heart now. For those who already follow my blog, this will be an official introduction of me and a fresh hello to those who come here for the first time :-)

Here we go, My name is Pavinee (aka MerryDay or pilarcat in the cyber world). I'm a Thai graphic designer living and working in Bangkok, Thailand. English is not my mother language so if you find mistakes in my posts, feel free to tell me. It's one of my purpose to have a blog anyway, to practice English :-)

I'm a freelancer working at home. I work mostly on book design, layout and book cover. It's not until a couple of years ago that I realized I wanted to work in illustration field too. So, I started a blog called 'In Search of My Style' doing just like the title said : searching for my own illustration style. It's kind of struggling year for that blog. But after posting on and off, I gradually learned what I wanted to draw. That blog name doesn't exist now because I think I have found my style already :-)

It's not the end of the journey though. I still have to learn more to improve my design and illustration skill. Having this blog helps me a lot, your kind comments just keep me going :-)

I think that would be all. It's already a long post. Don't want to make you bored.

And here comes the exciting part, the door prize (or a giveaway). What I have prepared for the lucky winner is these :

A set of this cute label design I'm working on. The lucky winner will receive:
• 12 merry round stickers as seen above (6 blue and 6 orange)
• 24 merry girl label stickers as seen above (12 blue and 12 orange)
All designed, printed and hand cut by me :-)

The drawing comes from my daily doodles. I never tried printing on colored sticker paper before. It's kind of a new experiment. At first I thought about my illustration prints but something practical might be more interesting :-) You can use these as address labels, in gift wrapping. Put it on cookie jar, small organizing boxes. Anything, just enjoy!

Want to play? The only rule is you have to be an active blogger whose blog I can visit and share comments. That's the purpose of this event: to meet new friends through blogging. Just leave me a comment here. Tell me anything you want. Make sure to leave me your contact email or blog link so that I can find you if you get lucky. The winner's name will be announced on February 17.

Thanks for coming. Looking forwards to know you more.

Have a merry day and good luck! :-D

***UPDATE***
Comment on this post is closed. The winner will be announced in a few minutes!

my sketchbook (plus some secrets :-)

2011-02-09T21:00:00.005+07:00

No, I haven't forgotten my sketchbook yet. Although it is pretty slow, I'm always thinking about it :-) This week is a good (and busy) week. I have got five shop orders, one book layout and three book covers to manage. Plus two exciting things I have to take care.

One of them I cannot tell you yet because I'm not so sure about it at this moment. I think it could take months to be certain enough to tell the world (and it's possible that this thing will never happen too!) The other thing I think I can tell you as soon as tomorrow :-)

Too many secrets? Here's a hint for the latter: go and read this link. Browse around, enjoy and don't forget to come back here tomorrow!

Thanks for coming. Have a merry day :-D

February free desktop calendar :-)

2011-02-07T20:36:00.001+07:00

Hope it's not too late for this February desktop calendar :-) I thought I would use other colors because this true red might look too strong for a desktop wallpaper. But other colors didn't look as charming as this red so I stick with it.

Come to think of it, it might be the right choice for this month, the month of Valentine, of course, and also of Chinese New Year Day, in which, red is the lucky color. So, now you have love, luck and wealth with this true red desktop calendar :-)

It's free for you to download. Just click on the links below:

1024x768

1680x1050

Talk about luck, I think I'm getting a habit of saying 'Wish me luck today' when I get up each morning. It doesn't always work, of course (just a wish anyway), but when it does, like today, I feel like saying it everyday.

What's my luck today? I sold 5 items from my shop, so excited! I have nice ideas for my book cover job and I could do 45-minute exercise (35 minute used to be my max.)

In all, it's a merry day :-)

How about you? What makes you feel merry today?

PS Thanks for all you comments about my time management post. I'm starting using the timer now, will tell you how it works.:-)

Sweet green beginning?

2011-02-03T21:04:00.003+07:00

This week is a week of Chinese New Year Day. So...Happy Chinese New Year Day! I wish you all good luck, good health and wealth! :-D

These apples are among fruits we have for celebration. The color looks so fresh and 'green'. I guess I could say that it's the color of the new beginning, the color of Spring which I can tell some of you can't wait to meet after such heavy winter :-)

Thanks so much for your comments for my previous post. I'm still struggling with finding my balance. I thought it was my laziness that everything didn't seem to move. But after thinking about it more seriously, I found that I already tried hard to create things. My true problem is time management. I think if I can find my own strategy in managing time, my creative work, for both my work and my shop, should be much much better.

For this problem, I was suggested to use a timer. Set myself some specific time to create for my shop or to promote via twitter or FB each day. It could be 20-30 minutes or an hour that I have to really focus on my creativity and do nothing else. The trick is I have to stop immediately when the timer goes off. That way, I will be more eager to begin again in the following day.

This is not a new idea. I used the timer for a time when I had problems with my eyes. I set the time to remind me to get away from computer every hour to save my eyes. But I forgot to use it constantly :-( Need to make it a habit now!

And I think I need to schedule blog posts in advance too. So that I wouldn't feel guilty when I don't have new post!

How about you? How do you manage your time? I know some of you have full-time job and kids, I am always amazed to see those who can manage successfully with kids running around!

Thanks for coming, I promise to be more disciplined. Poke me if I'm not!:-D

Sweet me ?

2011-01-29T09:01:00.004+07:00

I have been quite busy with my work this week and will be so next week too with the Chinese New Year Day added to it :-). I think what is challenging to me right now is how to balance all the things I want to do (work, Etsy, sketchbook) properly and productively. I try to create at day when there's enough natural light for me to work on computer without stressing my eyes. Communicate at night when I can just sit back and enjoy all the beautiful blogs and sites. I still think I haven't visited and commented all of your blogs often enough though. Will try harder. I love the feeling of commenting and getting feedback. ^-^

I have just added this new illustration card in my shop. It comes from a doodle I drew last November The doodle was done in red and blue lines, which I really like but I also wanted to see the flower in color too :-) I always like pastel pink. The color gives me a feeling of fresh air and sweet moments or rose tea. Something innocently romantic :-)

I think 'Thinking of You' is an appropriate caption for this design, but I like this 'Sweet me' better. It sounds like cute and friendly 'tweet me' :-) What do you think?

You can find my card here : Sweet Me Flower Girl card

It's Saturday already. The weather is a bit cool this morning and I feel like doing nothing all day!

Hmm...this post seems written incoherently, sorry about that. Somehow my head is so foggy that I cannot even take in a good news that comes in my mail this morning :-)

Better get up and do some exercise to clear my head now.

Thanks for coming. I wish you a merry day :-)

Come fly with me

2011-01-24T15:50:00.003+07:00

Hmm...I have just realized that I completely forgot to post about my latest illustration card! How could I let it slip from my mind??

Anyway, I listed this Come Fly with Me Hot Balloon design card in my shop just last week. I got the concept from my best friend. She wanted a cute illustration New Year card for her fan club (she's a novelist). Book and traveling were keywords. I thought of airplane and travel luggage first but they seemed so dry. Then I thought of a blogger talking about her hot balloon experience over canyon. I was impressed. It must have been mesmerizing moment to be up there in the sky, feel cool breeze and admire the beauty of the earth.

So, here is my illustration originated from the idea. My friend got her personalized version, of course. She is kind enough to let me put the design on my shop too. I really enjoy drawing this and the result is satisfying.

If you like this, please share. It would be nice to see my girl riding balloon and be out in the bigger world of internet!

Sunday sketch

2011-01-23T13:37:00.004+07:00

I have tried to make Sunday my non-digital day, no digital drawing, no internet just hand drawn art or reading, for some time. But sometimes, like today, I just can't help it. I turn on computer, check mails and do some work. I know that I will feel tired tomorrow, probably feeling like I have no rest from previous week. So, I think I'd better be offline and read something now :-)

Have a merry weekend everyone!

sketchbook : new theme

2011-01-21T13:06:00.004+07:00

So now I'm beginning a new sketchbook. This time I prepared the book first. I use the same kind of book which is Moleskine cahier. The downside of this cahier is that its paper is very thin so I have to back up every other pages to make it thicker. My Sketchbook Project has all kind of different colored paper sheets. But for this book, I choose to limit only yellow, brown, gray and black :-)

As for the theme, I first thought of 'nature', something that I always enjoyed drawing but it might be too familiar already so I thought about 'birds', which I rarely drew and wanted to practice drawing. Then one of my MerryDay FB page's friends, Susi Art suggested this theme of 'friendship'. I think the idea is very interesting and challenging. So, here my first page of the new sketchbook.

Now, do you want to join me in building this book? I'm looking for nice, cute or funny quotes about friendship to draw. Just tell me your favorite quotes or your own words and I will draw for you!

My most favorite quote right now is:

"A good friend will always stab you in the front." — Oscar Wilde.

This is not nice nor cute but quite funny and definitely true!

Drawing Lab Challenge compilation

2011-01-18T15:25:00.003+07:00

I spent last week taking new pictures of all my Etsy items on my shop. I think the shop looks more refreshing now. I'm also creating a new cute design set. Will talk about it soon. But for today, let's talk about some sketching!

I have totally neglected my participation in Drawing Lab Challenge for so long. It's about time to catch up with it now.

These are 3 labs I just did last weekend. Not really complete pieces, just hand drawn practice and I enjoyed them very much :-)

Lab 41 : Nature Walkabout

The idea of this lab is to grab paper and pen and walk outside, observe and draw whatever you see. Fill the page. Come back and connect all the things you draw together to make one piece of work. This is my final:

And this is what I had drawn before:

Lab 12 : For Your Eyes Only

Basically just to draw eyes. There are more details in this practice but I was too tired to follow everything. So, I just enjoyed drawing. First realistically:

Then stylized:

I wish I would draw more weird shapes, play something with these but it seems that I kept repeating some similar lines. My imagination didn't work very well that night :-P

The last one, Lab 24 : Scribbly Drawings

Just scribble. Work lines from within not from outline as we generally do. I drew my little bear doll. It's a strange feeling not to draw outline first but It's getting more fun as I drew and drew. I guess I could keep on drawing through the whole book!

I love my little bear running on the lower right corner, do you?

Last Day of FREE SHIPING!

2011-01-15T20:43:00.005+07:00

Today (January 15) is the last day of MerryDay's FREE SHIPPING! There is more cuteness to come but, to save some money, why don't you grab this chance first!

Have a merry day! ^-^

Sketchbook Project 2011 : mission complete!!

2011-01-11T15:13:00.007+07:00

And now it's all done! My Sketchbook Project 2011 is all done! Forgive my repetition but I'm doing happy dancing and feeling so relieved now :-D I spent my whole yesterday drawing and coloring like mad, all 22 pages! I got really dizzy at the end of the day :-P

There are some pages that I don't quite like so I don't put them here but I have already uploaded the whole book on my flickr set for you to browse. The pages are not in chronological order as I jumped around through the book.

Now I think I will choose some of these pages and make them into digital prints or cards for my shop. What do you think? I have already done my most favorite : Savor the Moment and will show it here soon.

If you have time, please go and look at the whole book and tell me which one you like best. I'm really curious!

Thank you so much for all your comments. You really keep me going and please come back as I will continue another sketchbook project, this time of my own! :-D

say hi...

2011-01-10T09:13:00.003+07:00

Say Hi Balloon Notecard

Have a Merry Day Lettering Notecard

Glad you enjoy my post of Stylish Blogger Awards :-) Those who are on my love list, please tell me when you post about it.

How was everyone's weekend? I spent my two days trying to finish my Sketchbook Project (will update the whole batch tomorrow) and making 2 new notecards for my shop. My mind has been occupied with the shop lately. It seems that there are so many things I have to learn and figure out how to improve and make sales. I try not to get overstressed and balance it with my other things. But yesterday I got a feeling like one of my drawing here that I have million ideas going on in my head and I don't seem to catch up with them all!

Anyway, what do you think about my notecards? I try to create more of my lettering design. Have fun doing it!

I'm off to finish my Sketchbook now :-)

By the way, I think I will change my Book beauty Monday to some other day because I always want to talk about something else on Monday :-P

Sketchbook Project progress : almost there! part2 :-)

2011-01-07T16:03:00.006+07:00

Another pages for my Sketchbook Project 2011. If you just happen to come here, I have uploaded all my previous pages of this book on my flickr here There are more to come and I really really need to finish it by Sunday *finger crossed*

In the mean time, I have just been given a Stylish Blogger Award from 2 lovely fellow bloggers, yeevon and Saralynnart! Thanks so much you guys. I feel so honored :-D

Basically, the award works like this:

• Thank and link back to the person that awarded me.
• Share 7 things about myself.
• Pay it forward to 15 recently discovered bloggers.
• Contact those bloggers about the award!

Here are my 7 things:

• I am a super sleepy person. I don't fall asleep too easily, not like that, but I can yawn all day and always have a look of Garfield, you know, with half-lidded eyes like this (-_-) Coffee just makes me sleepier too, really!

• I grew up reading Japanese manga and spent my time after school drawing paper dolls, mostly with same repeated outfits :-P

• I never kept a complete sketchbook. I could fill only half of school sketchbook and never colored in it. That's why I'm pretty proud with my Sketchbook Project here:-)

• I'm a book-buying addict. My speed of reading is far behind the speed of buying :-P Anyone knows any group therapy?

• One of my client once said that my work looked much merrier than my appearance (read the first one) -_-

• My favorite time of day is at night when I sit quietly reading or sketching or doing nothing :-)

• I love using my favorite mechanical pencil drawing on Caslon Sketchbook. Never use ordinary pencil.

• My favorite drink right now is banana milk :-)

That's it! Just silly things but now you know me better ^-^ and now I pass on the awards to:

the yellow umbrella
Kristin Dudish
Facets and Fractals
Evelyn
Illustrations and Fimo Characters
The Quotidian Journal
pop-i-cok
melissa liban illustrations
Property of Kelly
My Giant Strawberry
vink design
life without novacaine
red yarn
waterstone
sweet tidings

Before you go, have you seen my new item for Valentine's Day yet? >>

I Give My Love to You Valentine's Day Gift Card by MerryDay on Etsy

Sketchbook Project progress : almost there!

2011-01-06T16:41:00.005+07:00

I try to draw every night. There's still more I have to show here and 12 spreads to fill in. My mind already jumps to the next sketchbook. This time it will be my own project so that I don't have to part with it at the end as I have to for the Sketchbook Project 2011 :-(. I feel sad already but to think that more people will see my drawings, it's kind of exciting!

I should finish this book by the end of this week. I must, actually :-P

I Like : Saralynnart's beautiful drawing

2011-01-05T17:18:00.008+07:00

Last month I was so lucky that I won 2 giveaways from 2 inspiring artist bloggers. One is on the way and the other is this lovely postcard pack from Sara Lynn Art a talented illustrator whose hand drawn illustration just captures me :-)

The giveaway includes 3 lovely cards above, among which I like this one the best >>

Look at the stroke details. Amazing, isn't it? I also like the faint red that blends very well with pale gray strokes. This really gives out a sense of a cozy, peaceful night. Outside is cold with falling snow, but with a cup of hot coffee (or chocolate?), she's just happy enough, I think ^-^

Best of all is this charming mini print. She uses this drawing as her avatar and I think I remember her from the beginning because of this unique image.

There are other drawings that I like, such as this one and this one. OK, I think you'd better go to her blog and see for yourself. ^-^

And don't forget to stop by her Etsy shop too!

My Etsy week with new items!

2011-01-04T14:26:00.003+07:00

Hello everyone, how was your New Year Holiday? I had a great time reading, sketching and preparing new items for my shop:-)

I had decided to make my first week of this year my Etsy week. That is to add new items and renovate shop appearance. I spent the whole yesterday taking photos of the new items and just finished listing them this afternoon. There are 17 items on my shop now but I still have more to create and add so that people will have some variety to browse and enjoy.

Let me introduce you to one of my newest listings here: This Growing My Love For You gift card set was transformed from one of my doodles I did when I just started the shop. As some of you may know, I love drawing things on little girls' heads. No reason, just have fun with it. I also found from my drawing practice in The Sketchbook Project 2011 how much I enjoy doing curvy lettering. So, I added the 'love you' to the leaves. Do you like it?

It's funny how just a bit of little girl's head tilting can give cuter and more lively expression. Sometimes I just have to force myself to stop playing around with my drawing or else it will never be finished!

As I once said that my little girls seemed cuter in small size, I made this card half of what I used to do. The size is 7.5x10.5cm. Pretty nice for a gift card. I even made her smaller on mini tag that comes with the set.

I'm still not sure if selling this as a set will work. Maybe people might see the little tags unnecessary? Or should I separate them into 2 listings? What do you think?

I have so much to learn for this shop. It's a hard work but I like the feeling of seeing my drawings turn out good in real prints and even happier when someone appreciate and order them ^-^

I have some other items to talk about but you can go ahead and visit my shop now if you would like.

Oh! Have I said that the FREE SHIPPING period will end on January 15. 2011? Grab this chance to enjoy this cute little girls!

Thank you so much for coming. I will do my best to visit all of your blogs and comment. Have a merry day!

Happy New Year 2011 (and a free calendar desktop :-)

2011-01-01T15:48:00.004+07:00

Happy New Year everyone! The rabbit year is welcoming us and I'm pretty sure she will be kind and cute just like my rabbit ^-^

There are so many projects I have noted down for this new year. One thing is definitely the Sketchbook Project 2011 which I haven't completed it yet and there are 15 days left! My Sketchbook fellow, Catherine has just finished her book and I feel so happy for her. What could be happier to complete a project at the end of the year? It makes us more confident and ready to start a new journey at the beginning of the new year, I guess. I envy her :-)

Another thing that I vow that I must make it better is my MerryDay shop. I started the shop on January last year but I admit that I didn't put enough effort to make it live. This year I am going to push myself more. Be more creative, be more disciplined. That's what I try to recite to myself since I did the Art Every Day Month last November

These two projects (Sketchbook Project and Art Every Day) really help me focus and I feel that they have already contributed to my Etsy attempt. My shop still looks the same just now but I have already prepared new items, new look for it. Just have to shoot photos and make new listings :-)

Meanwhile, do you want my January rabbit calendar for your desktop? You can download it here. There are 2 sizes :

1024x687 : pavinees.com/wallpaper/merry_wall01_1024.jpg
1680x1050 : pavinees.com/wallpaper/merry_wall01_1680.jpg

I Like : Chanyeevon's lovely bookplates

2010-12-28T15:38:00.009+07:00

♪ lu~la~la~lu ♪

I love the sky.. especially the passing clouds that look like a curious baby whale

I enjoy the beauty.. of million lonely fireflies above the deep blue velvet sky

I listen to the rain.. tapping outside my window on a Sunday morning

Above is what Chanyeevon, the creator of these wonderful bookplates, says in her Etsy profile page. I think it's beautiful and represents her work very well. Go and look around her shop and you will know what I mean :-)

This could be considered as a new year gift I bought for myself :-) It took me some time to choose which one I wanted the most. Actually, I was considering some cute bookplates from Yeevon's other shop, WhimsyWhimsical where you have to visit too, what adorable rabbit and fox drawing! I was torn between the beauty of these girls and cuteness of the fox, finally the girls won :-)

I love her illustration, especially her choice of colors, very unique. The blue-haired girl, I think her name is Luna, makes me think of a peaceful night, sitting under the dark blue sky sprinkled with tiny stars and feeling nice cool breeze. Just wonderful...

Yeevon is also kind enough to give me extra bookplates of her whimsywhimsical's owls and rabbits, Love love them! Thanks Yeevon, you inspire me! ^-^

And you gota love her cute little Thank You card!

*A little update : come and take a look at Yeevon's beautiful unicorn here, took my breath away :-)

Book Beauty Monday : Marguerite and A Christmas Present by Ueda Makoto

2010-12-27T16:06:00.004+07:00

I think there's no book more appropriate for this time of year than this book, especially when a lot of people are surrounded by heavy white snow now.

Marguerite and a Christmas Present is written and illustrated by Makoto Ueda, a Japanese author and illustrator. I cannot read Japanese so I'm not sure if it's she or he, the name 'Makoto' could be either male or female as far as I know. I stick with 'he' for now though.

Ueda's illustration is so lovely and mesmerizing. The airy feeling and almost transparent look give me an illusion of standing in a vast space of white snow land. You could almost smell fresh winter air through his book.

You can see more of his/her work here The name of the site is called silentphase.com which I think it suits his style very much.

See the big picture by click on the image and click zoom on flickr page :-)

Sweet Christmas 2010

2010-12-25T12:28:00.008+07:00

I love taking pictures of package design I like :-)
Merry Christmas everyone! ^o^ Wish you all a happy holiday!

Sketchbook progress (page 32-33, 34-35)

2010-12-22T18:33:00.001+07:00

More pages for Sketchbook Project 2011. ^-^ The first one comes from my favorite quote;

Never be bullied into silence.
Never allow yourself to be made a victim.
Accept no one's definition of life;
DEFINE YOURSELF.
----Harvey Fierstein

And the second one is a tweak of Thai characters.

I think everyone out there are enjoying the coming of the holiday. Hope you all have a merry Christmas!

Book Beauty Tuesday : Le Petit Empereur de Chine

2010-12-21T16:48:00.006+07:00

I found this book in a box while I searched for something. It is a French children's book monthly magazine called Les Belles Histoires. The publication date is May 1994, long long time ago. Not sure if the magazine is still running.

The illustration on the cover is the feature story of the volume called Le Petit Empereur de Chine written by Michel Amelin and illustrated by Ulises Wensell, a Spanish illustrator.

I really like the picture style of this story, the soft colors, the details of the settings and the characters' cute expression. Unfortunately, I have just basic knowledge of French language from high school class which is not enough to tell you the story with certainty. So, I will let the images tell the story for you now :-)

Click on the image to go to flickr and click zoom to see the big picture.