Coralie and Me : an art collaboration From Paris to Bangkok, The First Finalized!

Here are updates of Coralie and me collaborative art project and it is finalized! It's exciting to see one simple pink bird gradually transformed into this complete illustration.

I really enjoy working with Coralie. There was only one tiny moment that I wondered if this project would work out. As you know, everybody has his or her own ego, especially artists. In fact, we, artists need some ego. You cannot work on your art if you have low self-esteem. I was afraid that I might do something on the piece that she wouldn't agree with or vice versa. I'm so happy that the piece turns out lovely and we didn't have problem with each other's addition at all.

If you are familiar with my works, you may be able to tell which parts in this final are my additions.  Coralie also has her own unique style. The interesting thing is that my style and her style combined beautifully and the piece turns out to be something refreshing and unique :D

We are going to do more images.  I'm already excited to see what we will come up with next :)
You can look at how this artwork is developed from the very beginning in the slide below. :)


Created with flickr slideshow.

Behind the Lines and Colors : Let me tell you the story of my heart mini card

Busy time again, with work and classes. I thought of writing some posts since Monday but when I had time to write, I was just too tired. It's not good to write something when you cannot concentrate, especially in English which is not my native language.

Yesterday I got a message from Coralie, my collaborative art project friend, From Paris to Bangkok. She wondered why I was kind of quiet around here. It suddenly occurred to me that I'm not writing this blog just for myself. One of my facebook followers once told me that she enjoyed following my work process updates. She said that it inspired her to do her own art. I think that is the best compliment :) I guess that is the same with my blog. I get inspired from so many blogs that I follow. Maybe, readers from somewhere out there might be inspired by my posts too? Whether this is true or not, I will keep it in mind and will try to write as regularly as I can :)

Enough for my rambling, Today's Behind the Lines and Colors is my most favorite MerryDay mini love card, Let Me Tell You the Story of My Heart. Again, I developed this card from one of my 365 days I draw project. The topic is TALK.



Not sure how I got the idea of tin can phone. Maybe from some children's book I browsed while I thought about this word. I like tin can phone. It represents many things, childhood, connection, friendship, love and relationship. It also says a lot on how we talk in these modern days, how we email, send text messages and chat on Line. I'm not opposed to such technology. They are useful and convenient tools but I'm sure there are times that some of you might miss talking or sending thoughts in your own voice or hand writing :)

So, when I worked on my Love is... collection, I immediately thought of this drawing. The drawing was already lovely. I really liked how the line connected the two cans spelled out into words. But since Love was the main concept, I should have more beautiful wording for the card. Remember your period of falling in love? You talk long hours with your love even though you are not that naturally talkative just because you want to hear his or her voice? The topics can be as silly as why he or she is attracted to you and you to him(or her). This comes my wording of 'Let me tell you the story of my heart'. I tried to think of something else but the wording was just stuck in my mind :)

Now the drawing is ready, the words are perfect. Next is how I can put the whole image in a card. The problem of this design is the same as of Mr. Giraffe and Merry Girl mini love card. The drawing is horizontal and long. If I put it in standard 6x4 inch card, it would be too small and you couldn't see the details. I had to work with a better paper format. The idea of hidden design came when I thought of the phone line that could be pulled out.

So, I designed the card folding in a way that you see the boy and the girl with cute paper cup phone first (the top picture)



Then open it and you will see the hidden big pale pink heart shape inside.



Unfold it completely and you have the sweet message of 'Let me tell you the story of my heart' with a lined space for you to fill in your own story :)

I'm really happy with this card design. It went through some thoughts and imagination. Hope you will love it too.  The card is available for sale on my Etsy shop, you can look at the details here :

MerryDay mini love card - Boy Girl Talking Love through Tin Can Phone

If you enjoy reading my behind the scene, you can read more of other design under the category of Behind the Lines and Colors. Coralie and I also have updates for our art project, From Paris to Bangkok. I will post about it soon :) or you can just hop to Coralie's site to see the sneak peek! :D

Thanks for coming. Have a merry day :)

Coralie and me : an art collaboration from Paris to Bangkok 2

Two weeks ago I wrote about my little art project, From Paris to Bangkok, I'm doing with my new friend, Coralie. Here are what we continue from there.


Above is the details of what Coralie added to my previous step. The colorful bubbles and music notes really go with my bird humming expression. The origami paper behind my yellow circle looks interesting. Coralie tells me that she loves Japanese design and I tell her that I do too. Japan has a lot of interesting things in both design and culture. If you ask me what I would do if I could go back in time, I say I would take a serious study of Japanese language and do an art school in Japan :) But it's impossible right now and I'm too old to learn more languages. It took me more than ten years to manage English and Japanese language is much more difficult and complicated.

Anyway, here is my addition. It took me some days to think about what I should add to the image. We already have a suggested scene of a bird singing on a tree. So, I added a perspective of green field far below and the foreground of the tree leaves. I notice that Coralie is good at making collage so I can't wait to see what she will add to the image :)

This bird singing image may need a few more steps to finish. We are having so much fun with this little project and already agree to continue doing more images. Not sure what we are going to draw next but it would be nice to have a whole gallery of our creations. I'm sure we can develop our skill a lot from this exercise.

Since Coralie and I are from different cultures, we think it would be interesting to exchange and share our cultural ideas to add value to the project. Not sure how yet but we will figure it out :)

Coralie and me : from Paris to Bangkok 1, an art collaboration

Last month I got a message from Coralie, a French girl who loves illustration and design. I was happy to hear that she had been following my work for some time and even more excited when asked if I would be interested to do an art collaboration with her. I was actually having a good time with my art-swap group I was lucky to connect with a few months ago and so eager to connect with more people who have the same art interest. A lot of artists I follow all said that to be always creatively energized you have to be among those who are like minded and have the same passion. My chance to join in Make Art That Sells class student group, my art-swap friends and to meet Coralie really proves that.

Coralie and I didn't know what we would do at first. Then since we both work in graphic design and could draw digitally, we agreed to try a digital drawing project. The idea came from a book called Photoshop Secrets of the Pros I found years ago. I was not really a fan of Photoshop but the term 'Photoshop Tennis' in the book quite intrigued me. To put it simple, photoshop tennis is like digital art game. One artist creates an image file and sends to the other artist who will edit the file and send back to the first artist who will edit it again. They will send and edit back and forth until they are satisfied with the work. This could be played by only two people or in a group.

So, we borrow the tennis idea and started with a very simple drawing of my bird here :



Then Coralie added a cute setting of a tree branch.



Then I added the bird's details and a little yellow dot :)



These are what we have done so far. Since this little project is supposed to be fun and should not be a labour in our busy days, we agree to spend only 30 minutes max on each layer. Try to be spontaneous and have fun with it :)

While I'm writing this, Coralie just sent me the latest layer and I can't wait to open the file and see what beauty she added. This is a really fun project. I have always been thankful for whoever invented the internet. Without it, it's really impossible to create art between Paris and Bangkok and you would never know me, Coralie and this project :)

Coralie has also put up a page especially for this little project called From Paris to Bangkok. She has got a slide on and it looks quite exciting :D Don't forget to walk around and see her drawings and graphic works too.

I'm really curious to see how a simple pink bird image will look at the end. If you are curious like me, I'll update the progress on this blog from time to time and hope you will come back to see our creative journey :)

Thanks for dropping by, have a merry day :)