My Etsy week with new items!

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!

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

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

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.

Sketchbook Project progress : page 30-31

I completely forgot about Book Beauty Monday :-P I think it has to be Book Beauty Tuesday for this week. Luckily, I still have something to post today.

This is one of the Sketchbook Project spreads I did last night. I think There are about 23 spreads left for me to complete. Hopefully I can make it! ^-^

Sweet and crunchy bird's nest

I found this photo in some old folder. I think I already posted about this on my Thai blog but not on this blog. The balls in the glass are Thai snack called Bird's nest. The orange one is potato and the brownish one is taro, sliced, fried and coated with sugar. It's sweet, crunchy and delicious. If you would like to taste it, you might need to visit my country first ;-)

What I like about this photo is the contrast of the modern glass and the vintage-looking Thai character design. The paper is just a simple label but somehow I found it's quite pretty :-)

It's 9.30 pm now and I feel like reading something before bedtime.
So, whatever time you come and read this, I wish you have a merry day (or night) :-)

PS. Last night I found a helpful post about achieving things that you might be interested :-) Inaction is your enemy

Book Beauty Monday : A Merry-Mouse Book of Months by Priscilla Hillman

I bought this book from an Etsy shop. I rarely buy vintage books but who could resist these lovely illustrations? The end of the year is coming and the next year is waiting to bring, I hope, positive things to our lives. Why not encourage ourselves with happy drawings of this little book of months? :-)

You can click on the image to see the larger scale on flickr.

Sketchbook Project page 26-27 and 28-29

A bit busy this week but I try to draw at night ;-)

Sketchbook Project page 24-25

Another spread for Sketchbook Project

The right page with red flower lines is not my drawing. It's a back side of shopping bag paper I used in Drawing Lab Challenge which is the book's next page. I just put on the extra lettering :-)

I think I have about half of the book left for the Sketchbook Project. One way to finish it in time is to draw everyday. Hope I can make it!

Book Beauty Monday : Buffalo and His Buddy

This week for my Book Beauty Monday, I would like to show you a beautiful picture book illustrated by Thai artist, Patcha Disyanant.
The book is called Buffalo and His Buddy The story is based on Thai traditional nursery rhyme, rewritten in a beautiful, easy-to-read prose tale. The tale is about a common myna trying to find insects to eat. It encounters various problems and cannot find food until it meets a kind buffalo who lets the little bird eat insects that are annoying him. The tale teaches children about adjustment and dependency.

What I love about this book is the bold simplicity of the illustration that seems to pop up from the white background. Each spread is designed to be viewed as a whole. The zoom-in and crop-up images make the pages look so striking.
I also like how they incorporate text into images beautifully. Although the overall book looks graphically sharp, the detailed texture of each animal softens it. The animals' expressions are so cute and you just can't help keeping looking at all the details. :-)



Pretty layout design of preface page.



A myna is wondering where he can find food and then he says 'Insects love to stay on animals' bodies!'



So he tries flying to an old turtle but the shell is too slippery and he cannot hold on...



He tries going to a hedgehog but he is too spiny and the bird is hurt!



'Try again,' he says. This time he goes to a giraffe but the animal is too tall and no insect flies that high.



The monkeys are next. But they are always jumping and moving. The bird cannot peck at any insect!



The little myna then goes to a kind buffalo. There he can eat lots of insects finally! The bird can eat insects and the buffalo, with the annoying insects got rid of, feels more comfortable. They are so happy!

walk around doodle

I just love drawing on brown paper and I'm glad that I bought this brown paper book. Because of its small size (4x5 inches), I can fill in each page in a few minutes. This works quite well when I cannot complete any bigger artwork to post on busy days like today.

I would call this 'the brown book project'. Well, it's not really a project but the word sounds nice somehow, makes me want to draw in the whole book :-)

This weekend is going to be a big holiday for us who live in Thailand. December 5 is Our King's birthday anniversary. It's also Father's Day. I think I will spend this beautiful time walking around outside with my dad and draw some trees :-)

Merry weekend everyone!

Savor the Moment

I think this spread is eligible for Illustration Friday's this week topic which is 'savor'. It's also another spread for my Sketchbook Project ;-) There's only a few weeks left and I'm beginning to get nervous :-P

What do you think about my barbecue drawing. I think it doesn't look like barbecue but I cannot undo it now :-(
I love doing the pink lettering though. It's fun!

butterfly on my desk

It's the first day of December and the Art Every Day Month has just ended. I feel a bit sad. However, I think I have more confidence in my blogging. I have been blogging since year 2000, but just on and off with general topics. It's the first time that I post in a regular basis and really focus on my art. Drawing and posting (almost) everyday helps my creative juice flowing more smoothly.

I want to talk more about this December. It seems that there's going to be a lot of things going on both in my work and my personal projects. But after a long day work, my eyes are so strained now. I will talk more and maybe with some drawing tomorrow.

The butterfly above is die cut from my sketchbook. It's going to be in my Sketchbook Project but I don't have any exact idea yet :-P

By the way, although there's only a month left for Creative Every Day 2010, Leah says I can still participate and she will host CED2011 too! I have a feeling that it's going to be a great year and I determine to make it the best year for my art :-D

Let's see how far I can go!