Vintage typewriter and camera sketches

Sketches for Make Art That Sells part B week 3 : Scrapbook. Keywords for this assignment are vintage camera and typewriter. I enjoyed drawing both items but a bit nervous as there seems to be a lot of gorgeous work out there in this theme. The challenge is how to create a unique design, something fresh, different and truly represents my style. One way to find out is to just keep working. We'll see soon if I can pull this off :)

The hardest part of working on personal project is that you have to struggle through self-doubt and self-criticism everyday. I have to constantly remind myself that art is really a matter of opinion. You cannot satisfy the whole world anyway. The best I can do is to focus on the process, keep working, practicing and ignoring whatever that may discourage me. Easier said than done... but how else can we do? 

So, keep calm and keep working :D

Remember to keep posting

Merry Saturday. I think the best strategy for keeping blog is to post whenever I feel like it.
Just post and record what I'm thinking, doing, drawing, reading and learning. No plan,
no stress. Just remember to keep posting...

Fruit Sketching and a story in magazine

Sketches of my new drawing collection. Today I work on the keywords of fruit, orchard, flowers and birds. When I sketch or brainstorm, I usually have some books or magazine beside me. Colors, layout design, shapes on printed pages always inspire me to find new fresh ideas. Sometimes text and stories help me too.

I was thinking about fruit ideas while browsing pages in Frankie magazine and came across an article about a woman who collected photo shots of roadside produce stands signage. One sign said 'Please pay here. Your honesty is appreciated' and another one said 'If you choose to steal my produce, I hope you choke'. It's quite funny but really made me think...

I'm trying to create a set of design based on Thankful theme with keywords of fruit and flowers. Somehow the story above intrigues me but I'm not quite sure how to translate what I feel inside into a drawing yet.

This may be too difficult, too abstract to work on or I may come up with some great ideas tomorrow. We will see.

I love when I have constant focus on my work. Hope I can keep it on :)

MerryDay goes to school week 1 : mushroom sketch homework

It's the third day of me going to school and still excited! On Monday Lilla kicked off the class very nicely with an introduction of bolt fabric market. I had known that illustration, graphic design and pattern design could be made into various kind of products but never took a serious look at this exact market before. In this first lesson we have learned about the general concept of the market, how to make successful design for fabric, how to look at colors and layout and style. How to see everything in big picture. All the possibilities to make things beautiful and sellable.

The Monday lesson ended with a mini-exercise for students to work which was to draw mushroom and casserole dish. This leads to the main assignment which is already provided today, to design vintage kitchen themed pattern for bolt fabric market.

This may look a bit intimidating especially when I look at other students' mini sketches. They are so good at their own technique and style.  But Lilla always says that this class is not a competition, we all come here to learn, so I try not to think about it too seriously. Relax and have fun, is what I said to myself while drawing and sketching these mushrooms.

I have already gathered some ideas for the main assignment. Have some color scheme in mind, hope I can pull it off. :D

MerryDay sketches

It seems that suddenly I don't have anything to say here. Just want to spend my time, reading, thinking and drawing. Not good as I determined to blog more regularly :(

Here are what I have sketched during the week. Hope I have some stories to tell next week :)

merry girls sketches

I have been away from my computer most of the time this couple of days. There are a lot of things in my head that I wish I could dissect and lay them out in a neat pattern and just act on each of them one by one. I think the main problem (beside encountering creative blocks) for us, the creative minds, is how to balance things in our lives (work, family, our goals, etc.) properly.

It's very hard but sometimes it can be challenging too. The key is not to give up and keep on going.

My work is in a slow pace right now but I try to always have a sketchbook in hand and draw ideas whenever I can. The characters you see in these sketches are, I think, some kind of my brand representatives, I call them Merry Girls :) It's not my intention though. I draw this kind of girl a lot during work to get myself relaxed. I post them on my facebook page and it becomes a character that people recognize me from. Some of my followers kindly told me that they got happy feeling when they saw my girls. It's the best compliment I ever had. I name my brand MerryDay just to say how happy I am when creating art but it's even better if my art can make someone feel happy too :D

I mostly post my merry girls doodles on my facebook page. If you are on facebook and would like to check it out, you can go browsing my album here >> http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150257328584435.339945.259090264434&type=3

explore, play and make mistakes

There are times that I get frustrated with my art. It seems that ideas in my head and sketches in books always look better than actual works. The idea of showing my art in public sometimes scares me too. I guess that is one of the reasons that I get too tense and could not be satisfied with my art easily. My perfectionist side is taking over me and it's not good. Art needs relaxation. Explore, play and make mistakes, I need to say that out loud...

After several hot days in Bangkok, we finally get cool weather today. I went out browsing some books and did some sketches in a coffee shop. It's nice to go outside from time to time :)

PiBoIdMo day 12 : still thinking about rainbow.

Honey & Lemon for You

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

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 :)

cute little things

Still enjoy drawing cute little things :-)

Sketch: flowers

all the flowers in my head :-)

I'm getting a bit frustrated that I haven't done any illustration
for some time. Well, I just have to try and try again everyday.
I'm glad though that at least I draw everyday, even if they are just sketches :-)

colorcute series 4: sketches

Some cute stuffs that I always enjoy drawing :-) Surely, they are in Colorcute series but none of these sketches has been colored yet. Maybe in the future...

I wish I could have a longer post here but it's too hot and I'm too tired to say anything more.

Hope you have a great day today!

Sketch: feeling romantic

A sketch I did weeks ago, just let the lines flow...

It's very hot here in Bangkok. It should have been cooler around this time of year
but everything changes now.

colorcute series 2 : sketches

Sketches for Colorcute series. I finished coloring one of them but still struggling with the other. I always like having something on girls'heads! It's just fun drawing these :-)

It's a great day today. Have a good one!

postcards giveaway still opens!