Sunday Sketch, 365 days I draw (day 128-129) and Inspire Me Sunday (stationery!)

My Sunday Sketches today are also for 365 days I draw as usual. The topic of day 128 is order for the top and day 129, refer for the bottom. The drawings done on my newly-bought sketchbook from Chronicle called One Sketch a Day : a visual journal. I saw this book from my most favorite artist's blog, Stephanie Fizer and immediately wanted to own one.



Sometimes I feel really silly to buy things on a whim, especially stationery stuffs. I already have a dozen of sketchbooks waiting for me to fill in but it seems that every time I see ones on shop shelf I still want more and they are just plain black-cover ones. This blue sketchbook does look fancier than my usual sketchbooks and it definitely has value added with the inviting title of 'One Sketch a Day : a visual journal'. But it's really just the outer look. Although I find that the paper is quite thin and not as in good quality as in my usual sketchbooks, I love it anyway. I guess it's not just the beautiful cover, it has something to do with the feeling of owning it. It's like when you are always drawn to stationery shop and want to buy something even when you already have everything at home.

The other day I came across this article about Why I love Stationery and thought I would share some of my stationery inspire today. Hope you like the links here :)

• Just got this beautiful issue of Uppercase magazine. This one focuses on stationery love :)

• I think I have known this beautiful stationery shop for a long time but somehow it just slipped from my mind until now :) Lagom design

• Always love Present and Correct and have just read an interesting interview --Neal Whittington of Preasent & Correct on The Design Files.

• My favorite Quill and Fox

• I still have a dozen of Canson sketchbooks for spare but beginning to love more-expensive Derwent hard back sketchbook too

• Latest found Mr. Boddington's Studio

By the way, have you seen my little art project From Paris to Bangkok yet? I'm quite excited with this project and hope it can inspire something in you too :)

Thanks for coming and have a merry drawing day :D

Behind the Lines and Colors : Mr. Giraffe and the Merry Girl mini love card

I have noticed lately that my 'I'll be with you, no matter how far' mini card gets more favorite on Etsy and I have already shipped out some of them to new customers. This really heartens my spirit as, although I have been working on my Etsy for a couple of years already, I'm still really a newbie in selling my art.

I am especially excited with this card sales because it means that my idea behind the design is working.



This drawing of little Merry girl having a date with Mr. Giraffe is one of my Love is... drawing collection which focuses on animals, something that I needed to practice drawing. The idea was to simply practice drawing a giraffe at first and then I wanted to have something to play with the height of the animal.  Then I thought of the ladder and the girl climbing up to kiss the giraffe. The idea was similar to what I had drawn for my 365 days I draw project here.



So, I put a different story to this design. I made up a scene of Merry Girl having a glass of soda pop with her date, Mr. Giraffe. How could she be with her tall boyfriend? She needed a ladder so I drew one. Then the design still looked too blank. How about some lettering? This was when the concept of long distance relationship popped in my head. I thought of the phase 'no matter how far' and tried different fonts and ended up hand lettering it myself. I incorporated the lettering to the ladder making it as one of the ladder's steps. The black cat and the '...or how hard' was then added to make it cuter. I thought I finished.

But not yet. The illustration was in portrait format which would look too small in a standard 4x6 greeting card. Since I printed all cards by myself using a nice Epson ink jet, I had to figure how to make things fit in A4 paper sheet. I thought of long card 4 by 11 inches but the image looked awkward and didn't really fit in. Different folding might be key. I tried cutting A4 sheet in half and folding it down in accordion way. It looked nice but I didn't want to have too many folding creases on my image. So I moved the image to the lower part of the paper and added the final touch of 'I'll be with you' in the blue bubble to complete the story of long distance relationship :)

I really enjoyed the creative juice that flowing during the process. It really gave myself more confidence when I launched it out on facebook and got good feedbacks on this piece. It also made me realize that the design format, the size and shape of paper were also important in making a successful work.

Hope you enjoy my work process. This card is available on my MerryDay shop. You can look at the details of this card here :

Mini love card - I'll be with you no matter how far

365 days I draw (day 123-126)

Hello Saturday. Still working on my new drawing collection, my 365 days I draw and try to write another Make Art That Sells post. I feel a bit overwhelmed sometimes but they are all what I love to do so I shouldn't be complaining :)

Here are what I have drawn so far for my 365 days I draw project.

Have a merry weekend!


day 126 : entrance


day 125 : plot

day 124 : salad


day 123 : literature

365 Days I Draw (day 122 : finger)

Day 122 : finger :)

I'm in the process of working on playground theme for Global Talent Search at Lilla Rogers Studio. Don't expect to win just want to see how far I can go. The drawing will be made into a new collection for my shop too. So, there's nothing to lose :D

Have a merry Tuesday!

365 Days I draw ( day 120-121)

I have neglected my little project 365 Days I Draw for months. Time to get back and seriously continue. Here is my day 121, the topic is Shop. And below is my day 120 which I forgot to post it earlier, the topic is Baby.

It's a digital drawing day today. I hope I can post some sneak peek of my playground drawing here soon :)

Have a merry Monday!

ps. my drawings for 365 Days I Draw are scattered everywhere right now. I plan to get them all in one place soon. Meanwhile, you can look at my flick or my facebook for what I have drawn so far. :)

Sunday Sketch and day 119 : The Mad Hatter Party!

Sunday Sketch and Day 119 of my 365 Days I Draw project. The topic is HAT. Thought of simple various shapes of hat first but then the mad hatter from Alice in Wonderland just popped in my head. So, how about a mad tea party! :D

This Sunday is a bit tiring and sleepy for me. Hope I could start next week with more energy!

Hello Saturday and some strawberries drawing :)

Hello Saturday. Nothing much to say here except I'm working hard on my new drawing project :D The theme is 'secret garden'. I'm beginning to wonder myself how deep the meaning of the 'secret' I could present in the drawings. I have a general idea for the concept but it's really in a working process and you never know how it will be finalized at the end. I think that's what I love about ideas-developing stage. If you focus on it enough, good ideas will keep popping up. The challenge is how you capture those ideas then apply to your main concept beautifully and practically. Sometimes it's stressful but most of the time it's exciting :)

I think this strawberry drawing will look different in final artwork. It will be produced as birthday card, notecards along with some other drawings in the theme and will be added on my shop hopefully by the end of this month.  I can't wait to see the whole collection myself :)

Below is Days 118 of my 365 Days I Draw project. The topic is TREE. This project is going quite slowly but it's part of my life now. I need to complete it no matter how long it will take :)

Thanks for stopping by. I hope I can have a sketch for Sunday Sketches tomorrow!

Sunday Sketch and Day 117 of my 365 days I draw :)

My Sunday Sketch :) This is also Day 117 of my 365 Days I Draw project (the whole album is on my flickr and facebook but I plan to build a proper place for this project in the future :)The topic is SMILE.

What would come to your mind when you think of the word 'smile'? I generally think of happiness (of course) but it seems too abstract and it's very difficult to draw a feeling. You can draw something and make people smile but you cannot draw 'happiness' itself. I think it's not that important though. People seem to struggle to find happiness but I have realized that it's always around. It's just that we have to let ourselves 'feel' it. That's all.

We can feel happy that we have a place called home, a family to share love, friends to share inspirations, body and mind that don't get sick--all the little things in life. Sometimes we can get heart-broken or have a hard time struggling to reach our goals. But it's just part of the life. As long as we have previous 'little things', we can just still be happy :)

That's the idea behind this drawing. Not sure if I explain it clearly enough. Just smile to yourself, feel it and maybe your gloomy day will look a bit brighter :)

Thanks for coming. Hope you have a merry day!

My new greeting card : When Spring comes.

I have just added this colorful flower garden blank card design to my shop :) This drawing is developed from my original sketch from my 365 days I draw project. The topic is garden.  I did the original with colored markers on kraft paper.



I really had fun drawing this page. I love how I put color shapes on the paper first then gradually added black lines and all the details until it's completed. I immediately saw it as a greeting card and a beautiful wall art.  Maybe I will try printing it out in jumbo size, frame and put it up on my wall. This should brighten my home :D

You can take a look at my shop and card details here :

Colorful Flower Garden Blank Card - When Spring Comes

Behind the lines and colors : She lost her heart in the sea of love

I think I already talked about the origin of my 365 days I draw project but since this project seems to have a great influence on my current illustration style, it would not hurt to talk about it again.

I started 365 days I draw project in December 2011 right after I sent out my Sketchbook Project 2011 to Brooklyn Library (if you have not known about this sketchbook project, you might want to click here). The idea of waking up every morning thinking about what I would draw and then do it is really addictive. I like the feeling of fulfillment with a drawing done at the end of the day. So, I began to search for another challenge to keep me in such creative track.

Stephanie is one of the artists I admire. She was doing her own challenge of drawing everyday at the time and was kind enough to let me join in. The idea of the challenge was to draw a picture from one word. It was very hard at first but when you draw everyday, you get the hang of it and ideas come more easily. So it began my 365 days I draw.

Why is it so important that I keep referring to this project? Because before this project I drew differently. I drew directly on computer using mouse and then pen mouse. The results were crisp and clean and beautiful but it lacked ideas or stories to pull viewers in. This reminded me of all the design teachers who always say that your own hand draw best. It opens your brain, challenges your imagination and there is no technical tool limitation.

So, I stayed away from the computer and drew everything by hand. The fact that I didn't need to rely on computer  or technical stuff and I could just take a pen and a sketchbook with me and drew whenever and wherever I wanted to brought me more ideas and stories.

Then after some 100 drawings and everyday doodles on my facebook page, I found that I really enjoyed drawing. My lines changed, my use of colors looked different and seemed to be better than my previous works. It suddenly came to me that I finally established my new drawing style. :D

That kind of realization brought me confidence. I can see how my drawing can be developed into something more wonderful in the future but that will need time and hard work and I'm working on it right now.

Not sure if anyone feels like I do, that when you have finally set your goal, you have some kind of liberation too. I mean when you determine to do something,  you have more focus and less confused. Your life comes in order. Problems that come in your way will be fixed as soon as possible because you don't want to stay with them too long. You have your goal to meet!

I love the kind of idea, to have a goal. It makes my life busy, sometimes energetic, sometimes exhausted but with peaceful mind all the time :)

..................

The illustration above is developed from one of the 365 days I draw project drawings. The keyword is 'sea'. I'm not sure how the caption 'I lost her heart in the sea of love' came to me but I really liked the sentence and the idea of combining lettering and picture then happened.



The original drawing is done in black and red. When I put it in my stationery design, card and notebook, I made it look softer with orange and pale purple. I like both color versions. They both give the feeling of fun and whimsical, I think :)



How about you? Which one you like better, please tell me :)

Behind the lines and colors : my dolphin and MerryDay preparation

Drawing animals is one of challenging drawing topics to me. I remember drawing an elephant on school wall in an art class when I was in high school. It was in such a wrong proportion that everyone laughed at. It was so humiliating at the time but I know now that there's nothing to be ashamed of.  Art can be unrealistic, distorted or completely different. There is no right or wrong, only opinions...

When I started my 365 days I draw,  I intended to draw animals as much as I could. Animals, backgrounds,  stories were what I thought I lacked in my drawings.  I used to draw single thing and stop. My friends told me that it looked cute but not interesting enough. I needed to give my drawings unique characters, give them actions, give them stories. It was very difficult at first but with  365 days I draw project, I gradually built up my own catalogue of animals and stories.

I 'm not satisfied with my drawing of cats or tigers yet but it's not so scary or difficult anymore. You just have to keep on drawing until you get them right.

Above is one of my Love is... drawing collection. I finished this collection just before Valentine's Day. There are 11 designs altogether, some of them are developed from my 365 days' sketches, some from my everyday doodles. Drawing animals is hard, drawing cute animals is even harder. Dolphins are always considered cute. They have such friendly faces and look smiley all the time. I tried drawing them several times and ended up using the cheating way by finding a reference photo then traced the outline :P



My dolphin looked in need of a companion so I added a little mermaid and I think they enjoy dancing together :) I usually work from a very rough idea and continue adding elements in the process. The caption "If you dance, I'll dance with you" just came up when I almost finished the details.

This illustration is designed for a greeting card but it suits well on a notebook cover (and other stationery items) too. And here my dolphin notebook with front and back view!



Please note that although this drawing collection is already posted in my facebook page, it is not for sale on my etsy shop yet. I'm in the process of revamping my shop and plan to reopen it very very soon. Just want to share my working process here so you know what I'm working on. I think, in a way, sharing this publicly prevents me from slacking off too! :D

365 days I draw (day 92 : french)

365 days I draw ( day 91 : spot)

There are spots on my clothes that cannot be washed out...

365 days I draw (day 90 : stray)

365 days I draw (day 89 : pink)

day 89 : pink A little bouquet in hands, she turns pink with pleasure :)

365 days I draw (day 88 : free)

365 days I draw (day 87 : reflections)

This shall pass. This too shall pass.

365 days I draw (day 86 : wisdom)

Knowledge is not wisdom until you learn to see things in perspective.

365 days I draw (day 84-85)

day 85 : fire



day 84 : envy

365 days I draw (day 83 : theory)